Some of you might wonder what’s the deal with me shooting food now. To cut the long story short, when the landscape and sky are rather dull, and quite frankly, they were pretty much all time this year, it’s great to have something to shoot in or around the house. While spring flowers like tulips and ranunculus have there fixed position in my yearly things to do in spring list, it’s always nice to venture out into a new field of photography. May it be the challenge of some sort, with its own limitations and a way to broaden one’s horizon or simply the fact to learn a new technique for a certain style of shooting which you can adapt to other fields of photography.

Fennel Orange Salad with cucumber, red onion and pear.

For me, it was kind of both. While cooking is nothing new to me, cooking for photos certainly is. I am not a professional food stylist my any means nor do I spill a gallon of motor oil over the salad to make it look, well, tasty. It’s rather the fact how you put the food on the plate. When cooking for friends, I take great care about how the food looks on the table. While you might think that is nothing different for photos, you err. Making food look good on the plate alone is one thing, making it look good in the photos you take is a different kettle of fish.

Beef, lettuce hearts, ripe mango, red onion rings, Parmesan cheese and mango garlic mayo between sesame and black cumin seed bun.

I am sure some professional food stylists and photographers will laugh at my approach but what do I care? Being a landscape photographer at heart, I tried to bring the basic principles of composition onto the plate, all spiced up by some high key treatment. These concepts, of course, are leading lines, some kind of foreground element that pulls the viewer into the scene and the rule of thirds. You can find these concepts perfectly illustrated and adapted to landscape photography in the article “Understanding Composition” at the Aperture Academy website which I highly recommend.

That being said, I hope you feel somewhat satiated and remember to try something new and challenging when the light isn’t just right and if you like, share your experiments here on the blog.

I’ll be back with flowers and waterfall pictures next week. Please excuse me while I plan my 3 month US trip this summer. California watch out! LOL

David

P.S. I also played around with the new possibilities of CSS3 and jQuery to add to my website later. Head over to the new and improved contact form and let me know what you think. It features my take at the iPhone unlock slider, which ironically doesn’t work on the iPhone itself yet but I am working on it.

Speaking of a successful easter egg hunt, here’s my free egg for you. Download the wallpaper below by clicking on it and saving it to your hard drive. To use the image as a wallpaper, just right-click it after it loaded, select “make desktop background” (or something like that) from the drop down menu and you’re good to go.

“Pastel Beauties”

Happy Easter!

Sincerely,
Bunny

For years I believed to live in a snow-safe area but since the dry and cold air masses from Russia stopped colliding with the wet ones moving in from the UK, we seem to have a hard time around Christmas each year, snow-wise speaking. We had a good cover already, something to build up on, but right in the middle of Christmas Eve the thermometer revealed 41F/5C which is a major disappointment.

Anyhow, after the break, I’ll be back to Dresden to shoot the city with Mr. Blue Hour himself, Mr. David Bank, flying straight in from London. Really looking forward to that and I am in high hopes the weather will cooperate.

I’ll leave you with an old favorite of mine. A square crop from one of the majestic winter sunsets I have witnessed. Standing atop the highest mountain in the region let’s you reflect on the past but also makes you look forward to the great things to conquer in the days, weeks and months to come, so now I said it, I am looking forward to 2010 but I will cover my excitement with the New Year’s post.

Until then, happy shooting! Never stop exploring!

David

Earlier this year I came across a lovely surprise. I was contacted by the well-known architectural painter Salvatore Ventura of the company Ziti (zee’-tee) Cards which is providing tasteful cards for companies and individuals seeking for the lasting impression and one of my shots of the winter 2008/09 was selected by Salvatore to make it into the holiday card stock display for the season of 09/10. Yay! I am extremely happy to announce that you can get the card NOW. I feel honored to be right in a row with Ivan Makarov and Kevin McNeal whose work has always been a huge inspiration.

To view the card in all her glory and to get more information on how to order, please follow the link by clicking on the picture below.

Here is the original shot which needed a little rework to meet the highest standards for print and the ultimate winter experience:

Until the next time, happy shooting!

David

So, yesterday, I was out for some portraits for the about site. I ended up at a spot called Hirtstein with weird hexagonal basaltic rock formations which made the whole picture-taking quite interesting to say the least. Composing, setting self-timer, running to the planned spot without falling and hitting your head open at one of the sharp rocks and then standing there without moving for several seconds … all of these actions can be quite difficult at their own but doing them in this rather complex sequence, it proofed to be extra hard. I am happy with the outcome though and till I find myself surrounded by beautiful carved snow drifts I will leave it at that.

Until then.

David

welcome to my blog and website. I try to keep this short and sweet. At all times! Duh. Who knows me very well, is probably laughing his or her ass off but anyway, this is where I will post some background information about journeys, places, photos and also announce future trips, workshops (if anyone is interested) and so on. The place where I rant and rave and the place where I might put one or the other Photoshop tip and processing technique up.

That was pretty much the start-up.

See ya soon fellow light catchers!