
Wednesday, November 9, 2022
What really is a creative block ?

Thursday, November 3, 2022
Fall Images - 2022

Thursday, February 17, 2022
Culture and heritage - Part 1
Yesterday I was speaking to a friend of mine and during the course of our chat, she asked me if I had a blog....it was her way of telling me to go back to blogging. I thought about it and realized I do miss blogging, I miss having a conversation and sharing my slice of life with you. Turmeric n' Spice started as a recipe blog to document the recipes that were passed on and my experiments in the kitchen. Soon, it opened new opportunities for me and before I knew it I was deep into photography. With so much time spent doing photography, I had little or no time left to maintain a blog. Like everything else, a blog does take time and it is a labor of love. Then what has changed you may ask? Well, nothing that really meets the eye but a whole lot in the last few years.
The last few years have taken me to a place where I am extremely conscious of how and where I use my resources, especially time. Having said that, I really want to spend more time on what I love to do. When speaking to my friend, I realized how I miss blogging and maybe it is time to take some time out for blogging and sharing my journey here. It could be recipes, photography, updates, or just sharing. I am not going to obsess about recipes but I will share recipes as and when I can.
I am contemplating between sharing a recipe or a body of work I created last year. I think I am going to share my work here today and I will come back with a recipe next week.
Sometimes at the end of last year, I created a portfolio for Adobe that showcased my culture and heritage, there was a lot about food too. It was a unique opportunity and I am so glad and grateful for it. Here is a link to all the images I shot. I will share a few of my favorite images from this portfolio and probably share my thoughts behind them. Each image is curated by a team, I worked with Adobe closely to formulate a concept, work on the logistics and finally shoot. I shot about 1200 + images and we picked about 500 to be included in this collection.
I wanted the collection to have a mix of still-life as well as celebratory images, where I share how we celebrate not just festivals but how we celebrate our lives. When it comes to still-life, I wanted the images to be bold, colorful, and showcase my culture. I wanted to bring symbolism and color to my images.
The lotus is a sacred flower. Goddess Lakshmi and Lord Vishnu are often portrayed on a pink lotus in the iconography. You can also see Goddess Lakshmi, Goddess Saraswati, Lord Vishnu, Lord Brahma, and Lord Kubera sitting on a lotus throne. The lotus symbolizes the inner potential, grown in swamps, it is your inner journey from the web of the material world to the true realization of who you really are. I really wanted to include this symbolism in the still.
The peacock feather is a symbol of Lord Krishna, one cannot think about the peacock feather without thinking about Krishna. It is often attributed to representing the cycle of time.
I also used a banana leaf, if you have ever visited the Southern part of India you will see that the authentic meal is always served on the banana leaf. I will not go into the details of the symbolism but on a practical level, it is the perfect biodegradable plate.
I included the betel leaf and nut - which is an important part of an offering - called tambulam.
"Tāmbūla consists of a variety of ingredients wrapped in betel leaves. Typically, it includes areca nuts, edible camphor, slaked lime, saffron, and other fragrant herbs. It is one of the 16 offerings in ritual worship, occurring right after food offerings.
There are numerous reasons for elevating the commonly consumed paan to a sacred offering. On a gross level, it aids digestion, particularly after heavy meals. From an Āyurvedic perspective, it ignites Agni, specifically that associated with digesting food. If you’ve ever chewed paan, it’s a delightful experience of the perfect mix of disparate flavors that remains in your awareness long after it is eaten and swallowed. The lingering flavors permeate the senses with lasting freshness.On a subtler level, it represents our ability to digest the experience. Normally, our ability to digest experience is uneven. We hang on to the unsavory ones and forget all the good that ever happened to us." - - Dr. Kavitha Chinnaiyan
The lamp, Haldi (turmeric), and kumkum are quintessential parts of an offering. To me, it was the five elements coming together: fire in the lamp, water through the lotus, air through the peacock leaf, earth through the betel leaves and the earthy backdrop, and space through the aroma of everything coming together.

Monday, May 10, 2021
Basil Berry Moscow Mule
It has been such a long time since I have shared a recipe here on the blog. For some reason I have this urge to restart blogging this year. I hope to get on a regular schedule soon. You can expect me to share not just recipes but a lot of photography tips as well.

Tuesday, March 2, 2021
Photography 1:1 - A three month mentoring program
I want to keep the group intimate but at the same time have enough students to keep it interactive. I have limited seats (12-14). It is a very interactive program. You are expected to constantly engage and your camera will be put to good use. It is a time-consuming program, both from my end and from yours.
A little bit about the program -
1 - Photojournal & critique
I will create a private Facebook group for this purpose. Each one will create an album in the group and post all their images in the album. Practice makes perfect - the more you use your skills the better you become. I recommend you take a picture every day, if not every day at least 4-5 days a week. Post the images you take in your album. Your photo journal will show you your progress and help me critique.
2 - Partner work
One of the ideas for doing this program is to develop a community so we can work together. I have always seen, when you have someone to bounce your ideas with, we work better. Each member will have a partner to work with. You will critique each other's images on FB. Critiquing really helps us grow, so the more you critique, the more we will learn. This is the reason I strongly believe that critiquing is an integral part of this program. This will help you develop a keen eye for details. You are not restricted to critiquing just your partner's work but I encourage you to do it on as many images in the group as you can.
I also encourage partners to push each other to do better. You can plan with your partner and have a theme for your photo journal or use creative ways to collaborate & grow.
Once a week I will have a one-on-one call with you and your partner to assess your progress and address your questions, issues, or concerns. I will be critiquing the images from the week with you. This will be a 45min-60min call. I will post the day/time slots for my availability and you can sign up for a slot that works for you. Each week it will be the same day/time you pick.
You can pick your partner or I can help you with it. It is very flexible.
3 - Lessons
We will have 5-6 lessons which will be scheduled for all. They will be pre-scheduled and will be about 3-4 hours each. I will be talking in-depth about food styling, lighting, camera setting, shooting in manual, metering, focus, post-processing in photoshop, and artificial continuous light.
To know in detail you can always reach out to me and I can schedule a call. If you are interested in the program, email is the best way to reach me. Email - turmeric53@gmail.com.
All the lessons and one on one critiques with your partner will be held on Zoom.
Cost - please email me for details.
Testimonials -
