Hi all! Thanks for bearing with me while I zipped away on vacation. I had hoped to post a challenge for August, but my Internet connection was unbearably slow. But now I’m back, and getting caught up on my blog reading and I was totally inspired by Matt today for this month’s challenge… Dinner for One. First off, go see his post which is fantastic. His photos are playful and poignant all at the same time. Remarkable and inspiring, as always.

Anyway, since I am now home alone for dinner myself today, I thought, let’s make it a theme. So, let’s see your dinners for one. What do you eat when you are all alone? Do you go simple or do you get fancy? For me, I usually just find myself with an avocado and a spoon, but tonight, I decided to get a little more creative and came up with a little grilled eggplant with a fresh tomato and corn salsa. Yum.

The usual rules and are up on the Flickr group… the things like be constructive, take the photos during the month if possible, 3 photos per person and the last day will be around September 30th give or take a few days.

I know it’s late, but hopefully this months theme will be pretty straightforward for everyone. You all have dirty dishes, right? I know I do, piling up in my sink as I type. In fact, I really should be down there doing them right now… but this is more fun.

So, straight from a suggestion by Melody (Ms_evinrude for you fellow Flickrites) of Small Talk, this month’s theme is all about the aftermath. The dirty (or licked clean?) plates. The chocolate cake batter covered beaters. The wreckage of a feast. Show us how beautiful your mess can be.

The usual rules and are up on the Flickr group… the things like be constructive, take the photos during the month if possible, 3 photos per person and the last day will be around July 31st give or take a few days.

PS: I’m heading out of town for the month of August… anyone want to host next month?

A few weeks ago, I got a lovely piece of mail from a food stylist that I hadn’t known before. Actually, I had known him from his amazingly beautiful stylings in magazines like Sunset among countless others. In fact, you have most likely seen Randy Mon’s work before too without knowing it. Such seems to be the life of food stylists, staying hidden behind the scenes. After my jaw nearly dropped to the floor after seeing even the first shot on his portfolio of the most luscious looking radishes and herbs I’ve ever seen in my life, I quickly popped off a response to him to see if I could coax him to take a few (or more) minutes to share a little about himself with me and you guys. Amazingly, he generously obliged and not only sent me along a fantastic interview with wonderful insights into how he works… but also a lovely handful of photos showing his excellent work.

So, with that, here’s my virtual interview with Randy for you all to enjoy!

L: I love that you describe yourself on your about page as “a weird kid” who sculpted scrambled eggs and made dried fruit portraits. Thank goodness your had a friend who suggested you go into styling! Once you had that idea planted in your head, how did you make it happen, and get your first

Clearly, you guys love to post to the Flickr Group. And I love to see your work! But, I am quite behind given the number of photos posted in the last 2 months and a bit of a freak amount of work in my day job in April.

This month, your challenge is… well, no challenge! For May, it’s a free for all! Post up to 3 photos of food shots you want to show. Anything you want!

However, I’m going to skip commenting this month. If you really want me to comment, please tag the photo “STWFeedbackPlease” and I’ll be sure to take a look and give you some feedback.

I’m also asking for help in future months. If you have an idea for a challenge, shoot me a piece of email and let me hear your suggestions! Or post ideas on the Future Theme Ideas thread. If you think you have time to help give feedback, let me know too. Of course everyone is welcome and encouraged to leave feedback on the photos in the group. The more we all get involved, the better.

Have you ever noticed little bits on your photos? Not the little crumbs from a cookie that help make the photo more real looking. But, little indiscernible dots or smudges or blobs that appear, usually if you are shooting something on a solid white background. That’s dust. And, if you are using a dSLR, you probably have some on your sensor.

Here’s a quick way to tell. Close down your aperture as far as you can… probably somewhere around 22. Then take a properly exposed photo of something white. Any dust that is on your sensor is going to show up, and look something like this:

The first image is at 100%. You can see two little light grey spots within the red highlighted area. The second box (below) is that red box zoomed in even further. If you look closely in the first box, right by the right edge, you’ll see another dust bunny… a little squiggly do like thing. These little specks will appear in the same place on every single photo I take. Now how annoying is that?

The good news is that there are many ways to fix this problem. First off, if there are just one or two spots, the clone brush in Photoshop or the spot healer in Lightroom will make quick work of them. The only time they are really noticeable (if they are small and light

If you’ve ever done any research into food photography and styling, then you know how few and far between the guides are. There are a couple of books that focus on lighting and some of the basics of photography when it comes to food… almost a laughable number given the overall quantities of books on general photography and photography software. For food styling, there has been even less. However, I just received my copy of Food Styling for Photographers by Linda Bellingham and Jean Ann Bybee and I’m thrilled to see this kind of information more readily available to photographers and people considering food styling.

“Food Styling for Photographers: A Guide to Creating Your Own Appetizing Art”
(Linda Bellingham, Jean Ann Bybee)