Weekly Header Challenge -- Macro

It's time for the Weekly Header Challenge!

"Headbanger" Participants

Fishing Guy 

Kathy 

Imac 

Lew

I'm joining in the group above for this weekly challenge.

Click on the other participants' blogs to see

what they've come up with!

Theme ~ Macro

Chosen by Kathy.

I love this theme!  I have tons of macro images, so I'll stick with my most recent, with a couple of beginner shots thrown in .  Here's my header, uncropped, below.  The guys spotted this adventure playing out in my front porch garden, so of course I ran in and grabbed my camera and macro lens.  The spider went into hiding after a little bit, so I was there at that perfect time.

Back when my macro lens was new, I took this image:

Insects are fun to shoot close-up, and grasshoppers look so friendly, don't they?

Here are my most recent macro images.

Side view of Pixie Meadowbrite Coneflower.

Top view.

My woodland hydrangea blooms both blue and pink!

A macro lens can capture tiny flowers on the forest floor that you normally don't even see, like this toadshade below.

Coral bells, "marmalade" leaves.

I found some bright orange toadstools in the mulch of my garden walkways:

Another great macro subject is food.  Yum!

Chocolate Skillet Cake.

Ice cream with fresh whipped cream and homemade hot chocolate sauce.

Just before I donated my wedding dress to Goodwill, I took some pictures (I think I posted them here for you earlier this year).  Here's a macro image of my veil, and my final macro image to share today.

Happy week to you!


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Weekly Header Challenge -- Something that Begins with C

It's time for the Weekly Header Challenge!

"Headbanger" Participants

Fishing Guy 

Kathy 

Imac 

Lew

I'm joining in the group above for this weekly challenge.

Click on the other participants' blogs to see

what they've come up with!

Theme ~ Something that Begins with "C"

Chosen by me.

For this week's theme, I stuck with pictures I've taken this year.  It was fun to scroll back through the first few months of 2015 and look at my images in a new light--what begins with "C"?  I found some good ones, I think!  Here is the image I chose as my header:

Cookie Cake -- double "C"!!

In case you want the recipe, click here to get started.

On to some more "C" images!

Candle.

Crafts.

Closet!  (It's new--a Christmas gift!!)

Cleaning--thanks, Danny, for cleaning the meat juice off.

Cherries--must have more than one on my ice cream.

Cajun seasoning--I'm going to make my own; this stuff is awesome but expensive.

Coyote tracks.

And with that, this C-hristine is signing off to enjoy a beautiful day, hopefully at the Arboretum with my camera!


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Lessons from Food Photography

I thought I'd share just a little about the food pictures I've taken, and several of which I just featured in my weekly Header Challenge post.  I've left them in this post exactly as they were in the Weekly Header Challenge post, including links to their recipes.  Just in case you get hungry.  ;)

When I first bought my 100mm macro lens--which is the go-to lens for most my food photography--I was fascinated with how it could capture the amazing details that our eyes just glance over.  We can see God's incredible creation through new eyes, so to speak!

I consistently focus on a few things when shooting food, and here they are...

Aperture.  Although f/2.8 on my macro lens makes for amazing shots sometimes, with close-up photography, the aperture needs to be more closed down to capture the detail you'll want to see.  Bokeh is great, but too much of it and I'm left wondering what kind of food is that--or, I really don't want to see a few crumbs of muffin in sharp detail.  My eye strains for more in focus.  So that's how I shoot.  I typically start with f/6.3 and close down from there, which brings me to...

Multiple images.  With my aperture at f/6.3, I take a picture.  I may also take one at f/8, f/11, and f/16.  Sometimes, the more closed the aperture the better the food shot.  You'll still get some bokeh, due to the extreme close-up nature of the macro lens.  So experimenting is always good.  Typically, though, I shoot at around f/6.3.

Low ISO setting.  The lower the setting, the less noise in the image.  Nice for food.

Tripod.  This is the essential tool, given the small aperture and low ISO.  Depending on light, shutter speed can be extremely slow!  I use a remote shutter release, but if I'm lazy and don't want to pull it out, I use the two-second timer on my camera.  It's perfect enough for me to press the shutter and have no camera shake when the shutter releases.

Flash when necessary.  Although none of the images in this post were taken with flash, I've used it to great effect to shoot some cookies for a client last year, and will probably experiment with it more this year.  I bounce the hot-shoe-mounted flash off a wall or the ceiling, depending on where I set up.  I also try to be extra careful I'm not creating shadows--having part of the photo shadowed from my body, or a curtain blocking the light, is not so good.  With natural light, I tend to shoot in my kitchen (remember the blue countertop?) with light coming in from the southwest windows.

