Finally, I have my results from Lesson 5 of Food Photo 101!

I have to first say that having weekend time makes a big difference, and I hope others following along took advantage of having natural light. This time of year means I leave either in the dark or just after dark, and I get home after dark, so the only light I get is the good old plug-it-in kind. I have a window that gets great afternoon light right onto my dining room table, and I really liked how it worked out.

Just a note about a bit of a difference I had with this lesson… I looked through a lot of my old photos along with the shots for this lesson, and I found that, even when I thought I was taking shots using the thirds, I’m off a bit. Of course, a bit here and there isn’t noticeable unless the grid is overlaid. But I found that with my stuff, I was using a slightly different ratio, I think, called the Golden Section. I’m not going to go into it too much, but the rule of thirds is a bit of a simplification of the Golden Section. It’s a ratio used since ancient Greece, and is supposed to be pleasing to the eye naturally. I think the reason is that it’s something I remember from school, and I just got used to using it then. There’s nothing wrong with the Rule of Thirds; I just found I missed it by more than a bit, but found I was hitting the Golden Section instead. Some of my photos I pushed to the Rule of Thirds, but also included examples of the Golden Section.

So what did I use for my photo subject? I went back to pears. Is this because I think pears look great? They are kind of nice looking, I suppose, but it’s mostly because it’s the fruit I most often have around, especially in quantities of more than 1 or 2.

Without further rambling, here are my Lesson 5 shots:

The first shot is a bit different, in that it’s not so much the intersections of the grid that I used, but the proportions within the grid as sections:

And the Golden Section grid overlaid:

The far left is all in shadow, with pretty much the whole section being empty space, with some shadow lines I found interesting. I also really lucked out with this glass slab; the light was hitting it ust right to have it refract along the back corner of the slab. Not planned, but I’ll take it!

Also, I did highlight some parts of intersections that lend themselves to showing off the intersections just a bit: the back corner and the part where the refracted light starts. Also, the axis for the right side of the grid goes along the shadow on the front pear, so the middle section ends up being in shadow, but with the fruit in the shadow instead of being empty.

The right side is then mostly the first pear in natural light.

Maybe not the best example, but I was happy with the shot.

My next shot, I did the “not Rule of Thirds” intentionally, to see if I could get things to look better by playing with the cropping. The first shot ends up looking just not balanced well, I think:

And it’s overlaid grid:

Nothing really fits well in the grid or on the interections, and it just looks like some pears on a table.

Now with some cropping, I think it gets a bit more interesting:

Showing the grid shows that the Rule of Thirds is more in effect now:

The main point is a blemish on the pear in the lower right intersection, with the edge of the pear in the upper right, and a shadow between two of the pears in the background is in the intersection of the upper left. Light and shadow both can be used for proportion, I think.

I also like that the background pears are mostly in the top third of the photo for some reason.

And for good measure, here’s a final shot I also liked, with the Golden Section showing the main focus in the middle section, but that’s about all it really showed me, so I didn’t include it:

I’m the first to admit I may be completely off base with this proportion stuff; for those of you in the class or just browsing, I’d appreciate any feedback, before Nika tells me how far off I am!

Class Resources

• Curt’s Food Photo 101 page
• Nika’s Photo 101 page
• Food Photo 101 Class Forum
• Food Photo 101 Glossary
• Food Photo 101 Flickr Group
• Food Photo 101 Newsletters

To register for the newsletter that reviews each week’s topic, fill out the contact form at the bottom of this post (or on the Food Photo 101 page) and type “Food Photo 101” in the subject field.

I usually take a few minutes at lunch to catch up with several blogs, not all of which are food blogs.  I do read some stuff that might not be typical for food bloggers… Ok, there are plenty of football fans, but how about gun blogs?  I also read some Christian blogs, many of which are unfortunately pure garbage.

So at lunch today, I pulled up my Google Reader, and I noticed that my food blogs may be themed a bit narrowly (nothing against any of them, of course).  I read several food blogs for a few reasons:

• The person that writes it has a good style in their blog
• The photos are really great, and I hope to learn something from them
• I’ve corresponded with the person and found them to be very nice, which tends to show in their blogs, too.

So what’s the problem today?  There’s a blog site called “The Daring Bakers Blogroll“, and 4 of my usual 20 or so regular reads are apparently participating.

