Blog | Andrea Borden, Photographer. Storyteller.

The Flower Habit

In the summer here in Iowa City the farmer’s market is alive with vibrant colors of vendors’ harvests, including the flower booths. Even if I don’t need to pick up anything on a particular Saturday for my kitchen I still go for my weekly dose of fresh flowers.

One of my favorite things about the flower vendors is how I learn so much from them as I make my selections. There are so many flowers that are native wildflowers that I am constantly learning about! While I still very much enjoy plucking blooms of my favorite cut varieties, I have really enjoyed adding new-to-me florets of all types.

My intention is always to photograph each bouquet, but that’s rarely what happens. I would like to get better about setting aside time to take photos of the things I enjoy. The photos may not always be masterpieces or do the subject justice, but practice makes perfect.

So with that in mind, here’s a couple photos from the last couple of week’s bouquets.

Open Garden Weekend in Iowa City

What a great event to get people out in the community this weekend! Project GREEN in Iowa City did an amazing job putting together a garden tour from gardening enthusiasts all over the city.
My partner and I discovered so many different types of plants and ways to landscape, it was really an education! My smile hurts, that’s how much fun we had! All of the hosts were happy to tell us about their yards and the hard work they’ve put into making their gardens a success. Here’s a small collection of DSLR and cell phone photos of our favorite sights on the tour.

Bee Balm
Coneflower
The clematis at this particular location was very happy and beautiful!
We were so impressed with this garden and how crazy huge and tall the lilies were!
At Plum Grove they had 3 heirloom gardens which were all beautiful. This is the only shot I took because I kept getting so distracted! =P
Weeping Kashmir Cypress
Weeping Kashmir Cypress
The Ned Ashton House, where the Ice Cream Social held at the end of the event took place.

Thanks so much to everyone who participated and to the organization for putting it on!

The Beauty of Bread

When I’m not working my full time job, or photographing, knitting, or rolling around in nature, I’m…

Well, sometimes… baking!
As part of my modus operandi to “take photos and make things”, of course I take photos of all the things I make. One of those things I make is rustic sourdough bread, from my home culture.
Taking a bite of warm, fluffy sourdough bread is like a tasty hug that grocery storebought bread just can’t compare to, in my opinion. There’s something nourishing and gentle about slow fermented bread, and each loaf that comes out of the oven is like Christmas Morning to me.

Growing up, my mom would bake bread every Saturday. She knew the recipe by heart and the results of her labor would be gone in a matter of days, if not hours. The crumb was soft, nutty and slightly sweet, thanks to the honey she added from a 5 gallon bucket from the flour mill, and the bucket had a permanent place in the kitchen. Sometimes she would bake rolls as a door prize at family birthday parties and the attendees would fight over the winning ticket. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on homemade whole wheat bread is a luxury I didn’t even fully realize as being all that special, until I had bread from the store and learned the difference.

At the heart of homemade bread for me is the sourdough starter culture. Mine is a culture I’ve had for a couple of years, kept in the fridge until I’m ready to use it. I use a whole wheat starter. Many sourdough bakers name their starters with a bread punny name and I am no exception. Meet Clint Yeastwood.

Clint Yeastwood, my sourdough starter, in front of a painting in my living room.

When I text my mom photos of my bread I know it makes her proud… and I’m pretty sure she sheds a sentimental tear of two as well, because that’s just how Mom is. Now I get to share that same love of home made bakes with my friends and family, and I hope they get at least a taste of the care in every delicious bite.

A messy crust may not be the prettiest, but all can be forgiven after tasting it, I think. Caramelized garlic and cheese overtop of an airy, moist crumb is a delicious finish to a home bake.

Another source of inspiration on carrying on the home-baking tradition is my sister in law. A handful of years ago my sister in law started baking sourdough bread. She’s an incredible cook and baker, and there is something so beautiful about the care and love she puts into her bakes especially. In recent times her bread has been an inspiration to me to also chase the life of the open crumb, which has been a NSFW (Not Safe For Waist) pursuit indeed. While most of the time my bread couldn’t come close to the drool-worthy loaves Kim makes, she continues to be the measuring stick I bring to my efforts.

I have yet to achieve a really open crumb, but the pursuit of it is always tasty! My favorite loaves are little mini loaves of garlic and asiago cheese, with garlic paste slathered over the crust to caramelize in the oven.

You can’t go wrong with a beautiful rustic country loaf of sourdough. While it’s something slower than instant gratification, it’s a relatively quick process in contrast to other disciplines, which can take quite some time to see the result of your handiwork.

Another favorite type of loaf– a blueberry honey loaf. Toasted with a bit of butter, this is my most popular toasting bread.

This bread is too dangerous, I can’t keep it in the house anymore.
This is the standard loaf recipe I always use, I just added lemon juice, lemon zest, and fresh blueberries, no added sugar, and cold fermented 48 hours. It’s not an everyday bread, but it’s amazing lightly toasted and with honey butter, pictured here. My honey butter sauce has a dash of homemade vanilla extract as well and it’s so heavenly….. far too tasty to keep to myself!

