The week 3 topic of my photo challenge is “eat”.
As usual I turn to my trusty source: Pinterest. A week ago a few gorgeous macro shots of the underside of mushrooms crossed through my homepage. The colors were perfect, and the shapes they formed were fascinating to look at. How many of you have actually ever seriously studied the bottom of a mushroom before? So that became my new goal. Jason and I were headed to the local Albertson’s anyway so we don’t starve to death. (Being a responsible adult is harder than it looks!) I beeline for the mushroom section pretty much immediately. Much to my chagrin, Albertson’s doesn’t have a particularly large or appealing supply of mushrooms… like, pretty much nothing. Pre-packaged buckets of fungus… thin sliced and sadly shrinkwrapped. The only mushrooms not already in vegetable jail were the 6 portobello caps they had in a box down on the floor. I sorted through them all trying to find some that weren’t totally busted looking. Fun fact: mushrooms are delicate, especially if you’re looking for them to only be pretty, not to fill with cheese and pepperoni and toss on the grill. (if you haven’t tried that, go to the store immediately…) Eventually I made my selection and we finished the rest of our shopping.
I had them set up in various arrangements on our wood dining room table with one of my colored LED spotlights off to the side. I didn’t realize until I looked at the photos afterwards, but the lights actually put out a pink and blue tint in spite of looking normal white on the viewfinder. That’s why so many of my shots are in black and white. 😉 (I suppose I could make up some bullshit excuse about wanting to showcase the texture of the mushrooms, but whatever). I did eventually give up on the mushrooms and grabbed some oranges and a lonely apple just to see what would happen.
After a grueling half hour of playing with fruit on my fine Sunday afternoon I got bored and for some reason remembered a pizza commercial I saw that shows a clip from inside the oven and the people’s faces as they pull the pizza out. So I put my camera inside the refrigerator… Because why not? it’s been more random places at this point…
One interesting thing I learned while taking the above photo is that I can use my Iphone as a remote shutter release for my camera. I don’t have to do the awkward self-timer thing anymore! The best part is that the camera sends real-time data to my phone so I can see exactly what the shot is going to look like and the results immediately. I can also change exposure compensation through the app, so if the photo is too dark or light I can change it without having to mess with the camera itself. Super cool and definitely something I’m going to use in the future!