Midnight Cravings

I am back! Sorry for the hiatus, and I promise never to go that long without posting ever again. So the assignment was food and I love food. I knew exactly how I wanted to capture it too. I wanted to capture those cravings I often get in the middle of the night. I dare say some of my life's favorite moments are the ones in the quite of my kitchen with a cup of tea and a banana at 2:00 AM.

Canon 60D, ISO 1250, 17mm, f/4, 1/30

One chipotle meatball (made by yours truly).  The bad thing is...it rolled off the table and onto the floor and before I could catch it, it rolled out the door.  It rolled in the gutter, and into the street.  And then my poor meatball was no good to eat.

Canon 60D, ISO 1250, 24mm, f/4, 1/40

Lucky for me...I had more.

iPhone 4, ISO 80, 3.9mm, f/2.8 1/30

I know I stated before that I intended not to post photos taken with my phone but I have changed my mind.  Does that make me a flip-flopper, Paula?  Why not get better with ALL equipment.  Anyway, I was shopping and couldn't resist taking a photo of the "never-ending" apple display.  Those stock guys...clever use of mirrors!  I had never noticed that before.

Vintage Food Faces

OK, Stef...special...just for you!

These are photos I took back in the late 70s/early 80s when we lived in the Aleutian Islands.  I have said about these photos in the past that when you live in the Aleutians, you have to find ways to amuse yourself but the reality is, I would have done this with my boys no matter where we lived because it's just fun!  Where else would you get to eat a peanut butter Pringle mouse?

I may have to make some more of these just for old times' sake.

Fruitopia

F/5, 1/20sec, iso-800, 36mm

F/8, 1/60sec, iso-100, 40mm

Yikes! It's like eating spider eggs, but tastes like gummy bears.

F/8, 1/60sec, iso-100, 44mm

A snake swallowed my pear, now I'm left with this!

F/3.8, 1/60sec, 22mm
Aliens have attacked my fruit bowl!

F/8, 1/60sec, iso-100, 42mm

They say I bought fruit, I say I bought sea urchins!

F/8, 1/60sec, iso-100, 48mm

F/8, 1/60sec, iso-100, 35mm

Never too old to play with your food!

Basic Food Group

I was inspired by all that talk about making magic with food. So I brought on a little leftover Christmas magic.

These are my little soldiers, all lined up...in the window sill

I say they collectively comprise a balanced diet

especially if you eat more than one.

But if you eat too many, you may feel a bit off kilter.

Stef. Why do I have the feeling you are going to make me do this again but with real food?

Calling all cars!

Be on the look out 

...for this white female, age 27, last seen 

in or around Salt Lake City, Utah.  

You can tell by the sneer on her face that she has

great disdain for authority!  

Wanted for not posting to the Shutter Soup blog in weeks.

Suspect was caught on camera fleeing the scene...

Was last seen hiding behind this rock

(Not very effectively, BTW)

Suspect is armed with a fish and dangerous.  If you see this 

woman, do not try to apprehend her, just get her to post!

Graduated Neutral Density Filters

Stats unknown

I promised to post a couple of pics that show the effect of a graduated neutral density filter.  I believe I incorrectly called it a "gradiated" neutral density filter in my comments to Stef's post.  The purpose of this piece of glass is balance out the metering between really bright things and much darker things.  This first pic was taken years ago with my first digital SLR (Canon Digital Rebel XT).  I had no clue about such filters back then so this photo was metered on the land and you can see how the sky and clouds are washed out.

Canon 350D, ISO 100, 17mm, f/7.1, 1/100, graduated neutral density filter (ND 0.6), circular polarizing fiter

This second photo was taken this past spring and I used my graduated neutral density filter, holding it in front of the lens with the transition point roughly on the horizon (same camera).  You can see how it balances out the metering of the whole photo and makes things much more crisp.  My filter is a Cavison 6X6 ND 0.6 and it's a spendy piece of glass but as you can see, it does some pretty cool things.

When Tony (1000 Words) was here in the US last spring, we went looking for one for him but the local camera shops don't carry them.  If anyone is inclined to check these out, here's a link to the one I have at BHPOTO:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/629388-REG/Cavision_FTG565GD06_5_65_x_5_65_Graduated.html

Play with Your Food!

