81. Chocolate - December 28, 2014-January 3, 2015
Paul-
My first aha-moment for 2015: duct tape can only do so much. It won’t do much to hold a rapidly melting Hershey bar. Recruiting my trusty copy stand, I taped a large piece of foam core to it. I placed a small slit in it—just large enough to stick a ruler through at a right angle to the board. At the end of the ruler (about eight inches away from the board) was a small piece of foam core, taped perpendicular to the ruler’s edge and just large enough to—here it comes—duct tape a frozen Hersey Bar to. Enter my wife’s 300-gigawatt linear accelerator hair drier. (“Let me introduce you to my little friend.”) In the past, Byron has used a snoot on his lights to good effect. I used a snoot on the hair drier—trying to direct the heat of the right side of the bar and hoping the frozen left side would hold up under the assault. Freezing the bar was a good move on my part, but when it became a viscous mass, it did so fast. (Physicists call this a “phase change.” I call it a messy meltdown.) This was the only shot out of about 60—and employing two Hershey Bars—that came close to what I was looking for. (It’s hard to beg sagging chocolate to behave.)
Our story so far…
He thought he heard snickers that even the three musketeers would draw swords upon hearing as he listened to his old Almond Brothers Band records. But even his almond joy (which thrilled him to the max) and 100 grand savings wouldn’t assuage his grief as his butterfingers dropped one of the albums which promptly shattered into small mounds of vinyl. What to do? It was after eight and the record store was closed. He’d have to take five and satisfy himself with a chunky, chicken dinner and wait for tomorrow. But, bar none, he’d stop by the Clark Bar that evening to share his sad tale with Freedo, who was a maestro at mixing a galaxy of different drinks. Maybe a marathon of after-dinner munchies would lighten his moody demeanor. He petted “Chomp,” his yorkie, and headed out. He got in his old, faithful Saab (hardly a powerhouse of a car but with plenty of turbo and dynamic handling), feeling nuts for a moment as he gazed up at the milky way. He knew he was acting like a flake, maybe a drifter, certainly a big baby—Ruth, his girlfriend might understand. He was no prince or Mr. Big among men, but she saw excellence in him when they’d walk along 5th avenue or relax at some sublime shore dinner. He had a rocky road ahead of him, but what man’s dream isn’t?
Olympus E-500 with a 35mm, 3.5 lens; ISO 100, 1/13 sec. at f3.5; aperture mode, spot metering, and shot at -1 EV. Chew on that.
My first aha-moment for 2015: duct tape can only do so much. It won’t do much to hold a rapidly melting Hershey bar. Recruiting my trusty copy stand, I taped a large piece of foam core to it. I placed a small slit in it—just large enough to stick a ruler through at a right angle to the board. At the end of the ruler (about eight inches away from the board) was a small piece of foam core, taped perpendicular to the ruler’s edge and just large enough to—here it comes—duct tape a frozen Hersey Bar to. Enter my wife’s 300-gigawatt linear accelerator hair drier. (“Let me introduce you to my little friend.”) In the past, Byron has used a snoot on his lights to good effect. I used a snoot on the hair drier—trying to direct the heat of the right side of the bar and hoping the frozen left side would hold up under the assault. Freezing the bar was a good move on my part, but when it became a viscous mass, it did so fast. (Physicists call this a “phase change.” I call it a messy meltdown.) This was the only shot out of about 60—and employing two Hershey Bars—that came close to what I was looking for. (It’s hard to beg sagging chocolate to behave.)
Our story so far…
He thought he heard snickers that even the three musketeers would draw swords upon hearing as he listened to his old Almond Brothers Band records. But even his almond joy (which thrilled him to the max) and 100 grand savings wouldn’t assuage his grief as his butterfingers dropped one of the albums which promptly shattered into small mounds of vinyl. What to do? It was after eight and the record store was closed. He’d have to take five and satisfy himself with a chunky, chicken dinner and wait for tomorrow. But, bar none, he’d stop by the Clark Bar that evening to share his sad tale with Freedo, who was a maestro at mixing a galaxy of different drinks. Maybe a marathon of after-dinner munchies would lighten his moody demeanor. He petted “Chomp,” his yorkie, and headed out. He got in his old, faithful Saab (hardly a powerhouse of a car but with plenty of turbo and dynamic handling), feeling nuts for a moment as he gazed up at the milky way. He knew he was acting like a flake, maybe a drifter, certainly a big baby—Ruth, his girlfriend might understand. He was no prince or Mr. Big among men, but she saw excellence in him when they’d walk along 5th avenue or relax at some sublime shore dinner. He had a rocky road ahead of him, but what man’s dream isn’t?
Olympus E-500 with a 35mm, 3.5 lens; ISO 100, 1/13 sec. at f3.5; aperture mode, spot metering, and shot at -1 EV. Chew on that.
Jerry,
I tried a few different shots, all kind of blah. At least they tasted good. Then I remembered my wife's Christmas gift to me, an Edvard Munch "The Scream" icecube making mold. So I melted my Hershey Santa Bar ($.50 at Target, a bargain!) in the double boiler and poured it into the mold, and then quickly put it in the freezer. I posed the two best samples (ate the rest) on a sheet of shiny paper from the Ax-Man Surplus, fired up the camera and here's what I got!
Jerry
Nikon D750, 105mm Micro, f22 @ 1/200, iso 200. Lighting was from my Nikon SB700 with ByroSnùte attachment.
I tried a few different shots, all kind of blah. At least they tasted good. Then I remembered my wife's Christmas gift to me, an Edvard Munch "The Scream" icecube making mold. So I melted my Hershey Santa Bar ($.50 at Target, a bargain!) in the double boiler and poured it into the mold, and then quickly put it in the freezer. I posed the two best samples (ate the rest) on a sheet of shiny paper from the Ax-Man Surplus, fired up the camera and here's what I got!
