Salt even gives a photo some taste

Carltonautblack and white, Canon 60D, foam core, food, kitchen, macro lens, morton salt, photo, photograph, photography, restaurants, salt, salt shaker, sodium, table 1 Comment

Late last week, I was provided a blog post from a doctor that I was to post to my work’s heart-health related blog. But when I went to our stock photo service to find an image that I could use in conjunction with the blog post, I was coming up short. With a weekend ahead of me, I opted to forgo searching hundreds of salt images and simply capture my own.

Canon 60D | 100mm Macro Lens | 1/250 | f/22 | ISO 160 | Speedlite 430EX II | RAW

I think this photo will lend itself to adding the copy and hospital logo to the image when I post it into the blog post on Monday.

I had to troubleshoot a few items during the shoot. First, the silver lid of the salt shaker was reflecting the plate I had set on the counter to catch the falling salt. I didn’t like that look, so I simply removed the plate and added a black piece of foam core, which resolved the situation. I also had to set up my LED light below the camera to help illuminate the lid, otherwise the salt seemed to be coming out of nowhere.

Other photos I attempted was salt falling, without the source in the frame, but It didn’t seem to say anything. I also tried the Morton Salt canister, but I didn’t like the look of it as well as I liked the one with the salt shaker.

So, while salt adds some flavor to your food, I hoped to capture the crystals in a flavorful photo.

~signed, Carltonaut

March 30, 2013Just for fun

Capturing wise words from a Goldfish cracker

Carltonautbackground, canon, Canon 60D, crackers, food, goldfish, inspiration, LED, manual mode, pepperidge farm, photo, photograph, photography, photoshop, quote, swim, tripod Leave a comment

Pepperidge Farm’s Goldfish crackers have become one of my favorite snacks, especially when riding on an airplane (which I’ve been doing a lot lately). When I purchased the mega-mondo package of Goldfish crackers, I noticed a quote on the side of the box from Brooke, one of the Goldfish – “Swim in your own direction.” This started my wheels a turnin’ and after what seems like weeks of trying to get to it, I was finally able to put crackers to posterboard.

Canon 60D | 18-135mm lens | 0″3 | f/5.0 | ISO 100 | RAW | LED Flashmate

After meticulously positioning each of the Goldfish on the blue posterboard, I used my Manfrotto tripod to position the camera above the setup. In manual mode, I picked off a few test shots to get the lighting and focus set, then shot a couple dozen photos with my LED Flashmate video light on various positions to see the affect it had on the shadows. I liked the photos that had a stronger shadow, as I felt it added more contrast to make the Goldfish pop.

I like the quote, because in photography, each photographer needs to swim in their own direction. That doesn’t mean they can’t learn from others, but they need to have their own look and style in their photos to make them really stand out from the crowd.

In life, the advice from this Goldfish cracker stands true. Don’t be afraid to be different. It’s what makes you… you!

And enjoy, “The snack that smiles back.”

~signed, Carltonaut

March 10, 2013Just for fun

Take a bite out of… a chocolate chip cookie?

CarltonautCanon 60D, Canon Speedlite 430EX II, chocolate chip, cookie, delicious, dessert, food, kitchen, macro, off-camera flash, pepperidge farm, Pepperidge Farms, photo, photo challenge, photograph, photographer, photography, plate, snack Leave a comment

One week ago I put a photo challenge out to a photo group on Facebook as follows:

PHOTO CHALLENGE: You’ve just been contacted by a cookie company relocating to Utah. They’re looking for a freelance photographer to capture their cookies and plan to use the photos in all their advertisements. Capture a photo of any cookie(s) that you feel would convince them to hire you. Deadline is Sunday (3/10) at midnight. Happy shooting – and enjoy eating the samples.

In response to that challenge, I am submitting my own photo of a Pepperidge Farm cookie that was delicious. Trust me!

I guess if the photo makes you crave a cookie, I have taken a good photo. But not sure if this photo would convince the cookie company to hire me. I’ve got more practicing to do. Bring. It. On.

~signed, Carltonaut

May 20, 2012Travel

Did you know that pineapples don’t grow on trees?

CarltonautCanon 60D, coconut, dole plantation, food, Hawaii, Oahu, photography, pineapple, pineapple industry, plants, Travel, vacation Leave a comment

Not sure why, but I always thought that pineapples grew on trees, similar to coconuts. But while driving north from Honolulu to North Shore, I looked out my window to see fields of pineapples; and they weren’t growing on trees. Apparently they grow out of a bush-like plant, and the stem into the ground connects at the bottom of the pineapple.

Don’t believe me? Here’s a photo of a pineapple bush that I took while visiting the Dole Plantation on Oahu earlier this month.

Canon 60D | 18-135mm lens | 1/250 | f/13 | ISO 200 | Flash

Did you know this about pineapples? The more people I have talked to about this fact, it appears that I was not alone in my wrong assumption. Maybe the pineapple industry should start a campaign to let people know how pineapples really grow. I’m just sayin’…

~signed, Carltonaut

April 13, 2012Alphabet Photo Challenge

CTE Weekly Photo Challenge: O is for Overflow

CarltonautCanon 60D, Canon Speedlite 430EXII, cup, food, milk, Oreo, overflow, photography, shutter release cable, snack, splash, stop-motion 1 Comment

My mind was drawing a blank earlier in the week for this week’s letter – O. I just couldn’t think of anything, so I whipped out the Thesaurus on Tuesday night, searching for ideas. When I saw my word, I began envisioning how I would accomplish this. My end result is pretty close to what I envisioned, but with less Oreo showing.

