Blackberry Tea

Since my blog is titled "The Tea Drunk Photographer" I think it's only appropriate that I do a couple of posts every now and then on some of my favourite tea's. I believe I've only done one so far and that simply won't do! So without further ado, here's the first of what I hope will be many tea posts.

Art of Tea is a great local (Tasmanian) brand with a diverse range of types and flavours. The one that I've been drinking lately is a little beauty; Blackberry Tea. This is essentially a premium black tea with freeze dried blackberries and blackberry leaves. I like a slightly fruity tea and this is great to have in winter because it lacks that sharpness that other berries seem to have in teas which is really more of a summer thing. Great with milk and a little sugar.

Happy infusing and God bless! More tea posts to come soon!

- tom

Lately...

SO! It's been about fifty billion years since I've made a blog post but thought it would be a good idea to keep this thing updated considering it's the first thing that pops up in Google under my name.

Photography-wise, things are pretty exciting! I now have my own camera and a 50mm f1.4 so I have been up to a lot of fun things. I also have four weddings booked in for the end of this year and the beginning of 2013 (pumped!).

Here's a few things that I've done lately...

Also, I would like to make mention to my most favourite blog Bon Appetempt; seriously folks, it's seriously funny not to mention the fact that the food is crazy delicious! So what are you waiting for? Get over there!

God bless!

- tom

Black and White

Lately, I have been re-discovering my black and white editing style and I must admit; I have missed it. So I thought I might share with you some of the images I have worked on. As usual the photos themselves are quite old as I've had no chance to take any new ones lately :(

Enjoy!

- tom

Absence

I have to apologise for my neglect towards The Tea Drunk Photographer. It's not so much that I've been hectic busy, it's that I've been trying to get a hold of a lot things and God has really been bringing me through a lot of changes which is hard, but also truly wonderful! It's great to see prayers answered in ways that you didn't expect and in such a intricate and long term way. Praise God!

What am I doing at the moment? Well, I have started my ministry mentorship under my pastor and the ministries I'm involved with are getting under way so that's all very exciting! I'll also hopefully be sending out my resume sometime this week to various cafe's. It'll be nice to have a job I'm getting a bit lazy to be honest haha!

Anywho! Here are some new, blue photos to make up for my long absence:

God bless!

- tom

Mel

I had a photoshoot with my dear, artistic friend last night at the same place as my previous post with the power-lines. Got caught in the rain and wind, enjoyed some massively heavy looking clouds; had fun! :D

Hope you enjoy!

Thanks Mel!

- tom

Powerlines

I went for a night last Friday with my friends Canon D450 and took some photos of my favourite place. This is pretty close to my house and it's where I go for a nice long prayer walk. I know these looks fairly light but that's only due to the editing; it was actually quite dark, about 9:00.

- tom

Coles Bay

I went down to Coles Bay this last weekend and I envisioned myself taking wonderful summery photos by the seaside; turns out I forgot my camera and so this never happened. BUT! I am determined to show you the beautiful place that it is so here are a couple of photos from when I was last there, two years ago.

I could only stay for the weekend but the rest of my family intended to stay for the whole week. I went home on Sunday night which was fortunate for me because they endured a huge storm that literally tore our tent in two. Glad I missed it!

- tom

A Return

This is very much a return to my old style of photography; heavy textures, accentuated shading, no true blacks or whites etc. It was fun to throw caution to the wind and go nuts with the curvature :D

I hope you like it!

- tom

Wedding Anniversary/Australia Day

It's my brother and sister in law's wedding anniversary sometime soon (or maybe it's already been? I'm not too sure). This was taken of my sister in law, Erica at the rehearsals, a night before the wedding a year ago. I always found this photo rather intriguing but never really knew what to do with it. I'm still not entirely happy with it but there it is!

Also, it's Australia Day today! I've never quite known how to respond to this celebration; of course I think we have a lot to celebrate, but today certainly does shed light on what we value as a nation and a lot of that saddens me or even angers me at times. What little treasures we cling to!

Nonetheless, I wish you happy Australia Day!

- tom

Autumn Longing

As you can probably tell by my new blog header, I am craving the Tasmanian autumnal weather. We are in the middle of our summer and, so far, it has really been very enjoyable; spending time with friends, reflecting on the previous year, planning, praying and growing etc. but I feel it's almost time to come out of holiday mode and start getting to work!

Autumn is by far my favourite time of year, especially in Tasmania; all the leaves turn golden brown and begin to fall, littering the streets, the rain comes to wash away the summer dust and make the city luminous, ah! It's just beautiful!

So as I look forward to this, I decided to, once again, pull out some old photos and retouch them to enjoy a taste of what is to come. Enjoy!

Here's a great folk song I like to listen to during said season; Kingfisher Sky - Big Fish. And, of course I have to share my favourite cups of tea to have in Autumn; Blue Mountain, Melbourne Breakfast, and Creme Brulee.

God bless!

- tom

London Fog

Happy 24th of January guys! Today is a wonderful day because I discovered a great new way of enjoying my cup of tea which, I'm sure at this point in my blog you realise this is a big thing for me! This wonderful concept is called London Fog, which is essentially a tea gone latte style with a dash of vanilla! One word resonates in my mind; YUMMY!!!

Steam your milk with a dash of vanilla extract/essence or vanilla syrup/flavouring so that you have a thin, fine froth, pour it through your lose leaf tea infuser (which, of course, will contain tea), and voila! You have a warm, sweet, and light cup of London Fog!

It's traditionally enjoyed as an Earl Grey (or T2 French Earl Grey as I had it), but the person who introduced it to me today loved it with Monk Pear so go mad with the experiments! I know I will be.

Unfortunately I didn't have a camera to document this momentous occasion so I thumbed through my old photo archives for the foggiest photo I could find; I think this will suffice...

Thanks Andy for the great chat and for introducing me to this wonderful way of enjoying creation!

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Note: I tried this for the first time at home today and I would just like to say that it's still wonderful! But vanilla syrup or flavour works much better than essence. Also, make sure your milk is hot enough for the tea to infuse and give it at least four minutes to steep. Enjoy!

- tom