Pixel Darkroom Photography

Little girl eating corn on the cub. Love it. The corn, the image and the girl (in reverse order).

Today we made shish kebabs. It was the first time we did it. To make matters worse we actually had our Turkish friend over for dinner. Talk about risk taking. They turned out alright considering the lack of expertise. They looked so good when I took them off the grill that I thought I should try photographing them. I ended up using a tripod and shooting available light in front of the opened windows. It might have turned out even better outside but I didn’t want them to get cold. Here’s Day 283 with Shish Kebabs.

Here’s a little bit of freshly picked raspberries. I could totally see this image in a calendar or some other place so it is definitely available as stock image. The rain got to the fruit a little bit, but it was only enough to clean them up. It was measured. Another one of my favourites. Our good friend picked these up and a big thank you goes to her and my wife helped with the rain gear so a big thank you goes to her. Shot at 1/60 or so to grab the rain drops. I tried a few shots with on camera flash for fill but I got some reflections from the water flowing down the wood and I liked better the image without the reflections. Here is Day 272.

We had the chance to visit this great place. I know it may not seem very special to some but I have always been fascinated by the “Old America”. Here’s some info according to the museum website:
“On January 17, 1996 the Yakima Valley Museum announced the plans for the installation of an operating circa 1939 soda fountain. The Museum Soda Fountain would be a working exhibit for the museum and serve ice cream sundaes, sodas, and hot dogs. The Museum Soda Fountain is now a functioning replica of a late 1930s Art Deco soda fountain. Furnished with salvaged and restored parts of authentic Yakima soda fountains, this piece of history serves Green Rivers, Root Beer Floats, Malts, and assorted “phosphates” and ice cream treats for visitors to the museum and Franklin Park.”
It was even equipped with a fully restored and functional jukebox, but when I asked about it, I was told they had to remove it because people were vandalizing it. How unfortunate. Here’s a piece of history on Day 251.

Just a quick shot of some special kind of spinach gnocchi. I couldn’t tell what all the ingredients inside are, but I can tell it was very delicious. Home made spaghetti sauce with parmesan on top is what brought the color to the image and complemented the taste of the spinach and all the different cheese inside.

Lighting info: available light from window CL and big coroplast sheet CR as a fill card.

My wife started to make a different kind of bread in the last couple of days. It is simply amazing. For those interested, it’s actually a simple recipe that requires only a cast iron pot and some 12 hours of waiting. That’s why you have to plan a day ahead and leave it over night. (NOT in the oven though.) The recipe name is something like “Dutch oven bread” or something similar and I’m sure it can be easily found in the world wide web of information. This is our daily bread for “Day 184.” I am a blessed man.

Strobist info: 580 EX CL with coroplast snoot to restrict the light from spilling and 580 EX II CR zoomed at 70mm. This speedlight bounces into a white folder held by my wife just outside of the frame CL for a little fill in the front of the bread. Both triggered via Pocket Wizards. Setup shot here.

Food shot Thursday! Yeah, I know it looks yummy and you wished you tasted it. Oh well, one of the perks of a food photographer is that you get to consume what’s being prepared for you to shoot. Plus, you don’t even have to hunt for it. Drop me a line to ask for the recipe.

Strobist info: 580 EX CR at 1/2, 580 EX II CL at 1/32 or so, and 580 EX II contre-jour, lighting my backdrop. All via PW. Shot with a 50 mm prime + 1 dioptre filter at f7.1.

Today we went and visited some great friends where we had dinner. Jacob makes an amazing Caesar Salad and while he was preparing it, I was playing with the candles that Claudia arranged on the table and was working on getting today’s shot. When he was done, I put the salad on the table instead, bounced a flash on the ceiling and had this shot by the fourth frame. The “original” shot is somewhere else. It’s interesting how I like the non setup stuff better. I like the mix of colours here – candle light with bounced flash. I’ll talk about color temperature some other time. Suffice it to say that the candle light appears very very warm, while the flash, which is supposed to imitate daylight appears much cooler when combined with candle light in the same frame.
Here goes Caesar Salad à la Jacob. Day 87.

Strobist info: 580 EX bounced into ceiling.

Today I wasn’t planning to get this shot. I got called to do this on the spot and I kinda had to make it work with one light. Everything, besides the cake, was improvised. I’m glad it turned out the way it did. And the cake was good. Mmm, mmm,… Happy birthday, Timi!

Strobist info: 580 EX into umbrella, CR at 1/2 via PW. Slow shutter for small tungsten fill. That’s why you can see the little orange spot in the middle. I usually don’t tweak with the images, cause there’s just so dang many, so pretty much what you see is straight from camera. I’ll let you know when I tweak, that’s if it’s not obvious. Don’t forget to grab the RSS and share on Facebook, Twitter, and what have you,… right below.

This is some extra food I shot a couple of days ago. They are besides my 365 project. Today’s post is here.

Strobist info: 580 EX CL 1/128 zoomed to 28mm, CR bounced off umbrella 1/8 24mm zoom, ISO 100, 1/200. Setup shot here.

This is just another food shot that I tried today. I must say I don’t really believe in luck. But when your lovely wife cooks Thai food and arranges it so beautifully, then you must take out all the gear and set up to take a shot, and feel lucky at the same time. Not only does this look great it also tastes much much better than it looks. I’m still learning about food photography and styling. The first rule is this: eat before you setup.

Strobist info: 580 EX x2 + 580 EX in three groups. A into the closed umbrella at 1/1 CR, B through a diffuser at 1/2 CL and C at 1/128 CR, hand held by yours truly to fill under the plate. 50mm prime, 1/200, f7.1 Setup shot here.
Available for publication here.

Here’s a try at some salad. Nothing fancy, but I figured I’d take a few shots at food. I like doing these. I shot another one with a pumpkin pie but I said I’m gonna lay low with the pumpkins so I figured I’d drop in the salad here. I didn’t like the pumpkin pie shot as much anyway. No incredible set up here, just a flash with wizards. No setup shot either. I did use a 50 mm prime and a diopter filter (+4) to get closer.

Strobist info: f/6.3 580 EX CR shoot through flagged umbrella at 1/4 and a white paper CL to bounce some on the left hand side and on top of the salad. Available for publication here.