Without too much research, it appears that the site puts out a theme now and then, and the bloggers on the blogroll make their version of the item and post about it.  Pretty straight forward, and you’d think things would be pretty much the same, but there are some really divergent takes on the same dish, it seems.

The blogs I read today had versions of Lemon Meringue:

• Dessert First
• i shot the chef
• Use Real Butter
• Wild Yeast

All have great photos, and, though I’m not a fan of lemon thanks to the dentist I had when I was a child (who used lemon fluoride… not a nice thing at all), I still think these look worth trying.

January 11th came and went, and I got too busy to post anything about it. Ok, I mostly just forgot, but I’m not good with real birthdays, let alone blog birthdays! Bucky’s Barbecue and Bread, in whatever form, just turned 2!!!

I was going to write all kinds of stuff about the last year, but instead I’ll make it simple…

I just want to thank all of you that have become readers.  If no one was reading, I may or may not still do this, but it’s a lot more fun knowing people are coming by.  I appreciate all the comments, and I hope to hear more and more from people that are reading.  I don’t always get it right, so you can comment to correct me, or tell me I got something right, or suggest another way to do something I’ve shown.

I also want to thank Nika Boyce for all the work with Food Photo 101, and answering all my inane, amateurish photography questions.  Somehow, I think my photos are actually improving quite a bit!

So here’s to another year, with a lot more going on.  I won’t promise to post every day, or even every week, but I’ll try to be regularly putting something up.

We’re back, now that the holidays are over. And here’s the lesson, from Nika…

Before I get into the core of this lesson, I wanted to let you all know about a change to this course.

To allow people more time to do these lessons, the timing has been changed (some of us do not have any light when we get home from work during the week!).

I will publish a lesson on the Tuesday and then Curt will publish his results (which I mirror here) two weeks later, on a day of his choosing. We will then send out the newsletter for that lesson that next Sunday. The next lesson will then be on that next Tuesday.

Thus, I am publishing this lesson on Tuesday January 15th. Curt will publish his results and you all will send me your links and/or you will upload your images sometime in the week of January 28th - February 1st. We will send out that lesson’s newsletter on February 3rd.

I mentioned on the previous composition post, in swift passing, something called the thirds rule. I am going to talk in greater length about this handy concept today and then I want you to chose several shots of your own to analyze.

What is the Rule of Thirds

The term “rule” is not meant to hem you into thinking that this is a hard and fast rule. This is more of a suggestion but an important one to help you develop your aesthetic “palate”.

Without getting excessively technical, a composition that has it’s focal points near the intersections of a tic-tac-toe box (shown below) will be perceived as more aesthetically pleasing.

A Few Examples

As with almost anything having to do with composition, its easier to show than it is to tell. I will simply show you some images that I shot this last weekend that have been marked up to show the grid.

Winter’s tulips

The grid overlay

Focal points show with blue circles

Further illustration of composition in terms of movement, notice all sorts of circular movement.

Here is another example of a photo that conforms to some extent with the rule of thirds

Cayenne Rosemary Cornish Game Hens - before roasting (I know, thats not rosemary)

The grid overlay

Grid with focal points outlined with circles

Your HomeworkFind an image (or take a new one) that demonstrates the rule of thirds. If you know how to, add the lines like I did in the examples above to show how your photo conforms to the rule.

Now find a photo that doesn’t seem to be very pleasing in terms of composition and then do the same, add the lines. See how this photo may not be maximizing the rule.

Go a step further and see if you can modify that image by cropping to bring the various focal points closer in alignment with the grid intersections and see if that has a positive effect.

When you have done these things (or selected two images, one that uses the rule and one that doesn’t), upload it onto flickr, add the tag “fp101 rule of thirds” and then add those photos to the Flickr Food Photo 101 photo pool!

If you blog, please blog with your words and photos to describe how this exercise went for you. When you have done this, please send the link to me by filing out the contact form below, making sure to put “FP101-5 blog link” in the subject line.

Thats it! I am looking forward to seeing what you all submit.

Class Resources

• Curt’s Food Photo 101 page
• Nika’s Photo 101 page
• Food Photo 101 Class Forum
• Food Photo 101 Glossary
• Food Photo 101 Flickr Group
• Food Photo 101 Newsletters

To register for the newsletter that reviews each week’s topic, fill out the contact form at the bottom of this post (or on the Food Photo 101 page) and type “Food Photo 101” in the subject field.

