118. Coffee - September 13-19
Jerry-
This is my favorite of the coffee photos I took, a simple paper cup along with a $.99 donut. This was at my cube with lighting from the overhead fluorescents. No muss, no fuss.
D750 with my trusty 24-85mm f2.8-4 zoom set to 85mm. ISO 6400, f8 @ 1/80. I used to photograph weddings with this lens, it focuses really close for ring shots and is fairly sharp. Its about half the size of the 24-70mm f2.8. The rubber zoom ring has gotten loose and stretchy so I used some rubber cement to keep it in place.
This is my favorite of the coffee photos I took, a simple paper cup along with a $.99 donut. This was at my cube with lighting from the overhead fluorescents. No muss, no fuss.
D750 with my trusty 24-85mm f2.8-4 zoom set to 85mm. ISO 6400, f8 @ 1/80. I used to photograph weddings with this lens, it focuses really close for ring shots and is fairly sharp. Its about half the size of the 24-70mm f2.8. The rubber zoom ring has gotten loose and stretchy so I used some rubber cement to keep it in place.
Don-
Death of Sir Bunn Coffee Pot II.
Good old Bunn served well in our kitchen for the past five years. He suffered the failure of his heat sensor causing the flow of electrons the vitals to cease. Despite an amazing effort to save Sir Pot II by yours truly, Pot passed September 16, 2015. Internment will be in the San Juan County Landfill a gravesite service will be provided by Williams Garbage.
Surgical efforts were recorded, f2.8, 1/40th sec, ISO 360 and at 38mm.
As a side note I have been told by Artsy Degreed sellers of photography that my style of photography is "Editorial." I don't know for sure what that means and really do not care, though it does warn me that if I set outside the bounds of what I prefer, the work will likely be screwed up. I am not sure just what that means either.
Death of Sir Bunn Coffee Pot II.
Good old Bunn served well in our kitchen for the past five years. He suffered the failure of his heat sensor causing the flow of electrons the vitals to cease. Despite an amazing effort to save Sir Pot II by yours truly, Pot passed September 16, 2015. Internment will be in the San Juan County Landfill a gravesite service will be provided by Williams Garbage.
Surgical efforts were recorded, f2.8, 1/40th sec, ISO 360 and at 38mm.
As a side note I have been told by Artsy Degreed sellers of photography that my style of photography is "Editorial." I don't know for sure what that means and really do not care, though it does warn me that if I set outside the bounds of what I prefer, the work will likely be screwed up. I am not sure just what that means either.
Byron-
My photo this week takes us back in time. Imagine you are a film maker in 1955. You are sitting up late at night trying to come up with a clever way to get the message across. You are sitting at a desk with the tools of your trade, a camera, roll of Kodachrome, a light meter, note pad and pencil and most importantly a cup of coffee.
Shooting this picture was a relatively mundane desktop setup with one exception. I couldn't get the coffee to steam. I heated it up in the microwave to a point where the handle was so hot it was hard to carry - no steam. I checked online. The way to do it is to bring the coffee to a boil in a pan on the stove. When it reaches a boil, quickly take it off the stove and pour it into the cup and within seconds take the picture. I tried it ... twice. I had to carry the boiling coffee downstairs and pour it in the cup. When it went in the cup there was no steam. When I poured the coffee back in the pan it would steam. I got tired of trying and shot the photo with really hot coffee in the cup but no steam.
My photo this week takes us back in time. Imagine you are a film maker in 1955. You are sitting up late at night trying to come up with a clever way to get the message across. You are sitting at a desk with the tools of your trade, a camera, roll of Kodachrome, a light meter, note pad and pencil and most importantly a cup of coffee.
Shooting this picture was a relatively mundane desktop setup with one exception. I couldn't get the coffee to steam. I heated it up in the microwave to a point where the handle was so hot it was hard to carry - no steam. I checked online. The way to do it is to bring the coffee to a boil in a pan on the stove. When it reaches a boil, quickly take it off the stove and pour it into the cup and within seconds take the picture. I tried it ... twice. I had to carry the boiling coffee downstairs and pour it in the cup. When it went in the cup there was no steam. When I poured the coffee back in the pan it would steam. I got tired of trying and shot the photo with really hot coffee in the cup but no steam.
Deron-
Juan Valdez was born in 1959. Since then he represents more than 500 thousand Colombian coffee growing families. His mission is to communicate to the world, the work and the dedication hidden behind a delicious cup of Colombian coffee. www.juanvaldez.com
During many years, Juan Valdez has been dedicated to the promotion of the Colombian coffee, but in 2002 he affixed his signature in order that around it, the authentic experience of the Colombian premium coffee be created.
My apologies to Juan, and his horse, for using Nescafe` to re-create his likeness in inferior coffee grounds.
Juan Valdez was born in 1959. Since then he represents more than 500 thousand Colombian coffee growing families. His mission is to communicate to the world, the work and the dedication hidden behind a delicious cup of Colombian coffee. www.juanvaldez.com
During many years, Juan Valdez has been dedicated to the promotion of the Colombian coffee, but in 2002 he affixed his signature in order that around it, the authentic experience of the Colombian premium coffee be created.