That's pretty much it!  I don't do a lot of staging, since I'm usually pretty close to the food.  I have been known to pull out a white board for background, but I usually just use my own dishes, my own tables, silverware, etc.  You can see the blue/gray speckled countertop in most of these images!  To make images look more professional, I may start to use white for my backdrop--unless I'm using white dishes.  Basically, keep it as simple as possible.

Let's get on to the photos!  Underneath each one is the camera information--ISO, f-stop, and shutter speed.

Sausage and White Bean Soup

ISO 160

f/8

2.5 seconds

Confetti Rice with Beef

ISO 200

f/13

2 seconds

Slow Cooker Orange Chicken

ISO 125

f/8

3.2 seconds

Chicken Soup from Scratch

ISO 125

f/7.1

1.3 seconds

Blueberry Pie with Crisp Topping

ISO 200

f/8

2.5 seconds

Baked Yogurt Chicken

ISO 200

f/6.3

0.6 seconds

Homemade Spaghetti Sauce and Meatballs on top of Brussels Sprouts

ISO 250

f/10

2.5 seconds

Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting

ISO 200

f/7.1

1 second

Shredded Chicken Tacos

ISO 200
f/7.1
1 second

One of my Winter Salads

ISO 160

f/11

1/5 second

Broccoli, Barley, Cheddar Cheese, and Salsa

ISO 160
f/7.1
1/15 second

Breakfast Puffs

ISO 160

f/7.1

1/6 second

This post took longer than I expected it to!  I've blogged a lot of recipes, with a lot more to go.  And now I'm in the mood to bake and blog some more!  I hope I've warmed you up a bit today!!


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Weekly Header Challenge - Winter

It's time for the Weekly Header Challenge!

"Headbanger" Participants

Craver VII 

Fishing Guy 

Katney 

Imac 

Lew

I'm joining in the group above for this weekly challenge.

Click on the other participants' blogs to see

what they've come up with!

Theme ~ Winter

Chosen by Lew.

Winter is a perfect theme for this week, obviously (thanks, Lew!).  But, since I haven't been out in the recent snow, preferring to attempt hunkering down and staying warm inside, I thought I'd go through last January's pictures to see what I shot.  Turns out, I did go out a few times then, and so I chose a black and white header that fits the theme perfectly.  Here's the full image:

Then, as I browsed through the rest of those images, I realized--I did stay in a lot then, too.  What did I do, you may ask?  The answer is seen in the rest of these pictures.  Want to stay warm in January?  Go hang out in the kitchen, turn on the stove, and cook something.  Here are the rest of my January winter images--surprise!

The ones I've blogged the recipes for will have links.  Clicking on the link will take you to my family blog.  Just so you know.  Stay warm!!

Sausage and White Bean Soup

Confetti Rice with Beef

Slow Cooker Orange Chicken

Chicken Soup from Scratch

Blueberry Pie with Crisp Topping

Baked Yogurt Chicken

Homemade Spaghetti Sauce and Meatballs on top of Brussels Sprouts

Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting

Shredded Chicken Tacos

One of my Winter Salads

Broccoli, Barley, Cheddar Cheese, and Salsa

Breakfast Puffs

This post took longer than I expected it to!  I've blogged a lot of recipes, with a lot more to go.  And now I'm in the mood to bake and blog some more!  I hope I've warmed you up a bit today!!


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

Visit my website
Stop by my family blog
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Weekly Header Challenge -- Food

It's time for the Weekly Header Challenge!

"Headbanger" Participants

Craver VII 

Fishing Guy 

Katney 

Imac 

Lew

I'm joining in the group above for this weekly challenge.

Click on the other participants' blogs to see

what they've come up with!

Theme ~ Food

Chosen by Craver.

Ahhh, food.  If I'm going to eat it, it has to be good food.  If I'm going to make it, it also should look beautiful.  And if I'm going to shoot it, it needs to look beautiful!  Here are my food photos--I made it, I presented it, I shot it.

My most recent new recipe--Flourless Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cake.  Yeah, it was that good.  *drool*

Red Lentil Soup (amazing!).

Four-Cheese Ravioli with fried sage leaves and brown butter sauce.

(I bought the ravioli but made everything else.)

Stack of whole-wheat pancakes with strawberry sauce.  And syrup.

I make my own vanilla with vodka and Madagascar vanilla beans.

Strawberry shortcake.  When no whipping cream is available, use ice cream.

Homemade strawberry preserves, using agar instead of pectin as a thickener.

Fernando grilled it!  Red peppers are from my garden.

One of my one-pound heirloom tomatoes.

Canning my jalapenos (and my garlic).

Butternut squash growing in my garden.

Garden harvest.

Pico de gallo -- fresh salsa with everything from my garden.

I started this blog post with cake, so I'll end it with cake!

Chocolate Cake to the Max.

Merry Christmas!


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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