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February 12, 2007

Food? Food. Food$%$(@!>?$)*&#

Or, A Lesson in (Learning) from My Mistakes
My third assignment was to photograph food. At first I was excited about the assignment. But as the week progressed and my photographs went from bad to worse I started to worry. And obsess. About photographing food. It was an interesting week.

Since the course is titled "Photographing the Everyday" and since we've discussed using natural light at length, well, I felt like I should try to take everyday shots of food using natural light. I stayed away from artsy shots of fruit and vegetables (which I may still take for myself). I stayed away from using the lights on the lightbox. I tried to answer the assignment as I believed it was intended to be answered. I ended up taking a lot of lousy shots of food.


K. liked this shot of spicy shrimp stew. I didn't like the fact that the shrimp were still raw. I think the cast of the photo is too warm/red and although I've played with the settings several times I can't get it to look any better.


Bo-ring! The angle was supposed to add interest. Uh, not so much. Perhaps I should have been a little closer? I have no idea. I think this shot was doomed from the start.


Clams. I love them. Not these clams in particular. These clams were as bad to eat as they were to photograph. I overcooked them and I should have shot the photos against a contrasting background. I didn't realize how hard it was going to be to make clams interesting. Turns out to be hard. They were so pretty sitting on the ice in their little net bag...


I do not hate this shot of the baby bok choy. But after I took it it felt a little forced. I was going for whimsical, but I don't find this all that whimsical. Or interesting. It was shot in our homemade lightbox using natural light. An interesting experiment that didn't work all that well.


Here is a quick lesson in being cognizant of your surroundings. I hate the placemats. I can't get past them--they ruin the shot. A shot that wasn't all that good to begin with, but which is totally blown out the window by the placemats.


Submitted. Too bad the whole fish is gone. This shot is ok. I should have angled it a bit more to focus on his eye, and try to make it look like he was looking at me. Or something. I do like the texture of the coating, the scales, and the lettuce. It's very texture-y. Perhaps too texture-y? I also like the little beads of condensation near his mouth. It looks a bit like he is breathing. (Which is kind of sad and morbid, come to think of it.)


Submitted. This shot is ok too. It's a pretty posed shot. But is it interesting? No. That was the problem with every single shot in the end. It was so difficult to make the food interesting or engaging. I had some ideas for different kinds of shots--the farmer's market or the fish shop or something like that, something more action-y. But it's winter. And it's cold. And I ran out of time. And I'm tired. Those shots did not happen last week.

It was an excellent lesson on composition and making your photographs more interesting and dynamic. I loved the lesson. The assignment made me think (hard) and challenged me and made me take a lot of photos. Which I assume means that the lesson was successful, even if I did not end up with any shots of which I am proud.

Amber is taking names for her next class. If you are somewhat familiar with your camera and you'd like to learn how to take shots of the everyday, and if you are interested in portraiture in particular, I'd encourage you to think about this class. It's got me thinking! (I'm not as much interested in portraiture as many of my classmates, but I have found all of the lessons relevant to my interests as well.) See Amber's blog for more information.

If you'd like to comment on individual photos (I love feedback. Love it! Especially constructive criticism.) check out the photos from this course on Flickr.

Posted by grrlTravels at 12:04 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

February 8, 2007

Diorama-o-rama



I am obsessed with dioramas. I cannot tell you why. There doesn't seem to be any rational explanation for being obsessed with dioramas. Perhaps I was not forced to construct enough dioramas in elementary school. I can recall only one, and the details are fuzzy. Shoebox is as far as I can get. Whatever the reason I spend far too much time reflecting on dioramas.

When I try to get logical about it I realize that my diorama obsession most likely places me squarely in league with the dollhouse people. Not that I am saying that is a bad place to be. Tiny furniture, tiny kitchens with tiny mixers and tiny lifelike food, bathrooms with tiny rolls of toilet paper. Okay, perhaps it is an odd place to be. But I still love the dioramas.

To be honest I've been hiding my diorama obsession. There doesn't seem to be a way to bring it up that doesn't feel contrived. But today, today two of my passions collided so unexpectedly and spectacularly that I am forced to come forward.

I was reading the Flickr blog. I never get a chance to read it although I find it interesting. So I am skimming through and voila, I see an entry with a photograph by a woman who takes photos of the dioramas that she builds. Dioramas. And Photography. Together. In perfect harmony. Lightbulbs! Fireworks!!! Explosions of sound and noise and light!!!!! Photographs of dioramas. Why didn't I think of that?

The Flickr Photograph that started it all

Diorama Goodness:
Pirate shadow box on craftster.org
Hiroshi Sugimoto
Mr. Potter’s Curious Dioramas
The Dead Pals of Sam Sanfillippo
ann wood
Krista Peel (click on miniatures)

I had a bunch of diorama related links from a previous excursion with google. The links, they are gone! To a serial bookmarker like me this is serious. I found a few of them (see above). But the silver lining to all of this is that I just got another great idea for a documentary for K. and I. We are all about ideas for documentaries. Man, we are a goldmine of good docu ideas. Too bad we will never have to time make them all.