I remember my first introduction to weird forms of sea salt. It was a few years ago while watching Napa Style with Michael Chiarello; he sells grey salt via his show and website. It’s actually great stuff. From there, I’ve learned that there are several forms of more natural sea salts that include color from other things, like pink Hawaiian salt or more moisture like grey salt.

Fleur de sel (flower of the sea, I think) is a French salt that’s supposed to be the best of the best, and it’s tough to argue with that once you try it. It’s better as a condiment than to use just to salt a dish that’s being cooked. And it goes great with sweet stuff.

I love caramel, so I thought I’d try making some caramel with fleur de sel. I’ve found it all over the place on blogs and recipe sites, but I used a standard caramel recipe that I think I found in Gourmet. I just changed and added stuff to try something new. The original recipe called for kosher salt, just a touch, unsalted butter and white sugar. I used fleur de sel, French butter and turbinado sugar, along with some vanilla.

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The holidays are over, and Food Photo 101 is starting up again. First thing up… Results from the Holiday Contest!!!

I hope everyone had a great holiday and that you’re looking forward to a great 2008.As mentioned previously (FP101 Holiday Contest Prize Announcement and Food Photo 101 Holiday Contest and Food Photo 101 Holiday Contest: Finalized Prizes), we have three prizes for the top spots.

A list of all the entrants’ great photos are found at the bottom.

Decision Process

Nika and I reviewed the entries, keeping in mind that the contest was about the first four lessons, not just the best photo. And we appreciate everyone that entered… Thank you all! For those that did enter, you’ll receive some ‘critique’ on your entries privately. We wanted to have everyone win, so it was a tough decision.

Everyone did a great job.

The Winning Entries

We awarded an honorable mention to YVONNE829 for the following photo:

Third Place

SummerTX submitted a delicious image of white chocolate raspberry cake. This image has got some great geometrics, neat stylistic details, and definitely delicious subject matter.  I personally liked the curve of the plate along with the loopy icing for the spiral energy.

Second Place

Little-Rattle submitted this interesting image of a panettone pudding. We felt it did a good job of using different geometric shapes to guide the eye in a spiral into a central focus.

First Place

Nika adds, “Tommy Williams submitted this delicious and dynamic image full of spirals, enticing lighting, delicious subject matter and serendipity (was taken on-location in a restaurant).” The paper’s curves really add to this photo, I think.

We think that these and the others submitted were all fantastic.

We will be running at least one more contest in the near future so if you didnt get a chance to submit your image this time around, make sure to do so next time!

Class Resources

• My’s Food Photo 101 page
• Nika’s Food Photo 101 page
• Food Photo 101 Class Forum
• Food Photo 101 Glossary
• Food Photo 101 Flickr Group
• Food Photo 101 Newsletters

To register for the newsletter that reviews each week’s topic, fill out the contact form at the bottom of this post (or on the Food Photo 101 page) and type “Food Photo 101” in the subject field.

I’m like just about anyone else… Grey winter days make me crave comfort foods. Yesterday could have been colder (I think it hit well over 60 for the day), but it was drizzly and grey all day long, so it seems like a comfort food would fit just right for the day.

January in Ohio can be almost depressing. I almost wish we got the snow they get in the Cleveland area; having just grey, miserable days can really get to a person. Comfort foods are a great way to fight that grey-day-feeling, though. I think comfort foods lift our spirits on their own, bringing back memories of our moms taking care of us on those days when we have to stay inside, or reminding us of the smell of Grandma’s kitchen when she was making our favorite dinner.

One of those comfort foods for me is post roast. Reading the title of this entry was a pretty good give-away, huh? Being who I am, though, I have to try to change it up just a bit from what I’d consider ordinary.
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There’s a great grocery in Hamiton, Ohio, called Jungle Jim’s. The place is several acres under roof, with huge selections of wine, beer, cheeses, meats, seafood and all kinds of ethnic foods (arranged by region/country). My wife and I stopped by over last weekend, and they had a special on some wild caught sockeye salmon that I couldn’t pass up, along with a cart full of English beer and hard cider. You’ve got to love a grocery that has a sign outside saying, “Foodies Welcome”!

