Uploads from ~ Maree ~, tagged vegetable

String of Garlic

nobody@flickr.com (~ Maree ~) — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 10:17:22 -0800

~ Maree ~ posted a photo:

Explored #235

View 52 1/52
No apologies for the honking breath - this stuff tastes as good as it looks. Every clove of this French garlic gives a taste bud ecstacy =)

Leek {Explored}

nobody@flickr.com (~ Maree ~) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 17:13:07 -0800

~ Maree ~ posted a photo:

A year in pictures ~ Week 3 of 52, Seasonal Fruit and Vegetables

Explore #296

In keeping with my aims for the project, I've been trying to force myself out of my usual comfort zone, to explore different lighting and techniques. This week I selected my veg before I knew quite what I was going to do with it, which subtantially increased the challenge. Even though leeks are beautiful in their own way, they don't strike me as being the easiest shape to capture photographically, so I decided to opt for a cross section, with the stem leading away into the soft bokeh behind. I've started to use my notebook properly, and as well as scribbling down ideas for future weeks, I sketched out the image and the setup I would need to capture this week's victim. I found it amazingly rewarding to plan the shoot so carefully in advance, though some of the setup was easier to sketch on paper than achieve in reality!

For those interested, ISO 100, f2.0 @1/40s. I used my wonderful 58mm Helios 44M (the least expensive, but one of the most magical lenses in my arsenal - a heavy, old piece of glass from the former Soviet Union that is mounted with an adapter - well worth looking out for if you don't mind shooting in manual mode - it is renowned for the quality of bokeh that it produces). I slipped a 12mm extension tube in between the lens and the camera body to get nice and close with a full frame image. The leek was suspended with cotton thread, background is a black cloth, drapped with a necklace to create sparkles. Off camera flash aimed at backdrop on high power, flash on 1/32 from front camera right to light leek. Image cross processed following method in Martin Evening's bible on Photoshop CS3.

What can I say about leeks?! I always have at least one in my fridge - an essential ingredient in many soups and casseroles - they are the perfect winter vegetable, in season from September through to the end of March. I love that even when you buy them in a supermarket, they still show signs of the earth from whence they came. Though it's sometimes a chore, peeling back the outer layers of the stem reveals mud and soil that has been pushed deep between the layers as the plants emerged from the soil. There aren't too many vegetables these days that can survive the 'perfection' tests that are imposed by our big retailers while retaining signs of the earthy origins from which the sprung - and I admire leeks for that - a bastion of reality in a sea of gleaming polished fruit and veg.

Beetroot

nobody@flickr.com (~ Maree ~) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 15:45:45 -0800

~ Maree ~ posted a photo:

A year in pictures ~ Week 2 of 52, Seasonal Fruit and Vegetables

After a lot of failed experiments, and a large amount of flaffing about, I stumbled rather by accident on this idea. Taken on my stove hob, lit from above by the hood lights which I thought created an interesting halo effect around the beetroots. I was originally working on an idea that it had been pouring with purple beetroot juice rain, but this is the slightly 'spotty' alternative.

Beetroot seems to divide opinion, some people love it, while others can't be doing with it. I fall firmly in the group that relishes it, though I'm less enthusiastic about it pickled than when it's been freshly cooked, or better still roasted. The young and tender leaves have become popular in recent years as colourful additions to mixed salads, often with some raw beetroot shredded in. Maybe I was destined to love it, I believe that Mum ate rather a lot of it when she was pregnant with me. I also know that I was apparently taken to a doctors at a young age, because my poor parents thought that I might have some gastro-intestinal bleeding. The culprit it turns out was harmless, the strong colours from the beet tend to dye anything they come into contact with ;-)

ISO100, f1.8, 1/20s on tripod. Lights from cooker hood and white balance adjusted. PP adjustments to curves, slight lightening vignette and unsharp mask on the beet portions that are in focus.

