Orange Rum Cake

baked by Sally Pederson

Orange rum cake sprinkled with sliced almonds

This set was so much fun to photograph.  By then the rest of the girls were really getting into plating.  Scarlett helped spear some orange curls and I liked how the shape complimented the slices of orange rum cake. The cake by the way was so flavorful and moist.  I feel truly blessed to be surrounded by such talented bakers!

Pumpkin Cinnamon Muffins

These muffins were so delicious. 

Moist and chewy, sprinkled with cinnamon on top.

I recently joined a Cooking/Baking/Libation Club.  We have yet chosen a name for the get together but we plan on making it a monthly rendezvous.  It would be such a shame to let such talent go unphotographed so I will be documenting our meetings.  More photos to come!

Where Do Unsold Products Go?

It is busy season right now for the Retail sector.  Day after day tons of products pile in. 


The racks are full and brimming to the edge. Boxes of accessories, spilling over the laydown tables.  I don't mind though, I prefer to be busy over being bored. However I am amazed with the amount of product we push through. 


Do people really need that much?  What happens to the products that don't sell through? Where do the lost and forgotten go?  I know this much - after it goes on clearance, then it goes to sample sale. After that...then what?

Sky Blue

this photo taken with my Droid camera phone

I am quite pleased with the resolution. Though there were a bit of weird color pixels speckled in the robin blue sky, overall the results were impressive.   I've been taking photos with my camera phone here and there and daytime photos obviously are much smoother in color than night time photos. 

In fact, forget dimly litted situations - the digital noise is just terrible. Even with the blue cast of the LED light (which btw you can't even control the output) I generally dislike the photographs it produces.  

The camera phone is limited. Though it does now offer a macro and infinity mode ever since it's froyo update. I won't bore you with the details but it's pretty nifty that I can take up close shots of random objects now with my camera phone. wheeee~

Barney The Tapeworm Sneak Peeks

People somehow can't understand how a good friend of mine can pack away so much food and constantly be eating. As a joke she told inquirers that she has an imaginary tapeworm whom she named Barney. 

She created quite the personality with it and even a Facebook profile.  I found it to be utterly amusing so when she asked me to create an avatar for Barney I was pleased to embody Barney into a visual representation of her imaginary tapeworm.

Barney is a quite the simple creature.  Always hungry, constantly awaiting his next meal. He's extremely ecstatic about food and when finally fed his status updates are filled with glee. 

This is Barney with a bowtie (the one used currently as his avatar) and the owner (my friend) put this as the caption:

"This is me when I'm getting ready to go out someplace fancy for dinner! 

Gotta look fly for the laaaydeeees, you know? How YOU doin'?"

Now I realized that Barney can't just have one outfit.  There are many holidays he will be celebrating so as a special sneak peek I'll let you see his winter outfit.  This is good for the cold nippy nights especially when it gets closer to Christmas.

To the right is Barney's Valentine's avatar.  Although it's a couple months in advance you can never get too ahead when it comes to fashion.  I wanted to put a heart tattoo on Barney with the word "Food" in the middle but I realize that Barney might have a change of heart and put a different name in the middle. When it comes closer to time I'll ask him if he's sure about the tattoo.

As you can see I'm having way too much fun with this :)  Drop a line in the comment box if you have any great ideas for Barney the Tapeworm outfits.  I plan on doing a Halloween, New Years, St Patrick's, Easter, pretty much all the major holidays throughout the year.  If you find this whole Barney the Tapeworm persona just as amusing then add him on Facebook!  While you're at it, add me too!

Camera Phone Photography

I have decided to give camera phone photography a try. 

I only used the camera on my Droid here and there for documentation purposes but never really considered using it for artistic means.  A good friend of mine, Clara takes eye catching photos with her iPhone (mostly food) which she uploads on a daily basis via her Facebook gallery. I was once again reminded how cool iPhone cameras images can come out to be when I stumbled upon H3NR7's blog (beautiful photos right?) and was further convinced when I saw that Chase Jarvis took astounding photos with his iPhone. Who would have thought a camera phone can capture that?  The app they both used (Clara and H3NR7 - not sure if Jarvis uses it) is called Hipstamatic but unfortunately it is not available for the Android market.

I did a bit of research and decided to give these following apps a try: 

FxCamera
Camera Illusion
Photo Illusion
PicSay
Vignette

This will be an interesting project.

Twilight

Silhouetted palm trees stretching in the Socal twilight. Mid-City, LA.
 