My wife and I don’t really celebrate New Year’s Eve. It’s not that we’re old and boring (I am, she’s not); it’s just that it’s never been a big deal to either of us. But we don’t have to go to work the next day, so I usually try to make something good.

Sometimes I feel like I’m something of a rut with salmon, but my wife requested that I cedar plank this, so I did. It’s easy to do and tastes really fantastic! I use the simplest of recipes for this; I’m a believer in using good ingredients that don’t need to be covered up with spices and sauces all the time (though now and then is good). For good salmon, all I use for seasoning is grey salt, black pepper and brown sugar. That’s it.

So here is the list of ingredients:

• 1 salmon fillet
• 1 1/2 teaspoons grey salt (this is along the lines of Fleur de Sel)
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• enough brown sugar to liberally cover the filet (maybe 1 cup)

Two hours before cooking, I put a cedar plank in water to soak. An XL kitty litter box (unused, please!) works great for this. I lay the salmon out to let it get to room temp, about a half hour before putting it on the grill. I don’t season until just before I put it on though.

I also get a chimney of coals going, so they’re good and hot when it’s time to grill. This also simplifies the fire in that there’s no need to worry about making a 3 zone fire; the cedar plank makes all the heat indirect. When the coals are ready, I put them in something of a rectangular shape, right below where I’ll put the cedar plank.

About 5 minutes before I put the salmon on, I spray the smooth side of the cedar plank with veggie oil spray and put the plank on the grate of the grill, about 6″ directly above the fire. It’s ready once the cedar wood starts smoking.

Once I see the smoke coming out of the grill, I put the salmon fillet right on the plank, doing my best to not let it hang over the plank. The lid comes down, and all there is to do is wait.

I don’t really time this too much, but I usually start looking at the fish after about 15 minutes. Depending on how hot the fire is burning and hot thick the fillet is, this is about the earliest the fish will be ready. This time, it took just under 20 minutes.

The brown sugar melts all over the fish, and the plank, and into the fire… which is ok. It forms a bit of a crust on top of the fish, adding some sweetness, but not as much as you’d think. I’ve had non-fish-eater friends decide salmon was good stuff after having this.

A trick I’ve finally taught myself is to have an already-charred plank from before that’s clean and dry. When the fish was done, I transferred it to this plank and served it. If you try to serve on a smoking plank, you’re going to empty the dining room! Only do this if you’re outside and won’t catch anything on fire!

The presentation ends up really nice, and the fish is well worth the effort. As with many things, the quality of the fish really makes a difference. The idea is not to overseason or overcook the fish; medium rare is great for this. If you can’t get wild caught or Scottish salmon, using spices more like dill or tarragon may be a better way to go. But this is so good, it’s worth a splurge when/if you can find good wild caught salmon. The planking also works for other fish, pork chops and chicken, and scallops are really great this way.

By not having to watch over the food too much, this also makes a great winter grilling exercise.

First of all, Happy New Year! I’ve been a bit preoccupied, but I’m finally posting again. My preoccupation has been Bucky McKatt (registered name is Congocoon Where Are My Buccaneers)

This is another in my ‘best ever’ line. My wife makes really good oatmeal cookies, but these are my favorite. That’s partly due to history, probably. I remember helping my mom make these when I was a kid. Keep in mind, when I say ‘best ever’, ‘best’ is subjective, and it mean the best ever whatever-it-is to me only. Your opinion may differ, and I’m okay with you being wrong (that’s a joke, people).

My Great Aunt Irva (pronounced Irvy) gave this recipe to my mom. Mom thinks the recipe may be over 100 years old, and may be from her grandmother. Aunt Irva was 99 when she passed away, so it’s not hard to imagine the recipe is that old or older. This is one of those oatmeal cookie recipes that uses powdered sugar and a glass to flatten the cookies before baking… When I was a kid, I got to help with that part.

When I eat one of these cookies, it makes me think of being a kid, no responsibilities, things were simple. These are just what God meant oatmeal cookies to be!

This is the unadulterated version; adding some butterscotch and chocolate chips is good, too. I’m not a fan of anyone trying to sneak raisins in my food, so I don’t opt for them, but if you like raisins, they can be added, too, or even some pecans or walnuts. But, just as with chocolate chip cookies being just chocolate chip cookies, there’s something pure about the base version that’s hard to beat.
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