Alright, since I was the procrastinator last time...I'll start our next assignment. Let's do some magic with food! I was reading this article and thought this would be a fun subject, and let's face it...who doesn't love to look at food? We may be able to identify the chefs of our bunch, food connoisseurs and who lives in city with an exotic supermarket (lucky me!). Hey, maybe this will even help with New Year's weight loss resolutions- don't they say looking at food kills the desire to devour it, or maybe it's smelling food, or possibly it's none of those things??? Because all I know is I'm imagining that burger is a Pork and Beef burger, yum yum! Ah, to to be able to order pork at a restaurant again...........enough digressing!

This article was helpful for me:

www.dpreview.com/articles/7035366346/introduction-to-food-photography

Looking forward to some saliva-producing photos and maybe some inspiration for my home cooking!

Water, An Essestial Nutrient!

As soon as I saw water was the topic, I knew exactly what I wanted to go capture...Sweat! But it is now two weeks, or more, we have not found the courage on the weekends (I say WE because my husband is going to provide me with beads of sweat for my photo) to go do one of my killer-sprint workouts at sunset. Alas, I will upload a few water-inspired pictures from my trip to Hawaii. I really have this great image in my head of sweatbeads pouring off someone's nose and forehead, the beads in focus and the person and background out of focus with great sunset lightling...so I may try to get it once the fear of the workout pass!

Water in Alaska....in January

I am adding this to my water group. More frozen snow, but kind of looks like water the way it froze on my deck...Oh, and any flecks would be because I took it thru my studio window...and we have a little bit of blue vignetting...Gosh is any of this straight out of the camera? (Most of it)

D700 ISO 500 105mm 1/80 @ f 8.0

Well, I had to really stretch on this one.

This is the most obvious...frozen water. 
Taken with the G11 ISO 80   (6.1 to 30.5 mm) set at 9mm 1/200 sec at f4.0


and its friend

So Paula has an obvious problem editing her work....portrait or landscape...portrait or landscape.

AND these tree tops at the same time.
I have a thing for sun on snow.

Enough of the frozen water...burr...it was -24° when I took those...without gloves, mind you.

Then I tried to get all creative.

But instead of oil and water with food coloring, this pretty much looked like something from my biology class. Minus the slide and petrie dish.

so I kept trying....but...alas, it still looked like a lesson in cell division.

Nikon D700  ISO 800  105mm  1/60 @ f4.0

so I went back to the more predictable, thanks to grand daughter Megan, age 9

who plans on pursuing a career as a hand model.

and of course I have to post more than one of these.

I like the water in the first, the implied motion/movement in the second.

D700  ISO 400  105 mm 1/60 @ 4.0

And how could I post pics about water/aqua, and not post this gem?

Cute, darling, wet grandbabies. 5 of them down from Fairbanks for Christmas vacation.

The pool and Taco Bell = My $100 afternoon.

priceless.

(glad I got a pic. kind of like a party favor.)

     

Agua, Agua por Doquier

Canon EOS 60D, ISO 1600, 40mm, f/4, 1/60

For some reason I cannot get these photos to become thumbnails that enlarge when you click on them when I am posting.  Anyone have a clue as to what I may be doing wrong?  Been trying to figure that out before I posted my pics but to no avail.  Let me know if you have the secret, please.

Do you know how hard it is to write with puddles of water?  Seriously, try it.  You gotta have just the right water temp and surface tension.  It was an interesting experiment.

Canon EOS 60D, ISO 100, 100mm, f/32, 1/3

I was shooting pics of ducks at a pond near the river by my house when I noticed every once in a while a little splash would arc up into the sunlight where this water comes into the pond.  It took me only 2,136 tries to get the shutter speed and timing right to catch it. 

CCanon EOS 60D, ISO 100, 100mm, f/32, 1/3

Canon EOS 60D, ISO 2500, 100mm, f/5, 1/6400

I shot a bunch of pics of this fountain in downtown Boise.  I used lots of different shutter speeds to see what the effects were.  In the end I think a fast shutter speed works best for fountains because it shows the action and a slow shutter speed works better for streams and brooks.  What do you think?

Canon EOS 60D, ISO 100, 73mm, f/5.6, 1/100

Finally, water in its most basic form...the perpetual motion of nature's hydrologic cycle.  As for the colors - Maxfield Parrish, I totally GET you!

Ice, Water, and Steam

Ice, Water, Steam, and gone (elsewhere) in seconds!
D90 105mm ISO200 f8 1/30sec Flash

Thought I'd try to capture all three H2O states in one shot...  limited color range and trying to get crisp focus was a challenge as the ice swivelled and screamed and soon disappeared (had to be quick...).