For National Dessert Day…
…from a (dessert loving) photographer’s notebook
Zut alors! — the useful factoids one can pick up from Facebook friends!
As a confirmed dessertoholic, I really should have known the significance of this date on the calendar, but nonetheless, I shall try to celebrate it … in some modest way this evening … perhaps more extravagantly next year 😉
October 14 is … National Dessert Day!
This I learned from the post of a friend, who adds, “I assert that the best dessert is served at Berthillon in Paris — the cassis sorbet is superb, as are the mango and pear. And the vanilla ice cream is something to write home about.”
As this (temporarily) travel-challenged (damn you, pandémique maudit!) dessert-lover read those words, he immediately flashed back to a perfect early October afternoon in 1989 in Paris. A work colleague and I had just enjoyed breathtaking views of Paris and the Seine from atop Notre Dame and had walked across the bridge to Île Saint-Louis on our way back to the “mainland.”
When I grabbed this shot of this lovely mademoiselle with her adorable cat (while passing Glacier Berthillon), I was actually scrambling to get back to my hotel to drop off most of my camera gear, and dress for dinner that evening with some friends.
But had I known then what I now know, I’d most certainly have made a point of returning the next afternoon, to relax and savor one of Berthillon’s ice creams or sorbets!
Clearly, this late afternoon capture predates image-stabilized lenses; I was using some slow (50 and 100 ISO) transparency films to shoot those landscapes around the cathedral and atop its parapets, and the lens on this most-reachable camera for grabbing the moment was a not-too-fast zoom.
Nonetheless, on subsequently viewing the Agfachrome-100 transparency, I realized I rather liked its impressionistic swirl.
So for anyone who loves beautiful women, cats, Paris, autumn, and ice cream or sorbet (in whatever order of preference they may fall), “Mademoiselle avec Minou — A Paris Impression” makes its first appearance today.
It is available in archival prints on fine art papers.
©2021 Steve Ember
You may view more of my Paris images here.
You may view more of my photos from plusieurs d’elsewheres by visiting my web site and clicking on “Photography” or by visiting this little photographic pied a terre in cyberspace.
Steve Ember (SteveEmber) Profile / 500px
Most of my photographs can be purchased or licensed by contacting me via my web site.
You may also view a sampling of my framed work, note cards, and other photographic iterations at https://steve-ember.pixels.com/