My apologies to Juan, and his horse, for using Nescafe` to re-create his likeness in inferior coffee grounds.
Kevin-
Like some other WPOTMers I don’t actually drink coffee. It’s not that I don’t love coffee shops. I do! And it’s not like I don’t love the smell of coffee being stored, ground or brewed. Those are wonderful smells! And it not like I don’t appreciate caffeine, which is a terrific, and legal, buzz! But I was never able to develop a taste for the coffee form of the stuff.
So what to do with this weeks them? I started out by visiting a terrific coffee bean merchant called Coffee and Tea, LTD. This is a place you can buy all sorts of fine coffees, including Kopi Luwak (look it up and you’ll read a, well, interesting story). Unfortunately that were completely uninterested in having me come in and take photographs in their establishment, proving I lack Paul Hoffman’s constant persuasive abilities. Pity, as I was intending to get some photojournalist style images of the coffee containers that line the shelves of the store.
So I set about to photograph a nice coffee cup in the studio, with hot steaming coffee filling that cup. Blah! I hate photographing glassware (meaning I’m not good at it), and the more that I attempt it the more I am convinced that every photograph of a glass or a cup that we see is actually a composite of many images, as it’s darn near impossible to light said glass or a cup without causing a disturbing reflections somewhere else. Oh, and when I finally poured in the hot coffee into the cup the heat/steam wasn’t visible at all. Yawn. Caffeine please!
So I went back to the photojournalist style I had originally considered, this time inside of a Caribou Coffee location. I mounted my 14-24mm Nikkor to my D4s and placed the camera on the floor to get a very different perspective of the inside of a coffee shop.
Nikon D4s, 14-24mm f/2.8 Nikkor lens set to 14mm. Remotely triggered by, and viewed on, the iPad sitting in front of me on the table. ISO 100. f/16 for 6 seconds. Are there even any coffee cups visible in this shot? No. But the wonderful smell was there. And I like the look of the lights mounted on the ceiling above as well as the light coming in through the windows of the location, both causing slight amounts of flare.
Like some other WPOTMers I don’t actually drink coffee. It’s not that I don’t love coffee shops. I do! And it’s not like I don’t love the smell of coffee being stored, ground or brewed. Those are wonderful smells! And it not like I don’t appreciate caffeine, which is a terrific, and legal, buzz! But I was never able to develop a taste for the coffee form of the stuff.
So what to do with this weeks them? I started out by visiting a terrific coffee bean merchant called Coffee and Tea, LTD. This is a place you can buy all sorts of fine coffees, including Kopi Luwak (look it up and you’ll read a, well, interesting story). Unfortunately that were completely uninterested in having me come in and take photographs in their establishment, proving I lack Paul Hoffman’s constant persuasive abilities. Pity, as I was intending to get some photojournalist style images of the coffee containers that line the shelves of the store.
So I set about to photograph a nice coffee cup in the studio, with hot steaming coffee filling that cup. Blah! I hate photographing glassware (meaning I’m not good at it), and the more that I attempt it the more I am convinced that every photograph of a glass or a cup that we see is actually a composite of many images, as it’s darn near impossible to light said glass or a cup without causing a disturbing reflections somewhere else. Oh, and when I finally poured in the hot coffee into the cup the heat/steam wasn’t visible at all. Yawn. Caffeine please!
So I went back to the photojournalist style I had originally considered, this time inside of a Caribou Coffee location. I mounted my 14-24mm Nikkor to my D4s and placed the camera on the floor to get a very different perspective of the inside of a coffee shop.
Nikon D4s, 14-24mm f/2.8 Nikkor lens set to 14mm. Remotely triggered by, and viewed on, the iPad sitting in front of me on the table. ISO 100. f/16 for 6 seconds. Are there even any coffee cups visible in this shot? No. But the wonderful smell was there. And I like the look of the lights mounted on the ceiling above as well as the light coming in through the windows of the location, both causing slight amounts of flare.
Paul-
I do not drink coffee, so my knowledge about it (especially in its beverage form) is fairly limited. What I do know is:
1) In the distant past it was just called “coffee.” (Though rumors persist of idiomatic word forms such a “Joe” and “Java.”)
2) It was made by only four companies: Folgers, Maxwell House, Hills Bros., and a still unidentified conglomerate that spawned an unholy beverage beast called “Sanka.”
3) The original Starbucks in Seattle was declared a holy shrine by the Pope John Paul II when one of its founders was officially canonized. (See: St. Caffeine of the Holy Percolation.)
4) “Coffee” now appears as a checkbox on the U.S. Census form under “Religious Affiliation.”
5) The Coffee Trader by David Liss (a pretty good but not great book I read a few years ago) has the word “Coffee” in its title.
There you go. I suppose I could have added that there are more public places that sport rough brick walls and wooden beams in which to consume coffee, than there are public libraries or community gardens (alas). My daughter—who does not drink coffee either, even though she could earn credit hours at her University for doing so—knew of a place no too far away from our house. Seemed like a plan…
The first thing we noticed when we arrived was a man sitting a one of the outdoor tables drinking tea and smoking a cigar. This was a real disconnect for me, but if this ever comes up a WPOTM theme, I’m golden.
