I’ve done maybe 1 or 2 web/blog ‘tag you’re it’ type things in the past, but I’ve kind of stopped doing a lot of that stuff. No one cares that my favorite movie is Bed Time for Bonzo (it’s not… Really, it’s not). There’s a new push going around that I thought was kind of cool, though, called Pay It Forward. I first saw this on Nicole’s site, Pinch My Salt, but I was too late, only to see that my friend Nika was also paying it forward on her site, Nika’s Culinaria.

PIF is simple:

• To be involved, you have to be a current blogger, though it doesn’t have to be a food blog.
• The idea is that each of the three people will receive something homemade by me.
• Those three people have to do the same thing on their blog… Post about PIF, allow commenters to comment, and send the first three something homemade.
• The time frame for when I have to have sent out my homemade whatever is 1 year from today. I don’t plan on taking that long.

That’s about it. And, what, you might ask, is the item that I’ll be sending out? A one pint jar of Bucky McOinkum’s own Javacue Sauce, an espresso based barbecue sauce that I’ve used (and won with) in competition.

So let the paying it forward, from here at least, begin!

(logo used with permission by Nika Boyce)

Lesson 3 is all about depth of field (DOF). One thing I’ve noticed in looking at food photos is that really shallow DOF is used a LOT with food (sometimes too much, I think). However, it can be used to really good effect to highlight the details desired while blurring those not desired.

I don’t have a stovetop that’s usable right now, thanks to my ex-propane company taking my tank instead of billing me rental for it. Of course, they did that the day before Thanksgiving! So I don’t really have any food for photo subjects. Not to worry! Christmas season is starting, and what I do have plenty of is Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer stuff. And those reading this will be seeing a lot more of our decorations over the next few weeks.

My main subject this week is Charlie-In-The-Box (CITB). Due to time, on Thursday, I’ll have only aperture settings of f/2.8, but what I varied instead of aperture was distance from the subject. Later, I’ll be updating this with a smaller aperture, also, as well as diagrams showing my focal plane. But first, here are just my basic photos:

Aperture f/2.8, background perpendicular to the lens.

16″ from subject:

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