Assignment 2:

1. Find one single image. It can be your own or it can be someone else's (if someone else's, then please give them credit if you know whose it was). I'll leave it up to you if you want to include more than one, but for times sake and for the sake of my reviewing your assignment, I mainly want just the one (or most important). Post the image on your blog. Write about why you selected this particular image. What does it mean to you? What feelings does it invoke? What emotions might be involved with such an image? Why do you think the photographer (whether you or someone else) took time to make that image? What was in it for them?

2. Then, blog your photographic goals and make it simple. In fact, they should fit on a 4x5 index card. Write it down too and keep it in your camera back and look at them every time you take out your camera. It's important to remember your goals if you ever hope to accomplish them and by seeing it so often, it will be ingrained into your memory.

I had to think about this one long and hard. I knew almost immediately which photographer's photo I would use, but I didn't know which one. Then I asked myself why this subject. Why? Because it is a challenge to me. I can take good photos of people, and I can do a pretty good job with landscapes and things of that nature. But I haven't found the secret to this. Here is the photo I chose:



It's from one of my favorite food blogs, Nordljus. Why do I love this photo as well as the others she has on her food and photo (other than food) blogs? Because it makes food more than just something you see and eat. Look at the detail. You can almost smell the food. My mouth waters. It's not just something you eat, but her photos have a realistic, sensual, erotic, quality to them. They don't just make me hungry, they inspire me to create something, to produce something worthy of being photographed. It makes me want to be a better chef. And until I discovered food blogs and the people who take photos like these, I never thought much about food photography. But now that I take my own food photos for my food blog, I aspire to take photos as great as these.

This is part of my passion, food. Not just food, but the realm of culinary magic. Choosing ingredients, prepping, cooking them, and arranging them on a plate to serve to someone. This photo brings to me a sense of anticipation. I can tell it will be light and fresh. I imagine what the first bite will be like before I even reach for a fork. I want to replicate this recipe to see if what I think it tastes like will actually be what I taste.

These are my goals for food photography: to take photos that are simplistic and realistic. Something that will give the viewer a better sense and appreciation for food, whether they make something themselves, or go to a restaurant to enjoy it. I want to be able to control lighting, depth of field (DOF), contrast, focus, and arranging the "scene."

I suppose I should introduce my cameras since they do a lot of the work.



I have a Fuji FinePix 3800, which I've had for a few years. It's a nice camera, though I have to admit that I have only scratched the surface as far as using all of the different settings. I haven't even touched the manual stuff yet; all the photos I've taken have been using the automatic settings. It is a good camera, and for some photos, it's even better than the other one I have.



For Christmas I got a Nikon Coolpix S4 (do all cameras spell it P-I-X these days?). I'd asked for a smaller digital camera to take with me around the city, something that will fit in my purse, especially so that I can take it to restaurants with me. It has a 10X optical lens, 6.0 megapixels, and only an LCD viewfinder. It's mostly an automatic camera, with a few setting changes. The factory set options are plenty, there's portrait, landscape, sunset, indoor lighting with multiple settings in each "scene." I can even take a black & white "copy" of documents, which has come in handy when needing to send information to someone. Kinko's charges a lot for a fax, and all I have to do is take a shot and email it to whomever needs the info. Anyway, this is a very good camera. My dad picked out both and he did a great job. Also, the best feature, I might add, is that the lens rotates so that you can take a photo of yourself and your friends without just blind shooting.

Assignment 1:

Post 3 images you reviewed (as listed above) on your blog and tell us why you chose the images and why you thought it could have been better and explain why. What might have you done differently with the ingredients listed above to improve the situation next time? You'll begin to have a whole new self-discovery to what's been missing in your image captures!



This photo, I feel, is my best food photo I have taken so far. I was shooting this by the window, which you can see in the background, in order to get some good natural light. I tried to fill the "frame" with the subject in order to minimalize the background as well as get a nice shot that was mouthwatering. I divide the picture into thirds, with the egg roll on its side as one third, the standing as another third, and the blank space as the final third. I wish I could have gotten a sharper edge to the filling, but the wrappers do look crisp.



I took this photo recently and was experimenting with my camera and the light. I was able to get a good shot in between breezes, so I'm glad it's a sharp image. If I were to take this shot again, I would try for a more interesting angle, though I like the group of three flowers with the one off to the side. The dead "heads" of the other flowers are a bit distracting as well. I need to figure out how to comtrol the white balance in direct sunlight, so that the whites aren't washed out or too bright for the other colors.




This is my favorite photo of a flower that I have taken. I captured it through a fence, using my optical zoom. I think I can even see moisture on a couple of the flowers. I would like to have been able to take some shots with the sun on the flowers, or at least with some light and shadow play in the picture. I think that the leaves give it a hide-and-seek effect, like you're peeking in on something. To me the thirds are diagonal: upper right is more background, the row of flowers makes up the middle third, and the leaves are the bottom third.