Inside, the available light was not optimal (read: dark). I had wanted to take some shots of coffee grinders, jars filled with coffee beans, people writhing on the floor from acute latté -withdraw, etc. Nope, just not an ideal set-up. But all that changed when I saw their expresso machine which sat directly below one of the ceiling lights. I have a love affair (and I do not mean that in a literal sense) with shooting esoteric, organically purposed, or unusually shaped mechanisms. I suppose a large expresso machine counts. (It certainly would if had been pedal-driven. Apparently, this one wasn’t.)
I fiddled with the aperture to get just the right amount of out-of-focus background, and metered/bracketed off different areas of reflective brightness on the machine surface until I captured something I liked. I did not bring a tripod. (Lately, alarmists thinking I’ve just walked into a store some kind of 3D-printed gun start screaming and it just goes rapidly downhill from there.) But fortunately I brought my monopod. I needed it: the specific part of the machine and angle I wanted was well above my towering 5’6” height. I also took several pictures in B&W, but opted not to use them--in part because I have submitted a few B&W images lately.
So, here is the result. Incidentally, my cunning daughter she said she really liked it the picture she saw on the screen, immediately lavishly praised my Daddy’s artistry, and seamlessly segued into asking me to buy her a $3.50 cup of hot chocolate. (The kid's good.)
Our story so far: 1/125 sec.; f/4.5; aperture priority; ISO 2000; metering set center-weighted averaging; 1/3 EV bracketing; 18-55mm lens set at 18mm; white-balanced at automatic to compensate for marginal natural and artificial light in the store. The camera was attached to a monopod and lifted up/angled in the air to get the shot I wanted.
Observation: The young woman behind the counter seemed to be extremely animated in her conversation with me, twitched a lot, and I noticed her pupils where quite dilated. She had also never heard of “Folgers.”
I do not drink coffee, so my knowledge about it (especially in its beverage form) is fairly limited. What I do know is:
1) In the distant past it was just called “coffee.” (Though rumors persist of idiomatic word forms such a “Joe” and “Java.”)
2) It was made by only four companies: Folgers, Maxwell House, Hills Bros., and a still unidentified conglomerate that spawned an unholy beverage beast called “Sanka.”
3) The original Starbucks in Seattle was declared a holy shrine by the Pope John Paul II when one of its founders was officially canonized. (See: St. Caffeine of the Holy Percolation.)
4) “Coffee” now appears as a checkbox on the U.S. Census form under “Religious Affiliation.”
5) The Coffee Trader by David Liss (a pretty good but not great book I read a few years ago) has the word “Coffee” in its title.
There you go. I suppose I could have added that there are more public places that sport rough brick walls and wooden beams in which to consume coffee, than there are public libraries or community gardens (alas). My daughter—who does not drink coffee either, even though she could earn credit hours at her University for doing so—knew of a place no too far away from our house. Seemed like a plan…
The first thing we noticed when we arrived was a man sitting a one of the outdoor tables drinking tea and smoking a cigar. This was a real disconnect for me, but if this ever comes up a WPOTM theme, I’m golden.
Inside, the available light was not optimal (read: dark). I had wanted to take some shots of coffee grinders, jars filled with coffee beans, people writhing on the floor from acute latté -withdraw, etc. Nope, just not an ideal set-up. But all that changed when I saw their expresso machine which sat directly below one of the ceiling lights. I have a love affair (and I do not mean that in a literal sense) with shooting esoteric, organically purposed, or unusually shaped mechanisms. I suppose a large expresso machine counts. (It certainly would if had been pedal-driven. Apparently, this one wasn’t.)
I fiddled with the aperture to get just the right amount of out-of-focus background, and metered/bracketed off different areas of reflective brightness on the machine surface until I captured something I liked. I did not bring a tripod. (Lately, alarmists thinking I’ve just walked into a store some kind of 3D-printed gun start screaming and it just goes rapidly downhill from there.) But fortunately I brought my monopod. I needed it: the specific part of the machine and angle I wanted was well above my towering 5’6” height. I also took several pictures in B&W, but opted not to use them--in part because I have submitted a few B&W images lately.
So, here is the result. Incidentally, my cunning daughter she said she really liked it the picture she saw on the screen, immediately lavishly praised my Daddy’s artistry, and seamlessly segued into asking me to buy her a $3.50 cup of hot chocolate. (The kid's good.)
Our story so far: 1/125 sec.; f/4.5; aperture priority; ISO 2000; metering set center-weighted averaging; 1/3 EV bracketing; 18-55mm lens set at 18mm; white-balanced at automatic to compensate for marginal natural and artificial light in the store. The camera was attached to a monopod and lifted up/angled in the air to get the shot I wanted.
Observation: The young woman behind the counter seemed to be extremely animated in her conversation with me, twitched a lot, and I noticed her pupils where quite dilated. She had also never heard of “Folgers.”