Tomato Salad

nobody@flickr.com (~ Maree ~) — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 07:26:54 -0800

~ Maree ~ posted a photo:

View 52 ~ Week 4

Eh - not the most imaginative photo - though maybe my craving for sunshine and summer drove me to an unseasonal salad. Home grown basil from my basilarium (Maree word) and lovely capers sprinkled on top.

This was a follow up to a previous photo of a similar salad, which I rejected on the grounds of the overhwelming blown highlights - so my aim was to eliminate those off the surface of the tomatoes. I bounced light off a sheet of white card above the tomatoes and it seems to have done the trick. Otherwise I don't feel hugely inspired by this shot... it's way too pedestrian - and the very dark background was a poor choice. The salad itself was of course delicious, but it's too cluttered imo as a subject for this photograph. If I did it again I'd choose a more rustic wooden background, or go for a very soft high key approach. So a win on the technical front, but not on the composition.

Parsnip

nobody@flickr.com (~ Maree ~) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 16:01:33 -0800

~ Maree ~ posted a photo:

A year in pictures ~ Week 6 of 52, Seasonal Fruit and Vegetables

aka Panning the Parsnip

Another wonderful seasonal winter vegetable, parsnips abound through the coldest months of the year, and you just know that they're good and fresh because they look and feel great and you can store them for longer than at other times of the year. They speak earthyness to me, and it's not rare to see them in the most amazing convoluted and knobbly shapes. Whether you enjoy them roasted alongside other seasonal veg, or chopped into a warming casserole, they are one root crop that I associate very firmly with the hearty, wholesome fare of the season. Another favourite of mine is to team them with slightly tart cooking apples to make a memorable soup.

Apparently, the parsnip is even more laden with vitamins and minerals than its close relative the carrot - and has particularly high levels of potassium - so I'm guessing that it helps you see in all kinds of places :D

The colour of this vegetable is understated, and I wondered whether it might suit a soft image, with a pastel palette. I've been enjoying my experiments with photos that move away from the heavy dark backgrounds that I'd come to rely on, so I'm keen to keep pushing in that direction. Ever since the DSLR Skills course module on panning techniques, my great friend Sarah and I have often joked about panning various things, so I decided that I'd pay tribute to it by trying to 'pan the parsnip'. I created a background with pastel blue acrylic paints, interspersed with patches of darker blues and russets to pick out the browns in the parsnip, in the hope that as I panned, those colours would streak and soften in a pleasing manner. In the end I rather like the resulting hues, and the softness of the overall image, I can see it working as a printed image in the range, which ultimately is what I'm aiming to achieve.

ISO100 f3.2 @ 1/4s. The lighting for this one is relatively simple, a desk spot lamp lighting the background and parsnip body, an LED torch to highlight the top of subject (when I was setting it up I thought of it as a 'hair light' - I know that sounds crazy for a parsnip, but such is the way my mind works :P).

The Onion Theory

nobody@flickr.com (~ Maree ~) — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 14:09:42 -0700

~ Maree ~ posted a photo:

Blogged at Photolucid

Home Grown Red Bell Peppers

nobody@flickr.com (~ Maree ~) — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 16:13:53 -0800

~ Maree ~ posted a photo:

Now these wouldn't pass the regulations for shape and size to reach the supermarket shelves, but I can't help finding them more beautiful for their irregular shapes, gnarled and twisted. If my hunch proves right they'll taste a lot better too.

Home Produce

nobody@flickr.com (~ Maree ~) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:05:49 -0800

~ Maree ~ posted a photo:

Thank you to my clever Aubergine plant for making this out of a tiny seed, sunlight, water and some caring :D

Small Intestine

nobody@flickr.com (~ Maree ~) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 03:15:47 -0700

~ Maree ~ posted a photo:

Act 1
Scene 1: A Large Globule
Scene 2: Bile
Scene 3: Emulsification

Credits:
Small Intestine: White Bowl
Peristalsis: Sundae Spoon
Large Globules of Fat: Vegetable Oil
Bile: Fairy Liquid