Just playing around with food - 11/20/19

I had this idea after looking through the pantry. Well, the bookcase we use as a pantry because we live in an apartment with an apartment sized kitchen.

I saw a package of chocolate chips and had the idea that they would look cool falling like a chocolate chip waterfall. And be frozen in motion.

So I did exactly that.

Canon 5D Mark II w/Tamron 180mm - 1/200 Sec - F5.6 - ISO 200

Canon 5D Mark II w/Tamron 180mm - 1/200 Sec - F5.6 - ISO 320

I tried it with some warm color and then just a straight flash with no color. I was interested to see the difference for the final shot.

Also, just a bit further behind the shot. Chocolate chips dropped from about a foot or two into an aluminum mixing bowl makes one hell of a lot of noise. I tried the glass bowl to be a bit quieter but it wasn’t as wide and I just spilled chocolate chips all over the table I was using.

So after that I started just messing around with the macro lens and food items. Rice was pretty interesting, all those small grains. Eventually I added an egg for a different texture to stand out.

Canon 5D Mark II w/Tamron 180mm - 1/160 Sec - F7.1 - ISO 125

Finally, I had a plate of spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. Which I wanted to share with my siblings in our ongoing group chat and figured I could do a pretty good photo.

Canon 7D Mark II w/24-105mm - 1/125 Sec - F7.1 - ISO 200

Kitty cat with lights - 11/18/19

You know I have this wireless system for the lights now. And while I still only have the one TT600, that would change a few weeks later.

For now, I was messing around with color gels and the lighting at soft speeds. Plus a very pretty kitty cat.

Canon 7D Mark II w/24-105mm - 1/125 Sec - F5 - ISO 200

Canon 7D Mark II w/24-105mm - 1/125 Sec - F4 - ISO 200

Turned down that flash speed for some harsher shadows and more light in this next one.

Canon 7D Mark II w/24-105mm - 1/125 Sec - F5 - ISO 200

Canon 7D Mark II w/24-105mm - 1/125 Sec - F5 - ISO 200

Canon 7D Mark II w/24-105mm - 1/125 Sec - F4 - ISO 125

Canon 7D Mark II w/24-105mm - 1/125 Sec - F5 - ISO 200

And here’s one from the next day when she was being silly sleeping in her chair by the window.

Canon 7D Mark II w/24-105mm - 1/125 Sec - F4 - ISO 250

That’s it. Just had a fun hour or so playing with the cat while I messed around with the camera.

Another food attempt - 11/17/19

I had been wanting to try more food photography. Which makes sense to me, I’m narrowing down what I like to take a picture of. I like wildlife for a lot of reasons. It’s a different world, it’s freeing to not have this society of rules you have to adhere to. Animals don’t keep a job they don’t enjoy, if they need food they fucking go get it. And I like food for many reasons. But mostly because I like to eat it, too much usually. And that’s why I’ve been needing to lose some weight for the majority of my life.

I’ve had ups and downs in that regard as well. Sometimes I do things just to prove to myself I can. For about a month, maybe 6 weeks, I got real serious about eating and exercising. I worked out almost everyday doing body weight exercises. I went fully into a keto diet and cut out carbs and sugar. It was actually really good for me, I learned a lot in such a short time. And truly since that point it changed my eating habits entirely. I was already transitioning to eating more vegetables in place of like, yet another plate of pasta.

It’s a slow process for me. I haven’t put any kind of self discipline for food in my life. Besides the obvious as not using it for a coping mechanism or trying to restrain myself when eating around others. But it’s very interesting to look back even just a year and see the difference. It also helps that I cut out meat entirely about 4 months ago. Don’t even miss it, there’s still plenty of great things to eat.

So, food. I like it, and even in November of last year I was trying to avoid carb heavy foods. So I offered my youngest sibling free food that I would cook up, photograph and supply to them so it wouldn’t go to waste. And because they’re the youngest with the least experience working the minimum wage job I figured they would appreciate the most. Spoiler alert, they flaked and it all went into my freezer which I ate over a period of a month or two.

But I got to take plenty of pictures as I was cooking all this up. It was cheap meals, as I didn’t have tons of extra money to spend outside of my normal grocery budget. So pancakes, cheeseburgers and grilled cheese. Wanted to try and get that cheese stretch.

Canon 7D Mark II w/24-105mm - 1/160 Sec - F7.1 - ISO 100

Canon 7D Mark II w/24-105mm - 1/160 Sec - F7.1 - ISO 100

Canon 7D Mark II w/24-105mm - 1/200 Sec - F7.1 - ISO 100

Canon 7D Mark II w/24-105mm - 1/200 Sec - F7.1 - ISO 100

Canon 7D Mark II w/24-105mm - 1/200 Sec - F7.1 - ISO 100

Canon 7D Mark II w/24-105mm - 1/200 Sec - F7.1 - ISO 100

It went alright in the end, and was a pleasant way to spend the afternoon. I was combining two of my favorite things. Cooking and photography. Hard to go wrong when you enjoy both things.