While out scouting for night shooting locations we had a great adventure or two…

Firstly, a stop by the new Tuscan Kitchen..

click to enter…

Tuscan bread w/ whole roasted garlic, some great Italian cheese [Piave DOB] and an assortment of roasted veggies will always make the best rustic lunch you could hope for!

So we asked about the DOB part of the name and it turns out that Italy has strict laws governing the exporting of cheeses, no surprise… They have inspectors that learn, in a four year program, how to hear a good cheese. Using a small wooden hammer they hit the side of a wheel of cheese and listen for an exact tone from the cheese -specific to that cheese, in other words a Reggiano Parmesan has a different tone than a Piave. Once the inspector pronounces the cheese ready he follows the sounding hammer with an official stamp for the type of cheese and the family’s crest, both are pounded into the wheel in relief.. 

A quick stop at Sister Roddy’s studio to see how her interpretation of Tracey’s photo from Cape May is starting out…

then on to a few potential night shooting locations, like Fort Stark — and yes, there is a cop story…  While ready for battle in his armored car, he turned out to be a totally friendly guy, if not a little bored.. He was all to happy to lock up the Batmobile and open the museum up for us and give us a tour of the whole facility.. including the full circumnavigation of the outside or the fort.  Turns out the fort, fronted the sea with a row of trees, topped with a trio of 27″ guns and a semi-circular command center, was made to look like a battle ship from off-shore. It served its purpose well, no real battles ever happened from here…

We even concluded with pictures from “Derek’s” camera of the sunrise this morning which lead to the discovery, from atop the fort, of a fine place for catching the Milky Way Friday night when he does his next overnight shift 😉