I was innocently playing Minecraft on the server I usually play on with my friends when I was suddenly kicked off. And for what reason?
None other than treason. :C
Romina's Blog
A place to speak of cheese and things
Food photography
I have always admired food photographers. Food photography is something that I haven’t been able to master. I decided to make a goal sheet of things I would like to accomplish by the end of this year and on that list is to improve my ability to take pictures of food. Lucky for me… my mother has started her catering business (cateringbyeida.com) and because of this I have pretty food to photograph (:
My favorite thing to take pictures of has always been flowers. Anything that involves plants has always been natural for me to photograph. I don’t have to think twice or overanalyze the situation. I think that mainly I feel that they’re so beautiful already that they speak for themselves and all I have to do is take a picture to share it with the world. This is the opposite of how I feel about food photography. I always hesitate and I feel incompetent.
Portable Bruschetta. It’s portable because it’s on a cool-looking wooden spoon, ready for take off.
On Friday, my mother catered for a wrap party and I had the opportunity to take pictures of the food to put on her website. I was very nervous because there were time constraints (people would arrive soon and start consuming), limited lighting available, and there was a lot of food to photograph.
While taking pictures of the food, I was starting to build up anxiety from the stress. Nothing I was shooting came out how I wanted it to. Somehow during that chaos, it clicked in my brain. I don’t know what ‘it’ is, but it happened. I felt like I was taking pictures of flowers instead. I tried imagining that I was in a garden and if these plates of food were actually flowers, how would I photograph them?
I think that what is most important is remembering to give the food personality. Even though it’s an inanimate object (a yummy inanimate object), it deserves attention and should be photographed in that fashion. I’ve found that there is beauty in food and the way it is presented and it is a food photographer’s job to portray that. It’s difficult to make food look delicious through a picture. I hope to work on this over the course of the rest of the year and improve one step at a time.
Overall I am proud of the work that I did. I am going to be posting more pictures of food and the dishes from the wrap party as time progresses. Does anyone have any food photography tips? How do you feel about taking pictures of food?
^_~
I found a really cute kitten
Before getting in the car to go to the grocery store with my mother, I heard the meowing of a distressed kitten from somewhere nearby. I looked under the car to make sure there wasn’t one there before we drove off. There wasn’t a kitten anywhere to be seen.
When we returned quite a bit later the kitten was still going at it. I was a little worried. I know that mothers usually hide their kittens to go about their business, but the kitten had already been there a very long time… wherever “there” was.
After unpacking the groceries I went out with my father to see if we could find her (it was a her). He poked around some hedges and I caught a quick glimpse of her eyes through the darkness. She was in the hedge of our neighbor’s house who has a huge black labrador who loves to bite (second thing to worry about). After a few minutes of poking about the hedge, she came free. She was filthy. Her fur was filled with ants, bugs, twigs, and leaves (and possibly some fleas). I put her in the front porch so she could keep calling out to her mother, but I could still keep an eye on her.
Her mother never came. I started to wonder if her mother ever would. Maybe the kitten had wandered off? Maybe something happened to the mother? I don’t really know much about cats. I tried to give the kitten some milk in case it was hungry. Again, I don’t know anything about taking care of felines so naturally I gave her a bit of the milk I drink. I have read you aren’t supposed to and a friend told me that was the first thing I shouldn’t do, but I came to the decision of either giving it some of my milk or watching it starve before my eyes…
I didn’t give her much milk, but the little I did give her seemed fine. There weren’t any immediate reactions so she must be a strong kitten.
I stayed nearby as the kitten rested on the welcome rug.
We waited for more than an hour. I was hiding inside only checking up on the kitten every few minutes so that if any cats spotted her they wouldn’t be afraid to approach. After waiting said time I realized I couldn’t be here forever… so my father got a cardboard box and we put the kitten in it and placed the box in the backyard. This way the kitten would be protected and if a cat did come by it could just grab her. It is safe to say that in the short time we were together the kitten quickly became comfortable with me… specially my feet!
Here is a video of the kitten trying to climb over me but getting her claws stuck in my jeans!
After another hour of being outside in my backyard I really started to worry. What was I going to do with a cat? I don’t know about any shelters or pounds here… I’d have to look some up. I don’t really know anybody who wants a cat… or who could care for one.
After about four hours of dealing with the kitten I went to go check up on it again. I saw a black cat nearby. It approached the box and looked into it and quickly ran away. Clearly that was not the parent… Then I noticed the silhouette of a second cat sitting on the fence in the far corner of my backyard. I couldn’t see its pattern so I didn’t know if it was related. I came back to my office for a few moments so that the cat wouldn’t see me at the door watching and run off frightened. Then I heard my father call out my name. I came running. My father and I waited in the corner of a kitchen where we could still see the box. There was a cat that looked just like the kitten. It looked into the box and after a few moments, grabbed the kitten’s neck with its mouth and ran off!
I was very happy that the adult cat finally came back and that the kitten was reunited with her mother. It was a happy story! ^_^
Here’s another video of the kitten hanging out so that you can get to know her a little better:
TWiT Live Mac App
My best friend David Cann made a Mac app for TWiT.
As you can see it’s pretty minimalistic. It allows you to watch your favorite TWiT Live programs.
Chat is integrated within the app. You can also pick which streaming you would like to use (HTML5, UStream, etc.).
It’s a great app and is available for free in the Mac app store! Please check it out. ^_^
Taptic Toys presents iPad telepresence robot at WWDC Keynote line
I have this company called Taptic Toys. We make fun things. Here’s a little something we made and took to WWDC to show around.
It’s an iPad telepresence robot using FaceTime. In this video you will be able to see me using the robot to “attend” WWDC.
The robot got to roam around the Keynote line. I waved to many people and many people waved back (although some didn’t…) and I had quite a number of pictures taken of me too. :>
But what they didn’t know… was that I took a picture too!!!!
Here’s some of the press that we have gotten so far:
- TUAW
- MacRumors
- PC World
- 9to5mac
- Fast Company
