Playing with my food!

I have been wanting to try my hand at some food photography for awhile, I think because it is easier to do than going outside in the winter and finding something to shoot. Warmer too, and tastes better! I finally decided I wanted to make the treat I have been longing for since fall. You see... I love rhubarb... I love it in pie and cake. Yes, cake. So I set out yesterday to make my favorite and then photograph it. That is one of the signs of true addiction in a photographer, taking pictures of ANYTHING!!!

So while the cake was in the oven I set up my table by a southern exposed window and got out the tripod and manual focus 50mm f1.4 (With vintage linear polarizer), all set.... still no cake! Forgot the dang thing takes extra time, due (I think) to the moisture of the Rhubarb, and the fact that it goes into the batter frozen, fresh rhubarb being hard to come by in the middle of winter.

With the time weighing heavily on my hands I decided it was time to get crazy with fruit. Grabbed the colander and threw a few bananas in with some apples and went to work. Looking back I think I should have manipulated the props more, but focusing takes some time and test shots etc... plus that yummy cake was getting closer and needed some icing made. Here is what the fruit did for me:

I'm not entirely convinced I have a future as a food photographer... but pretty darn close to convinced. It is harder than it looks, and the Devil is in the details which you never see until you see it on the screen, and then it is too late!

Here is the result of my labor, yellow cake mix with rhubarb layered in, which doesn't matter as it sinks to the bottom of the bundt pan anyway.

"Naked Cake"

"Dressed Cake" I think the icing fools the camera and the photographer, either that or it just needs a little less light to keep detail in the lighter areas.

A quick note on these next few shots. I used our best china and flatware that we got for our wedding, which usually only comes out for anniversaries and Valentines Day. Why? Because everything else we have is scratched and beat up, I have kids you know!

These were shot with varying apertures from f2.0 to f4.0, my old K mount is pretty good for a 30+ year old manual focus lens, but it is not a super sharp lens at f1.4 and at this close of a focus distance the DOF is ridiculously thin and hard to manage. My main interest was to find a fork position that looked natural. Don't look at me like that! As I have said before, it is harder than it looks, AND I usually try something to figure it out for myself, then research "How to do it" and learn from my screwups. I am sure that somewhere there is a school for food photography, but I cannot think of a more boring way to spend a year... seriously! I think I liked the first the best, but I'm not completely shure!

Figured I would get a couple of the "Cut" and be done. Not entirely satisfied with the look, but I enjoyed the challenge. Hope I didn't make you too hungry, or less hungry....

The Castle: by Melissa & Doug

My Sister-In-Law & Brother own a store in Fairview, UT called "The Corner Station" I highly recommend it if/when you pass through. They have a wide selection of really cool kinda retro toys. They gave my girls a toy Castle for Christmas which they adore. I have been wanting to photograph it for quite awhile, just cuz it is so cool! Anyway I took the opportunity to have a go last Monday while playing with my youngest. While not technically the best photo's in the world they show two things:

1) How cool this toy is.

2) How versatile my Sigma 17-70 lens is.

I was amazed at how close I could get to things and yet still be at my widest setting of 17mm. My only real problem was lighting. I had the blinds open with decent southern exposure but still needed to up the ISO to 400 and occasionally 800. Nevertheless I liked what I got, though I wish I would have put on my flash and bounced it straight up for more light and shot a little more stopped down, in several instances my DOF was simply too thin at that close of focus.

Nevertheless, here are my favorite shots in no particular order beyond the one they were shot in!

Welcome to my Home!
The Prince leaving to seek his Princess.

Ready for Lunch!

Peek in the Kitchen. (My wife and I have an agreement that we won't post pictures of my kids on my blog seeing as I have a lot of traffic from people we don't know. So this is as close as you will ever get to seeing one of them!) Not sure why I like this shot so much, maybe because it is the only time I caught part of child #3 in focus. Man that child can NOT sit still sometimes!

Bye Bye!!! Thanks for coming!

Holding Court.

Mount up my son and go see the world!

Time for dinner!