Day 200 - Macro Week Complete and I'm on Day 200! Yay!

Today was a day of changed plans - thanks to the horrid weather we have been having since late last night.  The forecast called for a bit of early morning snow, so I got all excited and set the alarm for sunrise.  But, the winds started up late last night - howling and gusting at almost 80 kmph!  I barely slept for the storm raging outside and when I woke up to the alarm I only saw sheets of rain and snow being blown around.  I couldn't possibly go out in that.  So, I didn't even do my grocery shopping today, and neither did I go out for an evening photo shoot as I'd planned.

My first lot of shots this morning didn't turn out great at all.  Then as I was baking some muffins this evening, I decided to turn my camera on those.

The pictures were taken under fluorescent lighting, so I did it on CWB.  I shoot mostly in RAW but still like to adjust the WB in-camera because I prefer to spend less time trying to fix that in post.  Although I'm using Lightroom 3 now, and it's a breeze fixing images, I still prefer to fix my WB in-camera.  Of course, there is no great WB fix for fluorescent lighting, but I find the light in the images a lot improved, as opposed to the green cast it always takes on when shooting in this kind of light situation.

And if you're wondering what muffins these are - hold tight, it's a loooong name - Banana-Blueberry-Chocolate Chip-Pecan Muffin.  These are deliciously fluffy and moist!

I've improved the recipe over time, and I'm as much an experimental cook as I am an experimental photographer.  If you want the recipe for the photos, find them below:

90 mm, f/32, 25s, ISO 100, Custom WB, Aperture Priority

90 mm, f/22, 13s, ISO 100, Custom WB, Aperture Priority

Now, if you are hungry from just saying the name, and want the recipe for the muffins, here it is! :o)

Recipe for Banana-Blueberry-Chocolate Chip-Pecan Muffin

• 3 ripe bananas, mashed
• 1 egg, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted and cooled
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• couple of handfuls of chopped nuts ( I use walnuts or pecans, depending on what's available on hand)
• couple of handfuls of fresh or frozen blueberries
• handful of chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 deg F.
2. In a large mixing bowl, mix together the mashed bananas, beaten egg and melted butter.
3. Sift the flour, salt, sugar and baking soda.
4. Stir into the banana mixture until well blended.
5. Stir in nuts, blueberries and chocolate chips.
6. Line a muffin pan with paper cups and spoon in the mixture up to 2/3 full. 
7. Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
8. Remove from the oven and cool on a rack.  
9. Or, if you're like me and can't wait to dig in, drop a blob of butter on top of a warm, freshly baked muffin and enjoy!

Mmmm  mmmmuffins!!  Isn't that delicious!!!  And you will just not go wrong with this recipe ... trust me! 

Day 188 - White (dis)Balance

When I don't get a chance to do photography during the day, I obviously have to think of indoor subjects in artificial light as I'm not in a position to buy a flash right now.  I have come to a decision that I will just continue to use the lamps I have and find suitable subjects to photograph in that - something that's in keeping with the theme of artificial light.

I used a C-PL for these shots as I was getting a lot of reflections from the serving platter.

This evening's other challenge was the WB and despite using a custom WB, I didn't quite get what I was after.   You will notice the difference in the colour cast in each of the images.  I will have to spend some time figuring out what happened.  For now, I didn't change the WB in post as I wanted to keep a record of what went on with it this evening.

Day 70 - Playing with custom white balance and lighting

My subject was a single red gerbera that a pretty little 4 yr old girl gave me.  She always has something to give me when she sees me - whether it's a "Princess" sticker, or a flower, or a paper cutting that she made herself.  Unfortunately, I never have anything on me that befits that little princess and that's worth offering (I usually see her in the elevator when I am either returning home from work or on my way down to the recycling bins)!  One of these days I must go up to her apartment and I better bring her a nice gift.

Anyway, so here are the experiments with the gerbera that I did over a few hours starting in the evening after it was almost completely dark, and continuing the following morning.

For this image I used my TV as the background, with two low-powered lamps placed at least 6 ft away on either side, aperture priority, f/5.6, ISO 100, spot metering, exposure bias of 1/3 stop.

Natural light at ISO 400, manual, f/5.6, 10s, spot metering

Shot with custom WB, aperture priority, ISO 200, exposure bias of 1/3 stop

90 mm macro lens, aperture priority, pattern metering, ISO 800 (flower was kept in low light), f/5.6

Shot with 90 mm macro lens, custom WB, manual, pattern metering, ISO 100 (flower was in bright ambient light), 1/8s, f/10