Googling "diorama" is one of those exercises in which you can lose several hours, if not days. There are all kinds of people making all kinds of dioramas out there. It warms my heart. And scares me. And makes me think that the dollhouse people are fairly regular folks after all.


P.S. If you google "diorama" you will see many, many historical and military scenes. I do not like those! No! No to tanks and battleships and tiny army guys. No! No! No!

Posted by grrlTravels at 2:39 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

February 6, 2007

Crafty bling

K. and I had hours and hours to kill on Saturday while strangers wandered through our house. We went fabric shopping.

A few weeks ago K. and I had a conversation about how everyone should know how to sew. I told him that all of the kids would learn how to use a sewing machine, even if just to sew something very easy. We also decided that the kids all needed to know how to: cook, do laundry, and use a hammer, screw driver, and saw.

A week later K. said, "I want to learn how to sew. Can you teach me how to sew?" Which is all well and good on the old machine, but on the new machine? I can't really sew yet. Plus K. is a Big Idea Guy, and so he wants to sew complicated things.

Anyway, he bought his fabric and I bought mine. I have no projects in mind. I just bought whatever struck my fancy.




The logical side of me says that this borders on offensively stereotypical. But it's just so cute. Perhaps I will never use it, I don't know. It's just so cute. Did I mention that it's cute?


The tattoo fabric. It's a bit gory, but I. Had. To. Have. It.


Fun 50s-ish kitchen fabric. For some kitchen project that I have not yet dreamed up. Or an apron of course, but that just seems so obvious today. Perhaps another day it won't.


I have no idea what I will do with this. But isn't it cute? I keep having an urge to make E. and Z. little matching outfits a la The Sound of Music but I doubt I will torment my kids like that. Perhaps just for some photos?


I love Hawaii. This fabric is a bit too pink for me, but I saw the words "Volcano House" and "Kona Inn" and the bolt was in my hands and I was on the way to the cutting table.


I love bamboo. In almost any form. Except those pitiful little Lucky Bamboo plants you can buy at the mall.


K. and I fell in love with winter blossoms while we were in Changsha falling in love with Z. This fabric reminds me of winter blossoms.

P.S. I am on some kind of terrible novelty fabric kick. I will never sew with 90% of the fabrics I am attracted to right now. Perhaps I need some kind of intervention?

Posted by grrlTravels at 10:27 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack

February 4, 2007

Natural Light

The assignment this week was to photograph indoors using natural light. What a great assignment to get you thinking about light and looking at the quality of the light.


I submitted this for the assignment. I love this photo! K. was tickling them. (He is my photography assistant, when he's around.) I was going for bright, natural, gorgeous light.


The light is coming in from the skylight and illuminating her face.


E. is slightly out of focus. I just love his expression. (Ignore the Little Dutch Boy hair—we're trying to.)


The side of her face is a little blown out (still working on that!) but I love Z.'s expression. She looks so big!


I was trying for a silhouette, but my subjects are never as dark as I'd like them. There are windows on three sides of this room, plus a skylight, so I think there was just too much light bouncing around.

If you'd like to comment on individual photos (I love feedback. Love it! Especially constructive criticism.) check out the photos from this course on Flickr.

Posted by grrlTravels at 7:12 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

February 2, 2007

And the second winner is...

Shelba and I didn't want any kind of a contest, like voting which bag was "best". But we did want to send you stuff. So we're drawing names at random each month and sending along a little surprise. This month's package might be a little late as we are still working things out (and ordering).

Shelba has posted a random winner.

Here's the other winner.



Congrats mijita!

Posted by grrlTravels at 8:14 PM | TrackBack

February 1, 2007

Get Your Craft On! in February

The February challenge is:







A mite obvious perhaps. But a concept with so many connotations and metaphorical meanings and opportunities that my head spins with ideas.

Heart. Broken hearted. Heart-to-heart. Bleeding heart. American Heart Association. My heart is in my mouth. Faint of heart. Heart-rending. Heart searching. National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. Heart stopping. Sacred heart. Take it to heart. Heart throb. Heart warming. Be still my beating heart. Heartache. Heartened. I'm wearing my heart on my sleeve. Hard hearted. A change of heart. Ace of hearts. After one's own heart. Dear to my heart. Artificial heart. From the bottom of my heart. Have a heart. Congenital heart defects. Big hearted. My heart's desire. Healthy heart. Heart.

I could go on. And on. But I won't. I'll be blogging about some project ideas throughout the month. For now I want to let hearts permeate my brain. I hope you are as excited and inspired as I am!

[Shelba has beaten me to the punch. She has a lot of fun ideas.]

Posted by grrlTravels at 1:19 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack