The weather’s getting colder, the nights are drawing in, and the desire and obligation to go outside is fading like memories of summer. In fact, just a day or so ago a cold wind hit the UK, bringing with it icy cold wind. Just the season for hot chocolate.
Normally at home, we make hot chocolate simply by adding a brown powder to warm milk (which, somewhat alarmingly, is also my mother’s technique for making coffee). But on this occasion I’d been feeling a bit ill, so my darling wife decided to up the ante a bit.
1/15sec, f/5, ISO 160, 45mm
For reference, those aren’t the ‘mini’ marshmallows you get in coffee shops. Those are full-sized marshmallows in what my wife describes as a soup mug – whether that’s the official term or not I don’t know. That’s also a decent squirt of whipped cream from a can, too. I made sure that there were marshmallows placed both under and on top of the cream, to ensure suitable marshmallowage.
Having been served up my recommended daily intake of calories in such a good looking package, I couldn’t help but take a few photos of it. As I’ve mentioned before, my kitchen is unusual in the sense there is a work surface, rather than a sink, by the window. This is great for photographing stuffs that need a lovely bright light source and a relatively plain surface to sit on. Sometimes, however, the background can still get a bit cluttered.
1/15sec, f/4.5, ISO 100, 38mm
As you’d expect, I played about with the angle a bit, finding one that had a slightly less busy background.
1/20sec, f/4.5, ISO 160, 38mm
Although there’s still things in the background, I think the colours of the stuff on the windowsill compliment the mug nicely.
Noticing a dribble of hot chocolate beginning to eke its way down the side of the mug, I knew my time grew short. I swung the mug around a bit to capture the drip in the light, ignoring another untidy background.
1/30sec, f/4.5, ISO 160, 37mm
Then, my photographic obligations sated, I was able to sit down and actually drink it. And it was fantastic. The marshmallows hidden under the cream had melted, making for a rich, tasty drink which did wonders for my sore throat.
And barely a week later, to use up the leftover marshmallows and cream, my wife made another one in an even bigger mug:
Epic hot chocolatage! instagr.am/p/Qca1jPTIar/
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Rob Howard (@CousinDirk) October 06, 2012
Nothing like a pint of hot chocolate with marshmallows and cream to make you feel better. Unless you drink it too quickly, in which case you might feel a little nauseous.
