How Much Are Your Photos Worth?

August 7, 2010 | Filed Under Photography, Video | Leave a Comment

Whether it’s a stolen computer or hardware failure, it seems that one of the top things that a lot of people care about are photos.

Just this week, I was consulted about what to do for three students who had their laptops stolen. And a friend of mine once paid $2300 to mainly recover their photos (and other files) from their dead hard drive.

I was browsing around recently and stumbled upon this video (and blog post from award winning photographer director Chase Jarvis and this is what he does for his photos and video (the video also covers his photo and video workflow). If I needed some photo or video work done, I’d know I could rely on him should a fire, flood, or a meteor strike:

I’m in the process of reorganizing my media, but I do have most of my photos and videos stored on a Drobo. I also recently bought a 1 TB external mini hard drive from Western Digital, but it’s quite slow so I’ll likely replace it with a mini drive from G-Technology mentioned in the video and also separately recommended by an Adobe Creative Suite evangelist. And in the photography workshop I took two weeks ago, one of the instructors also mentioned storing files using RAID.

Bringing Back the Old & Trying the New

March 30, 2010 | Filed Under Video | Leave a Comment

Icer Air from Jen L on Vimeo.

I had been using viddler for video hosting for a long time because it had good privacy controls while youtube had none. When I chose viddler, it allowed the storage of source video files, but I was waiting for the day when they could no longer support it. Two days ago, I got an email from viddler about their new source file storage policy which included the following:

The Terms of Use are changing to state that personal level accounts’ original source file will be stored for 30 days from the date it was uploaded. Of course, the converted video file will be available as long as your account is active. And you will still be able to download the converted file.

This email is to make you aware of the change in policy – and to give you 30 days to download any original source files you may need. Original source files uploaded before this email (March 29, 2010) will be available until May 1, 2010. Original source files uploaded from today (March 29, 2010) on will be available for 30 days.

This change seems to make sense especially with HD video on the rise. While 30 days is still generous on viddler’s part, I wanted to give Vimeo a try (they only retain the source file for a week). A filmmaker friend of mine mentioned that Vimeo is kind of like what Flickr is for photographers; I still like the privacy features of Vimeo, but it doesn’t have a feature like Flickr’s guest pass links or viddler’s secret URLs that can be passed on to others easily, but they do have a password feature which might be sufficient.

I considered youtube, but the community there is not what I’m looking for and I like how vimeo is a community of creative people, plus their content restrictions in their Community Guidelines support their personal creativity focus:

No gameplay videos, “fan vids”, sexually explicit videos, or music videos, movies, TV, and trailers that you found on the web.

[...]
You may post videos of yourself on TV, as long as you have the permission to upload and the video is limited to your involvement in the program only.
No videos that are just compilations of scenes from TV or movies.
No captures of video games or gameplay, regardless if it is edited or not. Machinima with a story is allowed, provided the story is more than “guys doing exactly what the game was made for (eg skateboarding or shooting people)”. Machinima videos must be properly labeled as such in the video description to avoid accidental deletion.
Video game developers may post videos of their work provided they cite their involvement in the description of the video (maps and mods to commercial games don’t count). Here we are talking about development videos, not commercial trailers.

Above is a video I edited back in 2007 of Icer Air. It’s in standard quality, but it was a good way to get used to the interface of the tools: GarageBand and Final Cut (Express). I really wish I had an HD camera at the time.

30-Minute Meals

February 1, 2010 | Filed Under Cooking | Leave a Comment

Chicken with Scallion-Lime Sauce and Sweet Carrot Rice

After the cooking class/party I had for my birthday last year, I was motivated to get back into the kitchen again (I had stopped baking/cooking in February 2007.) I wasn’t ready to make cooking a several hour affair as I used to, so for the traditional Sunday dinner, I grabbed Rachel Ray’s Express Lane Meals off my bookshelf.

Back in the day when my friends and I were getting together and cooking dinner as a group on a frequent basis, Rachel Ray was a favorite to some. So when I saw this book at Costco and flipped through it, I picked it up and thought I’d give it a try sometime… 30 minute meals sounded pretty appealing after a busy day. Years later, I finally perused my book again looking for a recipe.

