Where you find it

It’s been said by many photographers that there’s a worthy image pretty much anywhere you happen to be. You just have to look or maybe the word is “see.”  So it was as we sat with our good friend Jamie Hindman at Cora’s Coffee Shoppe in Santa Monica.  Cora’s is a tiny mostly outdoor affair that’s attached to its pricey northern Italian sibling, Capo.  It’s misleading and unprepossessing moniker masks some serious culinary intent and a large, brunchish menu that’s uber Californian.  Wagyu “Kobe style burgers, rotisserie tacos de carnitas, steak, celery, arugula and parmesan salad, crimini polenta, rigatoni with white truffle oil meat sauce, artichoke tarragon omelet and Turkish breakfast with homemade simit ought to get you to the left coast pronto.  Cora’s and Capo proudly source their produce from Santa Monica’s extraordinary farmers market.  Goat’s cheese and wild sage honey anyone?

Both images today were shot in Cora’s leafy café and were taken from a sitting position with little more than a twist of the waist.  I’m all about economy of movement.  As a lapsed restaurateur, I think place settings make great though scarcely rare still lifes and the simple fountain on the wall behind me was a tasty bonus.  Both are everyday things that seen from the right perspective are artful and full of mood.  

Note to self, you have to have the camera with you to record this stuff.  As for simit, that's a Turkish bagel.