I leaned against his living room window and stared out into the evening.  Yet another beautiful summer sunset...I must capture it before the seasons change.

Bow Wow

I am constantly amazed by how well behaved Mojo is.  He was giving Mojo a haircut and once again Mojo just sat there staring off into doggy outer space.  Snip snip snip as  I stared at Mojo and he just stared back with his big shiny eyes.  So entrancing those big shiny bulbous eyeballs. Sometimes I wonder what that silly dog ponders.

Reasons Why I Am A Lucky Woman

So talented he is.

 marinating the chops

pan fried pork chops with cream of mushroom broccoli and zucchini

Companion

cute mylar balloon

Usually the morning commutes are lonely but today I had a companion. 

My car window was a slight crack open, just enough air to get the morning whiff of air and as I was coming up to a stop light, out of the corner of my eye I saw something small swoop in. It freaked me out because I assumed it was a bee but when I looked up it was a ladybug. It was chilling on the upper corner of my ceiling crawling around in circles before it found a nice spot to nestle down.  I studied its' spots.  Peered at its' shiny shell. Wondering how the heck it managed to swoop in on the tiny crack of opening I barely left open. (yes all this while driving, can we say Asian woman driver?)

We rode in silence for a couple more miles before I asked if it was having a nice day and if it was there to bring me luck.  Though it didn't answer I knew the answer was "yes".  It will be a great weekend folks!

Happy Friday!

Reasons Why I Love The Orange County Fair

Non-Chorizo Potato and Egg Dish

My roommate decided to slice up some potatoes and bake them for breakfast.  She fried up some eggs, plated the food, sprinkled some paprika and I took out my 40D and snapped a couple shots. With the help of some white boards and the morning sunlight softly pouring into the living room the photos came out pretty well.  Looks delicious doesn't it?  

 

I like the way the paprika looked sprinkled atop the toasty potatoes and freshly scrambled eggs.

Note to self: Start collecting colorful napkins, spiffy looking utensils, and other props to help enhance these pictures.  Practice makes perfect.

What Does Ben Have To Say About This Economy?

The Magic Of Threes

 San Diego, California.  

It was another warm afternoon and we were sitting in the shade. When I looked up I saw these tall thin palm trees swaying in threes.   The sun sparkled in between the fronds and I thought to myself, "There is something magical about these three." Which got me thinking about the magic number three.

If Dating Sites Used Avatars

Which one of these hotties would you choose?  

I was challenged with the task of creating avatars for 12 different people for a t-shirt.  In the beginning they had wanted me to trace photographs of all 12 different people and the first thought in my head was, "Are you crazy!?" Then the second thought was that it would not translate well on a t-shirt. 

After some contemplation I suggested that they create their own Mii avatars and I would take some artistic liberties in converting them to a graphic representations.  For the ones that didn't submit a profile in time of the deadline, some extreme artistic liberties were employed.  I'll let you guess which ones they were :) lol.

Like You Really Need Another Reminder of How Awesome Photoshop Is

Once upon a time the lovely Miss Suzette posed for me as I did some test shots in the photo studio. I liked the way the spotlight graced her cheeks and brought out the ringlets in her hair. This is the final retouched image I like.  

Smoothed out her skin, lighten some shadows, added some sparkle to her eyes, softened her eyebrows and lashes a bit and even added a bit of a summer tan. 

Here is the original.

Images were used with her permission.

Makeup done by Miss Suzette herself.

Photographed by me.

Family Portraits

are awkward, no matter the species.

This was the mood board I created for a look I wanted to go for when B and I decide to do the photo shoot. She has very fair skin and straight straight dark hair. With my photoshop skills and her beautiful features I am confident that we will make beautiful babies *ahem* pictures.

What I Do At Work When Not Behind The Camera

Pretty self explanatory. Photo retouching is about paying attention to the small details even if there is a bigger picture.

WAK KA

wakka wakka wakka.

Jumping Ship

Oh snap! I forgotten that I had a blogger account. I opened one to stalk BonBon but I have been following through by other means. With the advent of social media it is difficult to commit to one type. Choices can promote the evolution of improvements but apparently it has done the opposite for LJ. I noticed LJ has this crap called "pop up advertisements" now. Not cool. I'm switching over I suppose. It will be a hard habit to break, I've been using LJ since I was 21. As commitment phobic I may be with my means of blogging, it doesn't mean that I can easily let go of the old.

Been doing this shiet since legal drinking age. Holy mother effing shishkabob.