Food Photo in Natural Light

Practicing food photo, I avoided using flash this time, just utilized available light. It's a cloudy, snowy day, but there's enough light from the reflection of the snow coming through the window.

Prop - raw bokchoy, sushi dish, cutting board, granite tile, Santoku knife, few sage leaves, all sitting on our breakfast table, which is made out of recycled wine barrels.

E500 with kit lens 42mm at f5.6
First attempt - I placed the bokchoy on the granite tile, but way too much reflection, I can't control it too well. That's out.

E500 with kit lens 42mm at f5.6
Bokchoy on the sushi dish, looks better than the granite tile. But this shot's way too boring. Nothing in the background, the table top is out of focus, but its not enough interest.


E500 at 42mm at f5.6

I placed the cutting board behind the main subject, and it doesn't look too bad this way, I may crop out some of the foreground space.

E500 at 42mm at f5.6
Placed the cutting board in front, but the sushi dish is a little obscure, and knife is hidden.

D70 with 35mm at f1.8.
I like this shot a little better, but I don't know if the bokchoy should be in focus or the knife. The sushi dish is easy to see in the background, and well out of focus, just as I like it. Now I am looking at this shot, I wish I had tilt the cutting board a little, so the grain would be more of a diagonal, just to see if there's a difference.

My biggest problem was composition, placement of my props is hardware than I thought. The other issue for me was the details. This time, at least I cleaned up the table surface before I start to shoot, but that's something I typically would overlook. But I should have seen that the dish was hidden from view when I have the cutting board in front. When I was looking through the view finder, I was too busy seeing what's in focus, rather than seeing the whole picture, there was plenty of time, I should've taken my time.


here's the site that inspired me for today's exercise: Mitong. It's in Chinese, but the pictures are really nice.

Duck Perm :)

there are a couple of ducks with this crazy hair-do (feather) around the small lake by our house. I wonder what causes this.

it's 45 degrees, but sunny, which is very different than the Winter season up north.

SF - China Town - Color

Here we have taro root (poi), egg plant (Chinese, Japanese, take your pick), and some type of cabbage.

The Sign on the left says "Natural Color printing/development".

The vertical green sign says something about Ginseng (or man root, due to some roots are shaped like human). It is said to boost energy in a person, I just remember that I took some in tea form when I was young, and it gave me major nose bleed, maybe too much of an energy boost...

Scarf stall.

SF China Town B&W

more shots from my trip to Hayward, CA.

Hopped on the BART, and spent a few hours in San Francisco.

This is a bakery, a line formed for fresh, just out of the oven goodies.

It says: New Hong Kong Restaurant

Can't remember the name of this street, but it was lined with whole sale meat and vegetable markets. This guy was having a lively conversation with a shopper across the street.

Lower Antelope Canyon

Just now find some time to upload additional pictures from the Page visit.

We've been to the Upper Antelope Canyon before, that's the trip where you have to go with a guided tour, and the guide will take you there on a 4x4 across the dry, sandy creek bed to your destination. The visit was an hour, but the main issue was the crowd. This time, we decided to visit the Lower Antelope Canyon. The cost is $26 per person, and if you bring a tripd that is longer than 1.5 feet, you can get a photographer's pass, and you can stay for around 4 hours. If you don't have a tripod, a guide will take you through the canyon, and you can only visit for an hour and then you are out. I don't know why, but the place is not well marked. I sort of remember how to get to it from the Upper Antelope Canyon visit, it was luck that I found the place. I am sure someone in town can give you good direction.

Here's the entrance to the Lower Antelope Canyon. I just had my camera and tripod, no bags or anything, which I am glad I didn't have that on my back. It is fairly narrow, but manageable.

While we were there, there is a group of photographers who signed up for a photo work shop. The instructor came from Sedona area, but I didn't ask for his name. This lady here was shooting a Canon 5D and a big, wide L series lens, various people have fancy gears, expensive carbon tripod, etc. What recession, right? :)

Unlike the Upper Antelope section, there are some fairly narrow spots in this canyon. It wasn't too windy this time, so we were not showered with sand like the last time. I don't think I got any sand/dust on the sensor, but the camera was covered with sand from the first trip.