A little more food photography...

Well, I'm kinda stuck on food photography nowadays!  Its so much fun! :D  (And really, the weather is so nasty, and spring is not arriving, so there's not much outside to use as subjects!)

Today I made a few dozen deviled eggs to bring to a bible study I'm attending tomorrow.
I took these pictures around 4:30 or 5 pm, on our kitchen counter which has a south facing window.  It turned out to be great lighting!
I forgot to use our reflector board-had it right beside me but still forgot! Guess I got a little caught up in the moment!  I was very happy with the overall set up.

Nobody else was trying to cook or clean in the kitchen, so I had free reign! That made the entire process quite a bit faster! :D




I wanted a crisp clear photo of the egg, with other eggs in the background.  I wanted to portray deliciousness, creaminess, and have a 'fresh' look.  I picked up some fresh parsley today to help give it that 'fresh' look, and also a pop of color.  ($0.68 a bunch-totally worth it!)

I did a combined version of two of my favorites.  (I narrowed it down to three, then couldn't decide so I had Lillian point out which she's like me to 'take away' :)  Even a four year old's opinion can help!

I'm not sure though, if I like the 2 photos side-by-side better, or just the single photo.  I enjoy the modern look of side-by-sides, but feel like its a lot of...eggs?  But I also like it portraying two different angles.  I decided to post it, as well as a single photo though, since I can't decide which is better!


PS I actually wrote this post yesterday, but the internet crashed right before I could upload the photos...So these eggs were already consumed :D 

Orange Dark Chocolate Scones

So my best friend is staying over at my house for a few days. We decided to make and photograph Orange Dark Chocolate Scones.
We had quite a bit of fun re-style the scones in many different ways, spending several hours taking photos of scones!  I wanted a rustic, homey, deep feeling for these pictures.

A little about these photos...
The background is a large piece of velvet that is hemmed, probably a small tablecloth, that I picked up at goodwill awhile back.
The scones are setting on a pizza stone.
It was afternoon in a sunny window, with the blinds drawn to diffuse the light.

Oranges and chocolate shavings are the primary 'extras' but we also used a very small pitcher, with orange glaze inside of it.

I used my Canon 60d body with the left (closeup picture) I used the 100mm 2.8 macro lens, the right (aerial picture) I used the 50mm 1.8.

I had my f stop around 5.6 and the ISO was pretty high, around 800 to 1000.



{And the scones with the glaze on top were delicious!}

 Spring has finally arrived!  The crocus popped their little heads out of the ground today, while the sun was shining, the birds chirping, and the cats basking in the sunny warmth!
Yay!

A food photo critique.

    I stumbled upon an interesting photography site the other day.  I was on Pinterest, and saw a pin that said something like, '30 best photography blogs'.  So I went through and was looking at many of them.  I saw several quite interesting sites, and many beautiful photos.  Well, I love food photography, so when I saw that you could submit a photo to be critiqued I was very excited!
    So I went through my project 365 from last year, and chose a few favorite food photos from last year.  Now, I was trying to think objectively, and think how other people would view my photos.  Its hard though, because each photo is connected with so many memories for me.  Project 365 was a hard challenge to tackle, but now that its done, it brings back so many good memories of the different days, weeks, and months of 2012.
   Anyway, I think I will submit this photo.  These are chocolate peanut butter pretzel bars.  They were very delish!

Brown butter cookies.
Well, I saw a super cool recipe on Pinterest, and actually decided to try it out.  Its basically a chocolate chip cookie recipe, but you brown your butter, then cool it, then make cookie dough with it! And, this recipe used M&Ms and pretzel pieces.  The were delicious.  As cool as pretzels and M&Ms were....I think plain ol' chocolate chips would be better. :)
I used the fake sunlight method to get these cookie shots.

Anyway, on a photography note:  I HAVE been taking pictures lately, on and off, just not blogging them.  :-/  Sorry about that!
A few exciting things...

I actually bought a tripod!  I always hear/see how you NEED a tripod. But hey, I get pretty good pictures, and I've never used a tripod.  But I found a video tripod, in its box!, at Goodwill for $10.  So I bought it.  It seems like a fairly nice tripod.   Using a tripod is much much different than just handheld...but its a new adventure, and good practice!

Another thing, I am taking Groomsmen-getting-ready photos for a wedding on Sunday, and also doing some photography for another friends wedding in May.  (Already doing one friend's wedding in May, now another!) So that's kinda neat.  Wedding photography isn't particularly one of my dreams in life, but I think I'll enjoy it, and its nice to help friends out, to make their special day a little bit better. :)

So, that's all for now; hopefully I'll be back soon, with some of the pictures from the last few weeks. :)

Getting pictures ready!

Well, a few weeks ago, I did a post about being invited to display some photos in a local Winter Photofest.  I looked at my photos, chose some I liked, did some editing, printed some, did some more editing, and printed the sizes I want.  Today I got all three of them framed and/or matted.  I am displaying one as a 4x6, one as a 5x7, and one as a 8x10.
I took a picture of the framed, matted 4x6 and the framed 8x10 so you can all see the finished product. :)

Cheerios!

Almost any small object can fascinate me, if I am taking pictures of the object.  :)  The other day, I was at a friends house, and we were taking pictures late, late at night, while we were eating cheerios.  Naturally...cheerios ended up in our photos.  I was explaining to her (a new photographer) about planes, and how focal points really often are really more like a focal plane.  I generally consider this shallow depth of field like focusing on a 'slice' of my 3-D setting.  So a 'slice' of my picture is in focus.  This changes depending on the angle you are coming from...
So here's a few random, fun, cheerio pictures my friend and I took.

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