Dragging your shutter

Over the Holidays (which are still happening) I photographed a 50th wedding anniversary, and while I really like to do live events like that, there is inevitably some down time. During that down time where there are no pictures to take (I've photographed everyone in the room, the food, the decorations, even the building) my brain starts to think of different things I can do with my camera. This night I was thinking of Picasso's light paintings. So looking around I saw several Christmas trees that were just sitting there with tons of Christmas lights on them and I thought, What the heck. So I set my exposure to 5 seconds, focused, and then moved my camera in fluid motions, thus creating light paths from the Christmas lights. Here is the result.

Frozen Macro Landscape Photography

Yep you read right. FROZEN. This took a few days of prep work to get everything set, plus a quick run to the grocery store to get some dry ice. First I had to get a bowl (I know real scientific) and fill it with some sand so that my "Trees" would stand up while they froze. I "planted" the trees and then filled the rest of the bowl with water and set it in the freezer to, well freeze. After it had solidified a little bit I went back with a spray bottle and misted more water on the trees and on top of the already frozen water to create some texture.

After that I used some dry ice to create the blowing snow effect. I think it turned out pretty good, and it feels good to get back to doing more macro landscapes. I usually have to block out a whole night to do these things, but this one didn't take me too long, probably because I have done them so much before I've got it down to a science on how to set it up and get the desired experience.

I ran out of dry ice for this last one, but I still think it works. especially the piling up of the snow in the bottom right corner.

Food Photography

This last week I had a great opportunity to work with Leslie Smith at Carmela's Cottage (carmelascottage.net) and Simply Sweet by Leslie (SimplysweetbyLeslie.com) to photograph some of their delicious cupcakes. Food photography is a lot different than Portraiture, number one because the subject doesn't talk back to you. There are lots of tips and tricks that you can try to make the food look appetizing. One that I learned about recently was to use WD40 to make the food look shiny (I haven't tried it yet, maybe I'll give it a go on a non-client project first just to make sure that it works). Other things are using wax to make a bottle look icy and cold, using a food stylist, etc. I was lucky to have the entire staff of Carmela's Cottage helping me with the food styling. Let me tell you, these girls could make ANYTHING look appetizing. Everything was absolutely amazing and well taken care of. I brought a few tools with me, like tweezers and picks (which came in handy more than I thought they would) but it was great having these experienced Pastry Chefs there to help make their food look AMAZING! So here are a few of the cupcakes and other treats that we photographed.

www.SimplysweetbyLeslie.com
www.carmelascottage.net

I think this one is Rocky Road

I can't remember but I think this one is Hazelnut, but don't quote me on it.

Coconut with an Almond? I think they called it an Almond Joy!

Yes that is Bacon on top. It's a Belgium Waffle Cupcake with Maple Syrup!

Quick shot of my set-up in Carmela's Cottage.