Corn and Tacos: Playing with my new camera

Depth of field and composition were only things I could dream about with my phone camera. My new Nikon makes it easy. Here are some shots from a dinner in Vegas, on Cinquo de Mayo with the Char-broil group. The tacos were prettier than they tasted, but the corn was as good as it looked.

Cooking and Photography in Vegas!

I blog for Char-broil, in case you didn't see the giant badge to the right. Earlier in the month I had the opportunity to go to Vegas to meet with the other All-Star Bloggers and higher-ups at Char-broil, and to see the new line of grills rolled out at the hardware show.

Sure, we did some work, but we also dined, wined, saw the amazing Cirque du Soliel show, Mystere.

As is traditional at our gatherings, we also  learned. Each year we meet focuses on some part of our development as bloggers, personalities, and cooks. Last year, for instance, the focus was on video, with a training and (gentle) critique session with former anchor Elizabeth ONeil. Her new cookbook, the Slim Down South, is doing very well.

This year we were lucky to have a joint cooking lesson by Chef Ramos at Le Cordon Bleu paired with a food photography lesson by photographer Matt Aremendariz, who wrote Food Photography for Bloggers. Chef Ramos, who I totally wanted to hide in my luggage and take home with me,  took us through two dishes - a seafood boullion - cooked in a really cool origami parchment box - and a skirt steak with thai chili butter, served with and sauteed vegetables and shaped sushi rice.

This is what my two final dishes looked like. As usual, it was challenging to take photos while cooking. I'll be doing a separate post on how to make the origami parchment boxes.

Matt naturally talked about composition and lighting. He gave us great tips for whether we were shooting with a phone camera, or something better. I tend to obsess about lighting and want to work on my composition this year. The new camera has helped my photography tremendously. Check out the dessert!

Then they brought out dessert. Oh yeah. It was gorgeous and just begging to be photographed.

The students took turns telling us about the process. They were nervous, which was sweet, but also reminds me of how so many in the cooking profession don't seek the limelight. They like it back in the kitchen, protected by those swinging stainless steel doors. The Food Network, blogging, and social media have made cooking this very public profession. Hopefully, there will always be a place for the shy wallflowers who quietly do their magic. I'm much more trustful of their talents, far less of those that spout at the top of their lungs.

Our teachers were of the former ilk. Kind, seemingly humble geniuses. Chef Ramos was one of those chefs with this calm humility, while underneath I imagine he was shaking his head, laughing at all of us running around his kitchen, making a mess, missing steps because we were too focused taking pictures (me), or unable to do an entire dish without written instructions.

It was truly a special experience and just one of the reasons I love working with Char-broil. The other reason all the fun I have with my fellow all stars. But what happens in Vegas...well you know.

My New Camera!

Finally. Julie has bought a real camera. It only took five years since her cookbook came out.

I'll stop talking in the 3rd person. I bought a Nikon D5200 and picked up a better lens for food photography. The camera store clerk said I wouldn't be satisfied with the lens that came with the camera. While that may be true soon, he has no idea how low the bar is.

I'm just thrilled with it. Look for me steppin' up my photography game this year! And yeah, I know this shot isn't great, but it shows you the camera, OK?

Day Two at IFBC: Photography with the funny, easy on the eyes, demi-god of oozes, Andrew Scrivani

I've said it before, but when I started the journey of writing my cookbook, it never occurred to me that I'd need to become a photographer. You may notice there isn't a single photograph in She-Smoke, which also happens to be the single greatest critique of the book.

I'm learning that when writing about food on the web, the hook is no longer your opening sentence; it's the opening image. This post has little to do with the peppers you see above, but they are pretty eye candy to draw you in.

My range of emotions toward this need, nay, requirement, for me to produce better photos has been like the five stages of grief. I started out in denial (whatever, I'm a writer), to anger (I bet these food photographers can't cook their way out of a box of mac-n-cheese!), to now one of excitement to learn, to stretch out of my comfort zone, and to go shopping. Yeah, that's right. I'm pretty sure shopping is one of the stages of grief. If it's not it really should be.

I'm not blaming the equipment, I swear, but it's time I had some better tools. Sure, I can cook with crappy knives and pans, and even ingredients, but though I may be able to make a fine Tuesday night dinner with saltine crackers and canned tuna, it's not going to knock your socks off. Give me some fresh Ahi, however, and I might get an Oooh out of you. At least an Aaah.

Still, even with saltines and canned tuna (a.k.a. my Droid phone and point and shoot camera with the battery that pops out), the photo session with NY Times photographer Andrew Scrivani took me to a better place, photographically speaking, in less than two hours.

It's doesn't hurt that he's freakin' adorable. If day one of the International Food Blogger Conference had me wanting to kidnap Dorie Greenspan to bake me cookies, day two had me wishing I could be a fly on an everything bagel in Andrew Scrivani's food photography studio.

