The Angry Gard’ner

March themes

The themes for March are up. Along with the new rules.

A-Freaking-Mazing

Charles Leung on vimeo.com posted this amazing video from an observatory in Hawaii. I am in awe of the night scenes.

The White Mountain from charles on Vimeo.

Cherry Chicken

This was REALLY good. No I mean REALLY REALLY good.

1 Whole chicken cut into pieces
Breading:
1 cup flour
1 1/2 tbls salt
1 tbls ground black pepper
1 tbls papkria
2 tps garlic powder
2 tps ground sage

3 Tbls butter
1 medium onion chopped
2 tsp dried thyme
6 cloves of garlic minced
1/2 cup apple-cherry juice
1 tbls red wine vinegar
1/4 cup cream
8 oz grated Mozzarella cheese

Place the flour and other breading ingredients in a plastic bag and mix. Put chicken in and shake to coat well. Heat 12 inch skillet over med-high add butter. Once butter stops foaming shake excess flour off chicken pieces and add to pan cook 5 minutes per side or until browned. Remove chicken and add onions and garlic cook until soft. Add juice, thyme, and vinegar and return chicken to pan. Cover and simmer one hour. At the end of the hour remove chicken and add cream Heat until sauce thickens enough that it will coat the back of a spoon.

Cook a wide pasta (we did fresh made fettuccine), drain to a platter add mozzarella cheese, pour sauce over top and put the chicken on.

Challenge Rules

The theme for this week and the rules for the next challenge are posted at photos.angrygardner.com good luck and have fun.

Challenges

I am ready to start another couple of challenges. That’s right I said a couple.
The first is a 365 challenge that I started last week. In this challenge I will make a photo every day for a year. I might not post them every day, but I will try. There is a link to the right of this post that links to 365.angrygardner.com Please let me know what you think about it.
The second is the Angry Gardner’s photo challenge part 2. The rules will change a little, and I think that we are going to have a couple of additional people this time around. The new rules and themes will be up shortly, and the challenge with start March 1st.

You Should've Been Sick

You know who you are.

Saturday was the photowalkingutah.com studio lighting event, well more like extravaganza. I’d like to say I was in control and knew exactly what I was doing. Unfortunately, I have to say that I was fairly clueless and completely terrified. The first station was the lensbaby my hands were shaking so bad that @nicolesy had to help me change my lens out. It got a little easier, but it was still scary to try to tell models what to do. Here are the best from the 70 shots I took. BTW yes there was a trampoline.

One Thing's For Sure

@nicoleys I ain’t
One of the local photographers that I follow is Nicole Young. She is an amazing talent, and she is very willing to share her knowledge. If you are not blog stalking (link) her you are making a critical mistake. Lately, she has been doing food photographs with tips and methods to make better looking food pictures. So here is what I have picked up so far. Remember any problems are the student’s faults not the teacher.

36mm f/8 1/3s
1. Have your camera. This torte was brought into work, and when I saw it I could actually see a picture. Lucky for me it was the day of a Photo Walking Utah (link) event and I had my camera otherwise I would been saying what a nice picture that would have been.
2. WHITE BALANCE. Yeah it’s that important. I have started using my gray card religiously. I take and put my gray card by the item and set my WB to manual based on that. It is easy and the payoff can be huge.
3. Mind the background. Once again it was at work so the background was really cluttered. I used a suit coat on a hanger for the backdrop.
4. Depth of field. This is one place I was unhappy with the results. I would have liked to have the entire piece in focus.
5. Lighting. This also feels a little harsh to me, but once again they don’t really light my office area for great pictures. Generally, lighting should be off set slightly from what you are photographing. Not front on or directly overhead.
6. Details/Styling. Since this was a work treat I didn’t think I would be heaped with praise if started messing with their food, but I did turn it so that the best side was facing the camera (they didn’t even wait for me it was half gone by the time I got there). I was even able to remove a crack in the crust with Photo-shop (one of my BIG weaknesses).
7. Context. This is completely lacking in this picture. A fork/plate/big glass of Mountain Dew almost anything to add a little interest.

Anyways I have room to improve, but there are things that I really love, the color, about this picture. I hope you do as well.

Socialphob

Living life as a social “outcast” is tough. I know many of you find it hard to believe that I struggle around people. Just think back to some of your VERY first impressions of me and you should realize how easily I say just the “right” thing at just the right time. I am in constant fear of meeting new people and pissing them off for no reason other than I am who I am.

That being said I really must think that photography is important. Because of it, I leave my comfort zone I talk with people I normally never would; not because I’m a snob, but because I’m a coward.

So every month I put on my brave face and head out to hang with some amazingly talented and generous photographers. I spend the time desperately trying to pick up one pointer or trick that helps my shooting. Okay I make it sound like something horrible, but really it is something I look forward to every time. I feel the same angst over church, family reunions, meeting Christy’s friends, really going anywhere that I can’t hide somehow. BTW hiding can be done many different ways behind a computer screen, in a dark room, if it is done right even in the middle of a kitchen

Sorry I went off on a tangent there. This post was really about just how great a group of people the folks at photo walking Utah are. Photography is a challenging art and there are many trolls out there that are willing to tell you how bad you are, not at this group. If you ever have the chance to come to one of the meet ups COME! It is so worth it. Take the time to meet one person, learn one thing, and then take the time to do it over and over again. You won’t regret it, I promise.

www.photowalkingutah.com