Findings in Food.

I am finding that I truly enjoy photographing food. This may be a correlation with the fact that I truly enjoy eating said food. Hmm.

Below are some awesome vegan yum-yums that my wife prepared recently.

I am not sure if there is money to be made from photographing food, per se, but there is definitely something to be said about it. It isn't exactly the easiest of subjects, especially since it usually requires precise manipulation (such as the forking in the first image) which usually cannot be undone.

You can find the find recipes for these and many more goodies over at the MaeLiveFree Blog.

Bruised & Battered.

Seattle & I-5 from the Dr. Rizal Bridge

I finally made my way out to the Dr. Rizal Bridge in Seattle over last weekend. I snapped quite a few photos, and spent the rest of the week editing and nit-picking my way through all of them in order to choose the ones I wanted to put on display. I ended up with five, and I hope that you all enjoy them as much as I do.

You can see the rest of them:
on Google+
on Facebook
on Flickr
on 500px

But in 1962 the needle made its big debut 

And everybody forgot what it outgrew

The photo shown above, to me, shows just what the city of Seattle is. It does not show off the Space Needle, or the Market, or anything real glamourous about the city. It is brutally honest. At this time in the evening, at 6:45 p, one would expect there to be more traffic flowing out of a city, rather than in. But with a city such as Seattle, the flux of people, vehicles, machinery... never ceases. This city is taken advantage of, with people plowing in and out without taking notice of just what it is that they are a part of. 

Just fifty years ago, the Smith Tower - seen to the furthest-most left side of the image - was the tallest structure in all of Seattle; a site to strike awe, revered, and put on display on postcards and the like.

As with all things, people grow bored, desiring the new and shiny. 

Slow down. Take notice. Embrace. Be present. Be mindful. 

Video.

I was able to complete my first video. While it isn't perfect, it has already taught me a lot about videography, and my next one shall be even better. Although it is not perfect, I wanted to go ahead and upload it anyway. Here it is:

A Chemex Brew Guide from Photography by David L Clark on Vimeo.

Foodtography.

DOMA Coffee Roasters' Virgil's Organic Blend roast. A robust melody of burnt marshmallows and firewood, charring and beating your taste buds into submission.

As a foodie, edibles and drinkables are an integral part of my life. Homemade sweets and treats are nearly an every day thing for me. I am fortunate enough to have my own personal chef in the form of my wife. I have her to thank for my love of crack coffee. When we met four years ago, I didn't even know how to order coffee at a shoppe, much less knew how to drink it. Now, it seems, I am the one with a lot of the knowledge and influence in the coffee region.

We get only fresh-roasted coffee. That coffee has to be Fair Trade and Organic. We keep a log that tracks what temperature we brew it at, how many mL of water and how many grams of beans used, what grind setting we use, aroma and flavour profiles, etc. We use a Chemex to extract every last bit of flavour from the bean. We have learnt to slurp properly in order that the flavours and aromas disperse evenly across our pallets. We frown on drip machines and franchise coffees. We insist on the best.

coffee snob   \ˈkȯ-fē, ˈkä-\ \ˈsnäb\ 

noun

: one who micromanages the minute details of the origin, the roasting, the preparation, and the experience of all or most things coffee-related

So you can imagine why a lot of my photography is food-related. This is a path I am taking that may end up serving a very important role. However, I cannot see myself not enjoying any type of photography. I am currently planning a trip down to Mt. Rainier to snap some shots.

DOMA Coffee Roasters is based out of Post Falls, ID. We first fell in love with their Ürth and The Chronic blended roasts, when we spotted their bags at the Boise Co-Op in our hometown of Boise, ID before moving to the Seattle area. DOMA quickly became our introduction into coffee snobbery, spawning our purchase of a press pot. When that broke, we traded an old camera body for an espresso machine. When our skills surpassed the cheap espresso machine, we found the Chemex. Now, thanks to the Chemex, we can enjoy coffee in its truest, blackest form.

Do expect more foodtography from me. However, also expect to see some videography, astrophotography, and more landscape. I will be receiving tomorrow my polarized filter (finally!), which will definitely help me get the shots that I have sometimes struggled to get.

You can see the rest of my Foodtography photos at my Google+ album seen here.

Stay in touch.

10 within 10

I have been wanting to do something different lately. I noticed I was really enjoying looking at black & white and monochrome photos. I then realized that most of them had a common theme – minimalism. This may be due to the fact that I am currently undergoing a wonderful journey into simplicity throughout my life. The misses and I are purging belongings that we don't use or need. I am reading more thoughtfully. I try to focus on one thing instead of multitasking. I am taking more enjoyment in the smaller things in life. Noticing the nothings. I suppose this is why I chose to give minimalist photography a shot. Pun intended. 

I recently had a great prompt to do this, with a topic entitled, 10 things within 10 feet. This turned out great, I think. Not all of the photos are minimalist, but they are more – shall I say – focused. (Again, pun intended.)

I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. 

Explore.

It has been a little bit, hasn't it, world? I have not posted any new content lately, due to a few reasons. I have been unhappy with my inability to plan my outings. Even when +Jake Johnson extended an invitation my way to go shoot the sunset, I was unable to make it. It seems as though I am always busy. This has to change. This will change.

I have been exploring a lifestyle change as well. Minimalism. Due to such, my wife and I have been purging a lot of our possessions. This is another reason that I have been unable to go out on shoots. I am hoping that by being busy now, I will make room for life in the near and distant future.

With this ideal of minimalism, I have been exploring minimalistic photography. I am quite intrigued. I always have been. Monochrome photography has always held a special place in me; I am always drawn to it. Now, I am determined to explore it.

And with that, I give you my first published monochrome photograph. It is definitely not "minimalistic," per se. It is, however, darling. At some point, my two year-old daughter was on the bathroom counter, and planted a big wet one on herself. Neither of us can figure out when she did it, but she did.

Loman Beach Park.

Last weekend, I had a wonderful opportunity - weather provided - to capture some great scenes. It could not have gone better, in my opinion.

My wife and kiddo and I were checking out a record store in West Seattle, and when we were leaving, I noticed the oncoming sunset blazing across the sky. I opened up Google Maps and found a nearby park on the beach, Loman Beach Park. We B-Lined for it, endured the cold, and spent a good hour or two there.

I really tried to apply some things I have learned recently about composition, camera settings, and HDR in general. I would like to think that I did a pretty good job with this shoot, especially for it being but my second time. I got 15 photos from this shoot that I simply could not leave out, from a total of 30-something bracketed photos. This is pretty good compared to my first outing, with 7 photos being left in out of 126.

Of the fifteen that I kept, here are a couple of my favourites:

This is probably my best photo yet, and it was almost completely by incident. 

The silhouetted boy in this photo walked in just as I released the shutter and was still moving right up until the two-second timer went off. He managed to stay completely motionless throughout the three bracketed images. 

I am quite pleased with the way this turned out.

Here, I was able to create a sort of battle between darks, lights, and the nothing that is the lack of colour. While the human eye tends to focus on the brightest point in a photo, I feel as though I have created three defined focal points here, without taking away from the photo. What do you think?

Go ahead and check out the entire album here.