Canon 60D | 18-135mm lens | 1/250 | f/5.6 | ISO 400 | Speedlite 430EX II

I set my cup on a baking sheet so I didn’t make as big of a mess on my kitchen counter. I also placed a black cloth over the oven and cupboards because I didn’t want too much additional noise in the background. I mounted the camera to the tripod, added my Canon Speedlite430EX II flash.

Using my shutter release cable, I stood ready, Oreo positioned above the cup filled with milk… ready to drop. My timing was a little off on some of the shots, so I had a good variety of splashes. You can check out my photo outtakes in my Facebook photo album.

And if you must know… I did eat an Oreo or two after I had used it for it’s intended purpose. I even drank a little milk from the cup before cleaning splashed milk up a five-foot diameter area of our kitchen (floor, counters and cupboards).

~signed, Carltonaut

April 8, 2012Just for fun

Happy Colorful Easter Eggs

Carltonautaperture priority, Canon 60D, colorful, cooking, depth of field, dozen, dye, Easter, easter bunny, easter egg hunt, eggs, food, happy, kids, photo, photography, shading, spring 4 Comments

We had a blast with the kids at my parents annual Easter Egg Hunt. After the kids raced through the backyard to grab the plastic eggs filled with prizes, we geared everyone up for real egg dying. Here’s the result of six kids, four dozen eggs, and a dozen cups of colored dye.

Canon 60D | 18-135mm lens | 1/3200 | f/5.6 | ISO 100

Happy Easter to everyone. Hope it’s great.

~signed, Carltonaut

March 17, 2012Alphabet Photo Challenge

CTE Weekly Photo Challenge – K is for Knife

Carltonaut50mm lens, aperture priority, camera effects, canon, Canon 60D, carltonaut, CTE, depth of field, focus, food, knife, photo, photo challenge, photography, sliced, tomato 2 Comments

I originally wanted to try some neat camera effects with my son (or daughter) kicking a soccer ball. The word Kick was going to represent K for this week’s CTE photo challenge. But time got the better of me, and I settled on photographing a knife.

Canon 60D | 50mm lens | 1/100 | f/1.8 | ISO 400

I didn’t want to do just I knife. I feel like I am using my 50mm lens on too many photos since starting my blog. I was planning to cut some tomatoes for hamburgers tonight and thought I would pause long enough to take a photo of a sliced tomato and the biggest knife we had.

I tried making the focal point the tip of the knife, but I didn’t like the look it yielded. I tried focusing on the tomato at various angles, but again… not the look I was going for. I ended up liking the photo shared in this post because the tomato and center of the knife are in focus, with everything else blurred.

And by the way, the hamburgers were great!

~signed, Carltonaut

March 16, 2012Just for fun

Photographing a cooking tip

Carltonautboil water, canon, Canon 60D, carltonaut, cooking, cooking secret, dinner, food, kraft macaroni, macaroni & cheese, macaroni and cheese, noodles, photography, stove, wooden spoon Leave a comment

Last night I had the privilege of cooking dinner for my family. The entree? Kraft Macaroni & Cheese. While the noodles were boiling, I placed a wooden spoon across the pot, because I’d seen something a while back that said this simple act would keep the pot from boiling over during cooking. (Done it a few times and it really works)

My next thought was, “That would be an interesting blog post and photograph.” So I grabbed by camera and took a few shots of the cooking noodles.

Canon 60D| 50mm lens | 1/80 | f/1.8 | ISO 400

I must confess that while I was taking my photos, the noodles were overcooking and we ended up eating slightly soggy macaroni and cheese. Add a few apple slices as a side dish, and a punch for the drink and no one was worse for wear!

~signed, Carltonaut

January 25, 2012Just for fun

Hungry for cookies?

Carltonaut50 mm lens, allergies, aperture, canon digital rebel xt, cookies, food, food allergies, food allergy network, food photographer, lighting, photo, photography 7 Comments

It’s amazing how many shots I find myself taking in order to get the one that is just right. Well, the photo of these cookies (which are dairy free, nut free and egg free) is the finished product of what seemed like hours of photographing cookies. The challenge was to not eat them until after I had the shot I wanted.

As a public relations professional, I often work with media outlets to provide story ideas, then help facilitate the story if they like it. This is what led me to photograph cookies. I had pitched a story to a Utah-based magazine, Wasatch Woman, about food allergies. My two sons have allergies, so I became involved with the Utah Food Allergy Network and was looking to bring more awareness to childhood food allergies.

After making the pitch to the editor, I offered to not only place her in contact with some families who are dealing with food allergies, but also provide recipes of treats that were free of certain allergens. She mentioned her photographer was on maternity leave (or something like that) and asked if I could provide some photos. Since they would be printed in a magazine, I felt the pressure of making them worthy of publication.

Cooking them was the fun part. Photographing them was the challenge. I didn’t have any lighting beyond the on-camera flash, so I pulled in a few lamps from around the house to help light the scene. I attached my 50mm, 1:1.8 lens to my Canon Digital Rebel XT, opened up my aperture as wide as it would go and started clicking away.

While I don’t think I’m cut out to be a professional food photographer, it was fun to try something new and see what I could come up with. And it was even cooler to see my photo printed in a publication that was sold in stores across Utah.

~signed, Carltonaut

Carltonaut

Photos of (and out of) this world

Tag Archives: food

Salt even gives a photo some taste

Capturing wise words from a Goldfish cracker

Did you know that pineapples don’t grow on trees?

CTE Weekly Photo Challenge: O is for Overflow

Happy Colorful Easter Eggs

CTE Weekly Photo Challenge – K is for Knife

Photographing a cooking tip

Hungry for cookies?

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