I was impressed by the way they organized the sections:
Meals for the Exhausted
Meals for the Not Too Tired
Bring It On (But, Be Gentle)

I looked through all the recipes, but I wasn’t very pleased; I couldn’t figure out how the recipes in the book prompted me to buy it initially. In any case, I opted to make the Chicken with Scallion-Lime Sauce and Sweet Carrot Rice from the Exhausted section (p68).

The recipe tells you how to make the sweet carrot rice using the pot method, but as an Asian house, I have a rice cooker. Uncertain of how the rice would turn out, I put it in with the chicken broth and carrots and it turned out fine.

I didn’t particularly like the flavor pairing with the lime sauce and neither did the others. I think it was because in this recipe, the lime is more prominent while in typical Asian cooking, lime is usually just an accent.

I’m not sure if I like Rachel Ray’s recipes after all and it may be awhile before I try another recipe from the book again, if ever.

Seared Salmon With Oranges, Tomatoes, and Olives

January 29, 2010 | Filed Under Cooking | 2 Comments

Seared Salmon With Oranges, Tomatoes, and Olives

I have a Sunday tradition where I go out with my mom for dinner. It’s not usually a fancy place or anything, often just comfort food. For Mother’s Day last year, I decided to cook my mom a meal instead of going out to eat because I wanted to do something more personal, restaurants were probably busy, and it’s often more economical and healthier to cook in.

I didn’t have much time to plan (less than a day or so), so I thought I’d flip through my then recent issues of Real Simple magazine for some inspiration as I knew they often had quick dinners for weeknights. I found this recipe for salmon. My mom is a big fan of salmon, so this seemed perfect.

There were some mixed feelings about the olives in the salad and I think it had something to do with the citrus and the salty olives trying to commingle.

Seared Salmon With Oranges, Tomatoes, and Olives
(Originally from Real Simple May 2009, p236, Kate Merker)
Serves 4
Hands-On Time: 20m
Total Time: 30m

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil
4 pieces skinless salmon fillet (1 1/4 pounds total)
kosher salt and black pepper
1 navel orange
2 small beefsteak tomatoes (about 1 pound), cut into wedges
1/2 cup fresh cilantro sprigs
1/4 cup pitted green olives, halved

Directions:

Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Season the salmon with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Cook until opaque throughout and golden brown, 4 to 5 minutes per side.
Meanwhile, cut away the peel and pith of the orange and cut out the segments. In a large bowl, gently combine them with the tomatoes, cilantro, olives, the remaining tablespoon of oil, and 1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper. Serve with the salmon.

Nutella Almond Cookies

December 30, 2009 | Filed Under Baking | 1 Comment

Nutella Almond Cookies

When I was backpacking around Europe with a friend, we had picked up a small jar of Nutella in Venice, Italy. On a budget and trying to plan out our itinerary a bit on the fly, we had planned to eat it for breakfast with fruit or bread, but our plans never panned out and so we ended up with the roughly 13 oz. glass jar of Nutella as our traveling companion as we traveled through Venice, Rome, Florence, Nice, and Barcelona where we finally gave up on the meal idea and gifted it to a friend of hers we met. Lugging around the jar of Nutella had been a running joke for us… too bad we didn’t take photos of it visiting all the sights.

I had a jar of Nutella and wanted to do something with the tasty hazelnut spread and remembering the delicious and chewy nutella cookies a friend of mine would make every now and then for me, I found a recipe for Nutella Almond Cookies. Before I started baking these cookies, fortunately I had gone to the store to buy another jar because apparently the Nutella I had already had lost its freshness and so I chucked the old one and opened up the new container instead. I was attracted to this recipe because I’m also a fan of almonds. Since I didn’t have a fresh bag of chocolate chips on hand, I omitted them. The almond slivers easily broke apart as I was mixing them in… I also forgot to put them in for the first few cookies. The spacing doesn’t need to be as generous as 4 inches apart with the medium cookie scoop I used and I had also added 1/3 cup of flour to the original recipe as someone else had suggested, but I found they were a little more on the cakey side. Next time, I might try it with 1 1/2 cups flour instead.

