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My homemade gazpacho is a quick and easy dish, very refreshing… The ideal dish for a hot summer’s day. And you don’t even have to be in Spain to enjoy it. It takes about 15 minutes to prepare. So why don’t you give it a go?
Method: (serves 4)
Peel your tomatoes and the cucumber, chop in to bite size chunks, and put them in a blender. Peel the red onion and chop it. Peel the garlic. Chop up the green pepper. I don’t bother to deseed it. But if you don’t like spicy food, take out the seed. It will be less spicy. Add the chopped onion, garlic and the green pepper to the blender. Remove the crust of the bread and chop it in bite size chunk before adding it to the blender. Add a couple of table spoons of good olive oil and vinegar. Blend until smooth. Check for seasoning and add salt and pepper to taste. Give a quick blitz and then chill in the fridge for at least an hour.
Before serving, top it with some watercress and julienne of chorizo. And serve it with some toast.
Use a dense white bread. I like to use Colruyt‘s Swedish white bread. Gazpacho is the prefect recipe to use that leftover bread that is a few days old by-the-way.
Don’t know how to peel tomatoes? Check out this YouTube video.
Ingredients:
- 5 fresh tomatoes, peeled
- 1/2 cucumber, peeled
- 1/3 of a loaf of white bread
- 1 small red onion, peeled
- 2 cloves of garlic, peeled
- 1 green pepper
- olive oil
- sherry vinegar or red wine vinegar
- salt & pepper
My very 1st photo shoot with a model, Daria is her name, was way back in 2006. I met her on one of them platforms that brought models and photographers together; this was well before social media platforms like Instagram or Twitter even existed. It wasn’t always easy to find models back then. I remember it was a cold day in January when Daria and I did that shoot. And I also remember having a lot of fun that day. At the end of the day, I came home with a couple cool pics–like the one below–and thinking to myself that I should keep in touch with Daria, ’cause I would want to shoot again with her.
Unfortunately we lost touch until somewhere last summer when a mutual friend and photographer did a photoshoot with her and put me back in touch with her. It took us a little while to set a date for a new shoot, but 12 years after our 1st shoot, we found ourselves together in the studio for a new shoot. One that I hope is the 2nd of many.
Well, she’ll have to return to my studio, ’cause I promised her I would teach her to walk on ballet heels 😉
Is that still a thing? #mycalvins? A little while ago, every model and photographer wanted to do their own take on the Calvin Klein underwear thingy, but lately, I’ve not seen too many of those pics appearing in my social media feeds. I did my take on them #mycalvins pics way back in January. I’ve been so caught up in all sorts of projects that I’ve not gotten around to sharing them.
I wouldn’t be doin’ model Romi and makeup artist Elem justice, if I would not share them. So without further ado, here they are:
The city of Antwerp lit up the beautiful MAS in rainbow colors in support of LGBT rights over the weekend. They also lit up a few other public buildings and painted several pedestrian crossings throughout the city in rainbow colors. But, oh boy, the museum at sunset, all lit up like a rainbow, was a stunning site to see. And it was absolutely worth getting my camera out and shoot some pics.
Well, that actually should say “Assisting a Friend” in the title of this article! ‘Cause my buddy Bart called a couple of days ago if I wanted assist him on a shoot he was putting together for an upcoming exhibition he was planning. We’re both experimenting with color gels. Isn’t every photographer doing that these days? Anyway, Bart and I bounced a couple of ideas back and forth, and we settle on a dark and moody themed shoot with color gels. Bart was gonna take care of finding a model and a make-up artist. I was gonna come up with outfit ideas.
Bart invited the lovely and talented Isabelle to the set as a model and he had make-up artist Michelle taking care of make-up. We did a couple of outfits and light setups and Bart & Isabelle were kind enough to let snap a couple of pics. Which do you prefer: green & orange or blue & orange?
I think I prefer the blue and orange setting…
Dazzle your friends with a very summery salad. This salad with octopus, tomatoes and feta looks impressive but it takes minutes to assemble.
I used store bought marinated octopus, a selection of tomatoes in different colors–make sure they are juicy and ripe–and good feta. Sprinkle on some salt, black pepper and some extra virgin olive oil, and you’re almost set.
The part that impressed people the most, are the little additions: pea shoots, violets, watercress, rosemary and thyme flowers, monks cress and beet leaves. And the cool thing about it is, you can grow all those in your own garden. I do!
I’ve been helping out my friends of FashionMove on their casting days over the last few months. We had a lot of fun with the team, as always.
I love working with aspiring models as much as I love working with our team. Almost new models are grateful for the coaching they get from us and they are always delighted to see the results of their very 1st photoshoot with us. And, it is very rewarding to see that some of them continue to become quite successful models.
There was this one portrait I did on the recent FashionMove casting days that caught my eye: this Amy, on her very 1st shoot ever. Isn’t cool that a girl with no experience at all produces a portrait this stunning?
Model Amy’s make-up is done by Shana Meylemans, Maren Nivelle, Ellen Cuypers and Melissa La Piane for Blush Academy + Agency.
And so is my beautiful friend Shannety!
When both girls came in to the studio a couple weeks back, they brought multi colored faux-fur coats. Axelle wore a multi colored coat that matched her dark hair and black basic outfit.
Obviously, Shannety had to wear her favorite color: PINK! After all, she goes by @pinkbyshannety on Instagram.
It is a simple trick: combine red, green and blue light to create white light… At least in theory. Since I’ve been playing around with color gels, it seemed to be a good idea to test that theory. These 2 portraits of Axelle and Shannety are my 1st try at this. They’re quite ok, but I think I need some more practice to get it just right.
btw: in these 2 portraits I combined cyan, yellow and magenta light. The result is the same: white light. But it creates red, green and blue shadows.
I’ve spent the weekend in London for the C2C Festival. C2C is a country festival at the O2 Arena. It had a fantastic line up this year: Faith Hill & Tim McGraw, Kelsea Ballerini, Ashley McBryde, Sugarland, Ashley Campbell, Kacey Musgraves, Danielle Bradbery, Emmylou Harris, Little Big Town and my 1st ever chance to see Lindsay Ell live. Tons of good music. I came back with a big smile on my face and a bunch of signed CD’s.
My iPhone was pretty much the only camera I had on me all weekend. And it still surprises me that–in the right conditions–it is an amazing camera. I shot this view from the platform of the West India Quai DLR station on our way to the festival.
