snapping a slice of life

 

Confession: The only thing I love more than eating food is photographing food.

Is it just me or does anyone else do this?

Sometimes I will plate a meal so that it looks pretty even though it’s going to be in my belly in two seconds. I’ve always cared about what my food looked like. If it doesn’t look good, I usually don’t want to eat it. As an artist, I'm always on a hunt for color, texture, and light. Food provides all three of these things on one plate!

This week, I’m inviting everyone over for a Slice of Life Tuesday Visual Potluck! Slice of Life Tuesday is a weekly photo challenge in which I provide a theme for inspiration and ask people to share photos from their everyday lives. For me, it has provided a way to stay creative and find the beauty in ordinary moments. And really, what could be more “everyday” than eating? It’s something we all have in common. We all have to eat. And those three square meals a day (or 6-12 in my case) provide ample opportunity for us to pull out our cameras.

So let’s feast! Cook up some of your most delectable, delicious, yum-tastic meals, and share a photo that will make our stomachs growl. If you don’t usually cook, try your hand at photographing your meal at a restaurant.

At one time, I thought about becoming a food photographer and spent a lot of time flipping through my fair share of food magazines, studying and ogling over the delicious photos. Through my studies, I discovered a few simple tricks that can help capture food at its best.

1. View your plate as art. Take your time plating the food. Think about composition and the rule of thirds. The same concepts that apply to art apply to plating your food.

2. Color. Color. Color. The camera loves color. Colorful food sets off triggers in our brains that say "Yum! I want what she's having!" In addition, think about ways to bring color and texture into the background. Use napkins and tablecloths to contrast and enhance the food.

3. More is more. When it comes to photographing food, the more full the plate is, the more scrumptious it looks. Photograph the overflowing bowl of food before you serve it on plates. Or put more on your plate than you plan on eating. Sometimes, art wins out over practicality!

4. Find the light. If you cook in a kitchen with fluorescent lighting like I do, don't be afraid to move the food to a different location. I photographed the couscous salad in the photo above outside on my deck. If you don't have a deck, bring the food to a window that lets in lots of natural light or find a place in your home that is lit with warm light. You can sometimes find me in the living room with my camera and my breakfast because that was where the best light was at that moment.

5. Take a bite. If you look at any food magazine, most of the photos show the food as it’s being cooked or mid-meal. This is where the "slice of life" philosophy really helps. Use your food to tell a story. Take food photos that look like real life. If you normally have a fork on your plate, put a fork on your plate. If you want to take a bite, take a bite!

Above all else, enjoy the food! Before your meal gets cold, put down the camera and pick up the fork!

Bon appétit!

Image and words courtesy of Honorary Sister / Guest Blogger Darrah Parker. You can find her on her blog where she hosts Slice of Life Tuesday. You are invited to share your Slice of Life with her at the Slice of Life Tuesday Flickr Group.

all the right places

I fell in love with shooting into the sun many, many years ago. Like, before I had ever even heard of digital photography. Some of you might remember those days. I recall the element of sun-shiny surprise to be intoxicating. No matter what event I was shooting I always fired off a couple of frames, lens pointed toward the sun. Whether I shot straight into it or just allowed the light to skim across my lens was no matter. It felt good t throw caution to the wind just to see what would come from it.

In those days, there were no test shots and nothing to double check to be sure you were getting the results you were hoping for. It was all good intentions and a lot of finger crossing. Fast forward to now, when you can experiment with any photographic technique with immediate feedback. I am even more invested in trial and error than ever before. Why not? There is nothing to loose. Not even developing costs.

I have been really focused on flare lately. It's become an obsession. Where to put it, how to get the flare and the sunspots to work together, how to manipulate the shape of the flare itself. These are all questions that can't be perfectly answered as using the light as a creative paintbrush  will always yield somewhat  inconsistent results. However, there are ways of getting a least a little more control of this illusive subject.

I hold closely the invaluable information that Sarah has shared here with us on flare and what Kristin shared too. It's always nice when someone who has taken good notes, can shed a little light on things for us. Pun definitely intended.

Regardless of what we know or don't know about flare, how long we've been working on it or how early we still are on our hunt to harness it, sometimes the photographic planets do align and we get a shot where the light shines exactly where it should. Insert heavenly voices singing together here.

Share with us that shot. The one where the light falls into place even better than if someone set it there themselves.

The beautiful belly above belongs to Superhero Andrea Scher.

full circle

I know I'm not the only one drawn to circles. I actually believe there is something within us, something Universal, even inherent that makes it so. Simply said, the shape carries a kind of magic.

Looking for some cirlce symbolism I found this list. It was exactly as I had suspected. A circle symbolizes so many amazing things. Here are, some circle symbol meaning keywords to contemplate:

• Inclusion
• Wholeness
• Focus
• Unity
• Nurturing
• Cycles
• Initiation
• Everything
• Perfection
• Womb
• Centering
• Revolution
• Infinity
• Mobility
• Completion

Share with us something that drew your own attention full-circle.

List discovered on whatsyoursigndotcom

incognito

I saw her walking up the beach.  Her red dress blowing in the wind.  As she got closer I spied it,  a vivid tattoo covering her calf.  She did not see me,  I was on my beach blanket shooting the waves and my kids as they played on the beach.  I wanted to stop her and ask her all about her tattoo, what it was, did it have a special meaning, but see I tend to be shy approaching total strangers.  Lucky for me I had my telephoto lens on at the time so i clicked a few shots as she strode past,  she completely unaware that I was having this little conversation in my head about her and her interesting tattoo.  

Are you drawn to photographing strangers? passerby's? A couple in a cafe? An interesting face and story?

The 100 strangers project has intrigued me.   I am drawn to those of you who are braver than I and walk up introduce yourself and ask to take someone's photo.  You get their name and maybe a little something more,  making the world a little smaller by doing so.  I am hoping to become brave enough to attempt this project myself one day.  Any sisters out there currently in this project?  Please share your feelings with us here today.  Do you find it easy?  Or does each new stranger give you butterflies in your stomach?

Today go out and shoot someone you don't know.  Either incognito like me, or maybe you are ready to go up and say "hello" and get a wonderful stranger portrait and share it with us here. Or perhaps you have a favorite stranger shot in your archives you'd like to share.  I can't wait to see who you've captured in your lens...

centered

I almost never place a subject in the center of the frame. When I asked her to lay the baby in the middle of the blanket, it was because I was intending for her and her husband to crawl down beside him. Then I looked down to see the baby, so content and small against the large expanse of white. It seemed almost awkward for him not to be kicking or fussing, which matched the also awkward cropping. After looking again, I realized it wasn't awkward at all. For this new family, he was indeed the center: of their attention, their thoughts, their love...right where he belonged.

Do you have any images which might be technically off, but still somehow work for you? If so, we'd love to see.

Also, in celebration of all the little centers of our attention in our lives, I want to let you know about my friend Katy who is doing a huge give-away on her blog right now. Some of the main ways you can enter involve taking photos of your little ones. So it might be right up your alley, plus a chance to win a $1000 gift certificate to Southwest, or a $2000 shopping spree.

Good luck and have fun! :)