During the holiday season I make about 5 loaves on average per week, both to give away and to enjoy with our festive meals. My bread baking tapers off during other seasons, both due to the incredible heat that it creates in my kitchen, and also because I am more careful about my carbs during the rest of the year.
Rustic loaves like these are not only beautiful, but they are very worthy of trying, if you have never made sourdough. The ingredients are so simple, and once one great loaf is achieved, baking these is addictive!

Rosemary Garlic bread is another popular favorite. In my opinion the best way to enjoy a slice of this bread is with a fried egg.

Valerie’s French Food

Aside from the flower vendors, one of my favorite parts of the farmer’s market is the Valerie, the French lady and her pastries. Despite certain parts of the year in which I swear off pastries, my husband always has an eye out for the French lady and her pain au chocolat, madeleines, maccaroons, poppyseed cakes, and so many other tasty treats. Our favorites are pictured here. They’re simple, but oh so delicious!

Farmer’s Market Flowers

I’m a huge flower fan. In fact, my retirement goals are to be the flower lady at the farmer’s market. For my wedding I tried to grow all my own flowers (with moderate success), and fresh blooms in my yard put a pep in my step.

One of my favorite parts of my weekend is visiting the flower vendors at the Iowa City Farmers Market and discovering native and domestic plants I can’t live without. This spring we got especially lucky in Iowa to witness lilacs and peonies blooming together. What a treat! Here’s a collection of photographs from farmers market bouquets and flowers from my own yard. I loved these images so much that I ordered my own large format prints as well.

I am absolutely in love with the set of black and white images. When I brought them home and saw how the sunlight hit them against my plasterboard I knew they demanded more than just a cellphone photo to remember them. While the images are gorgeous in color as well, I love how a simple black and white can show so much texture and beauty in delicate things.

Spring Sweetness

I am on a massive black and white kick recently and I cannot get over how strong these image is to me, especially without color.
Featuring the lovely Colbi Maxwell.

A Tempering of Social Media Use

Some people may have noticed that I have unfollowed a great number of people on IG recently. I know that for some being unfollowed is like being unfriended, and can feel like rejection. I want to assure anyone feeling that way that I have not unfollowed anyone due to personal feelings of dislike, but due to a overall downsizing of my use of social media.

At the tail end of December I deactivated my facebook, and now I’d like to concentrate on maximizing my instagram feed to focus on people I know personally, and interests that are more mentally healthy. Both on my personal feed and my photography account (@theandreaborden), I followed thousands of photographers and artists, many of whose work I enjoyed seeing and helped hone my eye. I loved being able to see the gorgeous and inspiring images from my fellow creatives and being connected to those people lead to some great networks. While those outlets enriched my creative world and always left me feeling inspired, I have decided to unplug largely from those groups for the time being.

For a couple of years now I have re-thinking photography as my primary pursuit, and in fact have been wanting to sell my equipment for a while. I’ve chosen to not do that because of a couple of projects I’d still like to do, but in the meantime unplugging from the social media side of things has been a priority for me. After over a decade of participating in the photography community, I’m coming to terms with the constant feeling I’ve always had of not belonging there. I’ve been published, I’ve produced collaborative shoots, I’ve gone to meetups and cherished friendships with other photographers, but all the while I’ve never been fully in “the industry”. I’ve been deliberately and unabashedly copied, and I’ve had my joy and love of creative work stolen by people who felt entitled to the concepts I produced, but most of all, I don’t feel like I fit into photography communities anymore, and photographing has ceased to give me joy. The phrase “comparison is the thief of joy” has always been sort of a misnomer for me– I actually think comparison is what pushes us as artists, what inspires us to be better, what informs our eye, and is a valuable measuring stick of skills and technique.

The real thief of joy for me is the desire to impress or belong. I’ve always had one foot in the photography world and one foot out, because I work a full time job, and I don’t have clients. For the last couple of years my shoots mostly have been to keep a portfolio updated or small portrait gigs here or there, but nothing steady, and I feel like there is no place for a hobbyist like me in the world of competition for the most bohochic clients, delicate wardrobes and exclusive locations.

After years of putting in my heart and soul into photography and the communities I was a part of, there’s been an imbalance that leaves me feeling empty, jealous, bitter, and lonely. That’s not healthy. I found myself sitting in an attitude of “but what about me?” every time I saw the community embrace one of their own who was hurting, and that’s definitely not healthy. In recognizing that I put too much stock in the idea of belonging to an internet community that isn’t designed to be my personal therapy dog, I have decided to take a step back and reevaluate what gives me joy. Photography still gives me joy (at least I hope) when I am photographing for selfless reasons, like volunteering at animal rescues, and I intend to get back into that when I find a good fit with my schedule.

With all of that emotional vomit being said, that’s why I am cutting back on my consumption of communities and feeds that subtract from my well being. As a result I get to see more of my friends in my feed, and more of the important things that matter to me. I probably won’t be updating my photography account for a while. I probably will continue to post photos of my cats, knitting, flowers, gardening, and homecrafts that give me joy.

The problem with blogs

is that it’s implied that you have to update them. Like, ever.

This blog thing is proving to be a difficult concept for me apparently.