Thankfully he showed us a window into that studio so no one need go Kafka with poppy seeds.

By window, I mean no metaphor. He showed us an actual window around which he has built a white box on a table where he shoots most of his food. It's a southern facing window that lets in delicious natural light that makes food drip off the plate and into the photograph. The white box captures that light.

I think this week there will be a slight tick in white paint and plywood sales at Home Depots across the country.

That was my first takeaway from his session. The second was a heading in his presentation called, "Drips, Oozes and Pours." He talked about connecting to people's desire of food. I loved his example of a photo of an ice cream cone. Instead of taking the shot right after it was scooped, his photo was taken after the ice cream started to melt with a drip down one side. As he said, it makes you want to lick that drip, and then another. It brings you into the photograph.

He also noted that people are drawn to smoke and flames. That's good news for those of us in the barbecue and grilling world. We're already there.

Desiring to lick the ice cream cone leads to the third aha moment of his talk. There were lots of other great technical tips, trends, light management details which I will go back to in my notes, but he talked about thinking of every photograph with two frames; the main subject of the shot, the "hero", and the story framed around it. A photo of a grill is framed by the face of a well-known Cajun cook concentrating on the coals, a creme brulee is framed by a hand holding a spoon, and so on.

In other words, stepping back from the food to really plan the composition, the statement, or the art of the shot.

I tend to be too literal with food. I want the photograph to be true to what it tastes like, the ingredients, the cooking method, but that's what goes into the writing. The photograph is something else.

Incidentally, right after his talk I had to run to work and cater a wedding. This time, instead of photographing the pulled pork in a chaffing dish, something I've done dozens of times at events with the same completely underwhelming result, I took a photo of the bread with a cool shadow cast on the table from the pickle bowl. I took it with my phone camera, so it's not professional quality, but it's already an improvement in composition. It's not drippy or oozy, being bread, but a start.

I look forward to bringing you lots of drips, oozes and pours in the future.

Squid Sausage: One of many takeaways from the Char-Broil gathering

You might wonder why there is a bowl of lemons at the start of this post, when I've teased you with squid sausage in the title. The reality is that my photo of the squid sausage wasn't up to par. It's a new par, a far higher bar than my previous one in selecting what photos are worthy of posting. And this bowl of lemons is about the only photo that passes from my two-day Char-broil All-Star gathering in Jacksonville, Florida. Barely.

I do so love lemonade. And while the reality that my photography wasn't cutting it in this image heavy brave new world produced a fair amount of uncomfortable stomach acid, I know that good lemonade is a mixture of acidic lemon and lot's of sugar.

There was plenty of sugar at the Char-broil All-Star gathering this year. We meet with the Char-broil team to learn from each other, discuss the new product line, and to grow as bloggers. The sugar is we do all of the above with lots of amazing food, a good deal of colorful liquids to wash it down, and belly laughs through every meeting. I come away with inspiration and both new items in my toolbox, and sharper tools.

"Sharper" is a key word, because this year's gathering focused primarily on photography and being on camera. We all have different talents - angles from which we come to this place of food blogging. Mine is writing and being in the barbecue food business. Others are amazing photographers who are also talented home cooks, or award-winning barbecue competitors. But let's face it, the web is a noisy place -  a buzzing hive, an ocean of fish - and one of the best ways for a writer to be heard is to wave a big pretty image flag to catch the hive's attention, a visual hook to reel in the fish.

So my first takeaway this year was going to a "Photo 101" class with some of the best photographers in our group. I can't wait to put all that I've learned into some photo practice. Just the simple instruction of lowering my camera from where I was previously holding is huge, but I also got tips on setting up a mini food "studio." Nothing fancy. A few lights with a white board to diffuse reflections when taking night shots. Doh!

What about the squid sausage? We have a little cooking competition each year too. A mini "Chopped" with mystery ingredients and a time limit. This year it was naturally seafood-heavy with squid, shrimp, Grouper, sun dried tomatoes, a blood orange, collard greens and chocolate. Lemon, oil, seasonings and assorted herbs were stocked at all stations. I was lucky to be teamed with Christo of Chez What? He's the only real chef among us and won by a landslide last year.

The squid sausage, 100% Christo, should have won. It was amazing. I intend to recreate it in a blog post. Stuffed with grilled shrimp, shaved chocolate, finely chopped sun dried tomato, thyme and Italian parsley with a white wine and blood orange vinaigrette, we finished it off on the grill (a Tru-Infrared grill, of course). But the competition this year was also weighted with the name of our dish, the final photo, the team name...in other words, all the parts that go into a good blog post. And the victors, who name themselves Diva Q and The Dame, knew how to sell the whole package.

So I leave you with a two photos of the squid sausage. They were taken in almost dark, with a Droid. They are blurry. But you can see the original photo, and how through cropping and post editing, I've at least improved them.