Jerry
Nikon D750, 105mm Micro, f22 @ 1/200, iso 200. Lighting was from my Nikon SB700 with ByroSnùte attachment.
Kevin
This WPOTM took a lot of time and effort. I wanted to combine fruit and chocolate, just like the favorite chocolate candies I enjoy. Ultimately I went the cliche route and photographed chocolate dipped strawberries. Definitely not the best lighting scheme that that I have ever developed, but at least I was able to accomplish the one element I really wanted to get, which was the chocolate dripping off of the last strawberry ready to go on the plate.
Set-up included a sheet of glass supporting the plate with two chairs supporting the glass. Two Nikon flash units, one flash in a gridded softbox to the left of the strawberries (with a tri-grip reflector on the right providing fill), and one flash below the glass below lighting the white seamless background paper.
Nikon D3s, tripod mounted, 24-120mm f/4 lens set to 78mm. 1/250th of a second at f/4. ISO 200. I wish that I had shot at f/8 instead. I wanted the background strawberries out of focus, but they could have been a little less out of focus. I also wish I had gaffer taped off the top half of the softbox, so there was still light on the berries, but less light on the hand of my local hand model. :)
This WPOTM took a lot of time and effort. I wanted to combine fruit and chocolate, just like the favorite chocolate candies I enjoy. Ultimately I went the cliche route and photographed chocolate dipped strawberries. Definitely not the best lighting scheme that that I have ever developed, but at least I was able to accomplish the one element I really wanted to get, which was the chocolate dripping off of the last strawberry ready to go on the plate.
Set-up included a sheet of glass supporting the plate with two chairs supporting the glass. Two Nikon flash units, one flash in a gridded softbox to the left of the strawberries (with a tri-grip reflector on the right providing fill), and one flash below the glass below lighting the white seamless background paper.
Nikon D3s, tripod mounted, 24-120mm f/4 lens set to 78mm. 1/250th of a second at f/4. ISO 200. I wish that I had shot at f/8 instead. I wanted the background strawberries out of focus, but they could have been a little less out of focus. I also wish I had gaffer taped off the top half of the softbox, so there was still light on the berries, but less light on the hand of my local hand model. :)
Byron-
I call this submission "Chocolate as art". I am far more comfortable painting with light but I thought I would give painting with chocolate a whirl (or swirl). I combined 3 different levels of chocolate in this concoction. If you want to get picky I know White Chocolate is not considered Chocolate by the FDA. It comes from the same process as regular chocolate it just isn't recombined with chocolate solids and the label calls it chocolate. That is good enough for me (plus, I wanted a white element in this photo).
After I made the chocolate art in a tray, I placed it on the floor so it could be bathed by the incoming light. I added a strobe off to the side to give the peaks an extra sparkle. The exposure was aperture priority at f8. The strobe was wearing a diffuser and set to -1.What was the shutter speed you might ask? I don't know. I forgot to look. The subject was on the floor, the camera was on a tripod nothing was going to move. As long as the shutter speed was longer than 1/200 sec (so my flash would sync properly) I didn't really care. It was in aperture priority so I let the camera select the speed.
I call this submission "Chocolate as art". I am far more comfortable painting with light but I thought I would give painting with chocolate a whirl (or swirl). I combined 3 different levels of chocolate in this concoction. If you want to get picky I know White Chocolate is not considered Chocolate by the FDA. It comes from the same process as regular chocolate it just isn't recombined with chocolate solids and the label calls it chocolate. That is good enough for me (plus, I wanted a white element in this photo).
After I made the chocolate art in a tray, I placed it on the floor so it could be bathed by the incoming light. I added a strobe off to the side to give the peaks an extra sparkle. The exposure was aperture priority at f8. The strobe was wearing a diffuser and set to -1.What was the shutter speed you might ask? I don't know. I forgot to look. The subject was on the floor, the camera was on a tripod nothing was going to move. As long as the shutter speed was longer than 1/200 sec (so my flash would sync properly) I didn't really care. It was in aperture priority so I let the camera select the speed.
Deron-
What does Chocolate Santa do when Christmas is over? He jumps in his Hot Cocoa Tub and relaxes!
I was going to go to See's Candies and take a picture of the kindly lady behind the counter handing out free samples, but she looked more angry than kindly.
Then I thought I'd "paint" a chocolate Jesus on a bed of melted, then frozen vanilla ice cream, using grains of chocolate cocoa powder (Tibetan Monk Style), but that didn't work out. So, you have what you have. A chocolate Santa with a paper clip stuck in his back to hold him on the rim of the mug... and a dead chocolate Santa beneath the surface!
I used ambient light with just a candle on the right side of the shot. D40 was set to Shutter Priority, but the trick, I figgered out, was to change the ISO to 1,600 or 800 (not sure which this one is). Voila!
What does Chocolate Santa do when Christmas is over? He jumps in his Hot Cocoa Tub and relaxes!
I was going to go to See's Candies and take a picture of the kindly lady behind the counter handing out free samples, but she looked more angry than kindly.
Then I thought I'd "paint" a chocolate Jesus on a bed of melted, then frozen vanilla ice cream, using grains of chocolate cocoa powder (Tibetan Monk Style), but that didn't work out. So, you have what you have. A chocolate Santa with a paper clip stuck in his back to hold him on the rim of the mug... and a dead chocolate Santa beneath the surface!
I used ambient light with just a candle on the right side of the shot. D40 was set to Shutter Priority, but the trick, I figgered out, was to change the ISO to 1,600 or 800 (not sure which this one is). Voila!