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Folks coming over to my house easily spot the parts that represent me – the massive Japan photographs on the wall in the kitchen, the collection of tiny, plastic toys overflowing the mantelpiece – and those that represent Wayne – the Red Ryder BB gun hanging over the fireplace or the chinup bar in the kitchen doorway. Our house is fairly sparse (one of the advantages of having a tiny place is the built-in resistance to acquiring stuff to fill it) but it is both ours and a representative of who we are, as defined by how we use & ornament its space.

Certainly, if people can look like their pets, why can’t they look like their home? You won’t find any comparison photos of spaces and homeowners here (I often meet the owners of a space I photograph for AirBnB but I rarely photograph them). But, what does a space tell you about its inhabitant?

In two days, I photographed nine apartments from the top of Manhattan in Harlem to Prospect Park in Brooklyn. What they all shared in common, whether a tiny studio in the Village or a spacious one bedroom on the Upper East Side, was a sofa (or something like a sofa). Some of them were big, wraparound affairs and several were futons but they all defined where the “living room” was and denoted a comfort zone for guests and friends. Is it fair to assume that folks looking to host other folks are likely to have company over often?

All but one of the sofas had cushions, as well. In tiny spaces, little accents like this are like that pinch of fresh mint, crumbled and dropped into iced tea. They are the final pieces that pull everything together.

I found candles in every apartment I visited. What is it about candles that we love? They sure don’t beat electricity for toasting bread or lighting a room. And yet…

And not just regular candles either – sometimes large pillar candles, small scented candles in lovely antique jars, even a family of color-matched candles suspended above a dining table on a sheet of glass.

The evening sky reflected in a huge mirror. In small spaces, mirrors magically make a room feel bigger. I found them everywhere and in all shapes and sizes.

Another mirror shot – this time in a bathroom rather artfully delineated in black, white and dark teal. Lots of color in nearly every place I shot (except one which was all white – do the people provide the color then?)

Even if they didn’t have a TV or stereo, every place I photographed had a collection of books.

I was really delighted to find this tiny collection of herbs and vegetables on a fire escape. It reminded me of home.

Plants were a running theme as well – I found them tucked away everywhere – flowers in windowsills, herbs on fire escapes, leafy greens on stair landings, even lovely red tomatoes on a rooftop patio.

A lot of places had a staging area by the front door – a small table, a plaque of wall hooks or just a simple keyhanger, like this one. The bottom ones were mine for an evening in the Financial District.

Camera notes: Canon EOS 5D with 28-80/2.8 zoom, 1/60-1/90th/f8.0 @ ISO800 with hotshoe-d 580EX II set at ETTL. Some shots with flash compensation. Some shots (herbs, stair landing, flowers, books) with no flash.

Learning to draw is pretty much as frustrating as learning to walk or learning to read or learning to ride a bike. The trouble is, learning to do anything (and subsequently discovering that you really like doing it and want to get better) is really a continuously ongoing process of making mistakes. Sometimes the mistakes reveal a path towards something really cool and undiscovered. And sometimes they don’t.

Just like today’s picture.

(The recipe, by the way, is much more delicious than this picture indicates. I swear it on a stack of old, treasured comics.)

Mr. Vilppu was full of inspirational things to say when I would bring him my frustrations. One of the best (albeit over-quoted) was something Chuck Jones used to say, which went something like “Every artist has 10,000 bad drawings to make before they make 1 good one. The sooner you get through the bad drawings, the sooner you’re making good ones.”

I myself used to use this quote to remind my English students that making mistakes is not just ok but necessary for success. Of course, it’s a lot easier to say that as a teacher who’s already made the mistake than it is to hear it as a student who’s just made the mistake.

Canon EOS 5D 1/180th sec @f8.0, ISO 200. Main light: LumoPro 120 @ 1/4th power. Key light: 580EX II @ 1/16th power. Tin foil reflector.

I baked the cake in a 9×9 cake pan and planned to serve it as a single layer with icing. I even photographed it that way, using a folded handkerchief as a stand-in for the icing while I got the light just right. For some reason, I decided to do the final photograph as a double layer square cake. I’m generally happy with the light but I think the shape of the cake is just well, WRONG.

A typical triangular piece of cake would have a nice tapered point that the back light could shine through slightly, giving the cake a light, fluffy feel instead of the dense, asphalt-carrot texture it’s got going on now. Time to clear the plate err, slate – can’t serve cake that’s been sitting out under hot studio lights to guests.. that’s just plain rude.

The recipe comes from this recipe on Epicurious. I halved the original recipe, omitted the walnuts, replaced the oil with apple sauce, used on 1/2 cup of sugar, omitted the marmalade spread on the cake below the frosting and made a non-dairy version of the frosting (recipe below).

Non-Dairy Cream Cheese Marmalade Frosting

Ingredients

• 8 oz Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese, room temperature
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• A heaping 1/4 cup of orange marmalade

Preparation

1. Throw it all in a mixing bowl and mix it with a whisk or a mixer, if you’re lazy or a perfectionist. Slather on cake immediately or refrigerate until firm-ish, put into a pastry bag and pipe frosting on in a delicate basketweave lattice pattern. Eat on small dishes with tea, silver forks and pinky finger extended.
2. Freezes well for longer-term storage. Makes about enough frosting for the top of a 9×9 single layer cake

Canon EOS 5D 1/180th sec @f8.0, ISO 200. Main light: LumoPro 120 @ 1/4th power. Key light: 580EX II @ 1/16th power. Tin foil reflector.