Breakfast Time!

I've posted plenty of food shots, which included a variety of lunch and dinner dishes, appetizers, salads, etc... What has been missing is a little bit of breakfast. I've struggled a bit with breakfast shots, for two reasons:

1) I hate eating cold eggs. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I do eat this food after I take some shots of it. So, this makes me rush things a bit to get a few decent pictures and pack up the camera while the egg still has some heat left in it. Not easy.

2) Lighting. During the week, it's still dark outside when I have breakfast, and since I only use available light for these food shots, it's tough to get anything decent until the sun comes up. Turning on the kitchen or dining room lights just ruins everything, and flash doesn't do any good either. I'm not about to take out any lighting gear first thing in the morning.

Anyway, I think I managed to get a few decent pictures. I was debating which one to put up, but then I realized this isn't for some competition where you can only submit one photo. It's just for my blog, where I can post as many of these silly things as I want. So here they are.

Up, up, and away!

I've received a few emails today from one of my clients who is in the aviation industry. It got me thinking about how many websites I've created over the last 4-5 years that are directly related to aviation. At some point, it seemed to have become a niche for me, and I'm not sure how it all happened.

I actually had no interest at all in flying (I'm scared of heights), even after doing a lot of this aviation work. One day though, I had to go for a ride in a little cessna to take aerial shots for one of my clients' websites... Being up there, I fell in love with with the sky and as soon as we landed, I wanted to go back up.

I immediately started thinking of ways I could keep my business going, while training to become a pilot. Hah. I sent Nicole a text that afternoon saying something like "holy crap I was just in a plane". Her response... "holy crap I'm pregnant!". priorities shifted, and I haven't had any interest in going in a plane ever since. Thanks lily, you probably saved my life! Here's a glance at my collection of flight websites;

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Spring Rolls, Version 2.0 - North Bay Food Photography

OK, so maybe we're in need of a little variety. Fresh Spring rolls were on the menu not all that long ago, and here they are again, but that didn't stop me from whipping out the camera and taking a few more shots of the tasty little things. This time, they were accompanied by some mango and black bean salad. I'm sure I'll get tired of food shots soon and move on to something else. Until then, they'll just keep on comin'.

Sloooow Painting - North Bay Illustration

After the last 'speed painting' illustration I posted a few days ago, I figured I'd post another one to show what can be achieved with a little more time and effort. OK, a LOT more time and effort. This piece was intended for use in various promotional materials for a cossack riding and acrobatics show. Sort of a Cirque du Soleil with horses type thing. hah. In the end, there was a change of plans and the show was never launched. So, the illustration was essentially useless at that point, but I'm still happy I got to do it. I don't do nearly enough painting, whether it be digital, or traditional, so this was a nice change.

I'm posting a few of the sketches I came up with in the planning stages, as well as the final piece. There was a lot of detail to this one, which you can't really see because the original image was over 40" high, but you'll still get a better look if you click the image to zoom in. It took about 100 hours to create this thing from beginning to end. Ouch!

Back to the lunchtime routine - North Bay Food Photography

I got home for lunch and Nicole told me to take out my camera, so I knew we were going to be having something good. Today's dish was a soba noodle and veggie stir fry, topped with green onions, sesame seeds, olive oil, and some hot sauce. Tasty! The food picture collection continues to grow.