Nutella Almond Cookies
(Adapted from recipezaar)

Ingredients:

1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup nutella
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup sliced almonds

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk to incorporate and set aside.
Using an electric mixer (or manually) in another medium bowl, combine the butter, chocolate hazelnut spread, sugar, and brown sugar and cream the ingredients together, about 4 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until smooth, about 1 minute.
Using a wooden spoon or rubber spatula, stir in the flour mixture one-third until just combined. Add the almonds and stir until just combined.
Using a tablespoon measure or a medium cookie scoop (1 1/2 tablespoon), spoon out the cookie dough onto a cookie sheet (or a silpat), spacing the mounds about 2 inches apart. Bake until lightly golden around the edges, about 8 to 10 minutes. Allow cookies to cool.

I am Not a Foodie, I Just Like Food

December 27, 2009 | Filed Under Baking, Cooking, News, Photography | Leave a Comment

Homemade Ginormous Pound Cake Homemade Mixed Berry Zinfandel Sorbet

Paul Child: What is it that you really like to do?
Julia Child: Eat!
Paul Child: And you’re so good at it!
(Julie & Julia)

Recently, I was watching an Iron Chef America episode where Giada De Laurentiis and Rachel Ray competed against each other with Bobby Flay and Mario Batali as their respective teammates. What stuck out is how Ray kept saying, “I am not a chef, I’m just a cook.”

Coincidentally, I had recently been thinking about the term “foodie” which has apparently officially made it into mainstream language, at least according to the Oxford English Dictionary and Merriam-Webster and they each have slightly different definitions:

OED: A person with a particular interest in food; a gourmet. (Sometimes distinguished from ‘gourmet’ as implying a broad interest in all aspects of food procurement and preparation.)
MW: A person having an avid interest in the latest food fads.

Something has always bothered me about that term especially when people call themselves foodies as if it were a credential that could be earned when it’s really a self-classification and many times, it seems to be used by someone to give themself more credibility with an air of elitism (According to OED, “1982 V. Woods et al. in Harpers & Queen Aug. 66/4 ‘Foodies are foodist. They dislike and despise all non-foodies.’”); there appears to be a similar conversation around chef vs. cook. I’m curious how many self-proclaimed foodies like cooking (OED) and how many just chase the latest trendy restaurants and just eat (MW)?

I also started wondering when the trend of taking photos of food during meals started to become more popular. When I was getting more into photography, I started taking photos of food because I found it as an interesting subject as still life and good practice for framing, composition, depth of field, and lighting. I used to be the only one taking photos of food I had made and food I had ordered, but now it’s not uncommon to be in the company of many (especially in a group setting frustrating our hungry dining companions who aren’t taking photos and also potentially being disruptive to others). I suppose now that social networking has become a regular part of people’s lives, it’s just natural to visually share what people are experiencing through taste.

Since I started reading Best Food Writing 2009, a birthday gift from a friend of mine, I thought it would be a good opportunity to expand my creative adventures to include food here (and my exploration of food establishments in my travel site).

Be warned that although I’m okay with cooking, I’ve mostly been doing baking and desserts (pictured above are pound cake and mixed berry Zinfandel sorbet I’ve made in the past). I’ve enjoyed the precision of baking and how it’s easy to create a baked treat as long as you have the staples of butter, flour, and eggs (and baking powder and baking soda).

After I had a private cooking party this year for my birthday and after organizing a screening of Julie & Julia followed by a cooking party with friends, I’ve been inspired to expand my culinary repertoire into cooking more. There should be some interesting adventures ahead…

Watermarking Photographs

November 18, 2009 | Filed Under News, Photography | Leave a Comment

Photography has gotten a lot easier these days with digital cameras and their auto settings and I’ve seen people carry around digital SLRs instead of old point and shoots more and more. When I took a black and white film photography class, the countless hours I spent in the darkroom developing film, developing prints, and printing prints made me realize how much more I’d rather work in the digital photography format than with film; though some found the darkroom therapeutic, I did not.

As with film photography, I don’t “print” my photos as-is, but with adjustments. The camera never captures what the eyes truly see; Ansel Adams did a lot of dodging and burning on his photographs.

My post-processing workflow involves reviewing and selecting photos, color and lighting adjustments, captioning and keywording/tagging. and publishing. And then there’s the time spent taking the photograph with consideration for composition and lighting. This is not just for my digital SLR photographs, but I do the same with my point and shoot photographs.

So when someone downloaded my photographs from Flickr and included them in their own photo album passing them of as their own (albeit unintentionally), I felt as if the time I spent on my photos had been stolen, too. Read more