Category: Food

Views of food from around the world

Monday (25-July-2011) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey. Deck Garden and Jersey Tomatoes.

For the last several years I have not been keeping a kitchen garden for a combination of reasons — mainly too many deer and too much work or photography related travel during the summer. This year I already used much of my vacation for my photography trips to Patagonia and then Central America so I am home this summer. I didn’t get the garden ready during the spring so didn’t expect to be doing any gardening again this summer. However, a few weeks ago one of my neighbors told me that he had excess tomato plants that he didn’t have room for. I decided to try to grow them on my deck (away from the deer) in some small high density self watering containers and self watering container soil (obtained, but not used several years ago from Gardener Supply Company). Yesterday I took images of some of the first tomato flowers, and some green tomatoes. As long as the critters stay away, I should have some fresh tomatoes soon. Although the containers are supposed to be “self watering” with the excess heat we have been going through, I have been watering each container with about 2 gallons of water each day.

Summer New Jersey Tomato Flower. Image taken with a Nikon D3 and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens plus TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 200, 210 mm, f/16, 1/60 sec) with a SB-900 Flash. Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Summer New Jersey Tomato Flower. Image taken with a Nikon D3 and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens plus TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 200, 210 mm, f/16, 1/60 sec) with a SB-900 Flash. Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and Photoshop CS5.
Summer New Jersey Tomato Flower. Image taken with a Nikon D3 and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens plus TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 200, 210 mm, f/16, 1/60 sec) with a SB-900 Flash. Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Summer New Jersey Tomato Flower. Image taken with a Nikon D3 and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens plus TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 200, 210 mm, f/16, 1/60 sec) with a SB-900 Flash. Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and Photoshop CS5.
Green Tomato Fruit. Summer New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3 and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens plus TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 200, 210 mm, f/16, 1/60 sec) with a SB-900 Flash. Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Green Tomato Fruit. Summer New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3 and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens plus TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 200, 210 mm, f/16, 1/60 sec) with a SB-900 Flash. Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and Photoshop CS5.
Summer New Jersey Tomato Flower. Image taken with a Nikon D3 and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens plus TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 200, 210 mm, f/16, 1/60 sec) with a SB-900 Flash. Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Summer New Jersey Tomato Flower. Image taken with a Nikon D3 and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens plus TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 200, 210 mm, f/16, 1/60 sec) with a SB-900 Flash. Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and Photoshop CS5.
Green Tomato Fruit. Summer New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3 and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens plus TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 200, 210 mm, f/16, 1/60 sec) with a SB-900 Flash. Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Green Tomato Fruit. Summer New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3 and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens plus TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 200, 210 mm, f/16, 1/60 sec) with a SB-900 Flash. Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and Photoshop CS5.

Sunday (03-July-2011) — New Jersey

Early Summer Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

I got up early this morning to drive to the High Point monument in northern New Jersey. It was raining when I left, but I hoped that it would clear up by the time I got there. Just the opposite — heavy rain when I got there. Furthermore, the front gate was still locked. I gave up and drove back the long route along the Delaware River. Because of the rain there was very little traffic. I’ve used up most of my vacation this year between the Patagonia workshop with Thom Hogan and the Central America & Panama Canal Enrichment Voyage – Ultimate Travel Photography Workshop II with Michael Mariant. As such, I know that I am not going to be able to do a cross-country road trip this year so it was good to get a long drive in this holiday weekend.

When I got home there was a lull in the rain and I saw that the wild raspberries were starting to ripen. In order to get an image of a cluster of the berries in focus with everything else out of focus I took a series of images using a focus rail to adjust the camera to subject distance over a 3 cm distance with a macro lens. I then used Helicon Focus to make a composite image from the 20 images. The first image is the result. The next three images are the first (front focus), mid (middle focus), and last (back focus) images. Even though there was some (not much) movement due to wind, Helicon Focus did a great job adjusting the images so all of the composite images were correctly registered.

Wild Raspberry Cluster. Early Summer Backyard Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 100, 210 mm, f/6, 1/60 sec) with SB900 flash. Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and Photoshop CS5. Helicon Focus composite of 20 images. (David J Mathre)
Wild Raspberry Cluster. Early Summer Backyard Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 100, 210 mm, f/6, 1/60 sec) with SB900 flash. Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and Photoshop CS5. Helicon Focus composite of 20 images.
Wild Raspberry Cluster. Early Summer Backyard Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 100, 210 mm, f/6, 1/60 sec) with SB900 flash. Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Wild Raspberry Cluster. Early Summer Backyard Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 100, 210 mm, f/6, 1/60 sec) with SB900 flash. Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and Photoshop CS5.
Wild Raspberry Cluster. Early Summer Backyard Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 100, 210 mm, f/6, 1/60 sec) with SB900 flash. Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Wild Raspberry Cluster. Early Summer Backyard Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 100, 210 mm, f/6, 1/60 sec) with SB900 flash. Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and Photoshop CS5.
Wild Raspberry Cluster. Early Summer Backyard Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 100, 210 mm, f/6, 1/60 sec) with SB900 flash. Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Wild Raspberry Cluster. Early Summer Backyard Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 100, 210 mm, f/6, 1/60 sec) with SB900 flash. Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and Photoshop CS5.

Tuesday (28-June-2011) — New Jersey

Ann DeCamp Retirement Celebration.

We had a retirement party for Ann DeCamp today in Rahway. Ann has been a colleague for over 25 years. She will now be able to sepend more time with her family and her photography (Ann De Camp Photography). Best Wishes.

Ann DeCamp Slicing Her Retirement Party Cake. Image taken with a Leica D-Lux 5 camera (ISO 800, 14.9 mm, f/3, 1/80 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro, Focus Magic, Topaz DeNoise 5, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Ann DeCamp Slicing Her Retirement Party Cake. Image taken with a Leica D-Lux 5 camera (ISO 800, 14.9 mm, f/3, 1/80 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro, Focus Magic, Topaz DeNoise 5, and Photoshop CS5.
Ann DeCamp Retirement Party Cake. Image taken with a Leica X1 camera (ISO 400, 24 mm, f/2.8, 1/30 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro, Focus Magic, Topaz DeNoise 5, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Ann DeCamp Retirement Party Cake. Image taken with a Leica X1 camera (ISO 400, 24 mm, f/2.8, 1/30 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro, Focus Magic, Topaz DeNoise 5, and Photoshop CS5.

Tuesday (03-May-2011) — Guatemala

Gone to See Central America and the Panama Canal. Semester at Sea Spring 2011 Enrichment Voyage on the MV Explorer. Ultimate Travel Photography Workshop II with Michael Mariant. Day 7: Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala.

We had to get up early in order to depart for the Tarrales Bird Watching field trip at 05:30 AM. On the bus ride to Tarrales I got a grab shot of some school girls waiting for the bus to school. A good fraction of the folks on this tour were part of the Road Scholar contingent attending the Enrichment Voyage. As such the average age was higher, and we knew that we would not be hiking as far as we did yesterday to the volcano. Even though we left early, it wasn’t early enough for best bird viewing. Also, my 70-300 mm lens did not have the reach to get good images of the birds we did see. Our guide was good at finding the birds in the canopy. I only have one image of a midget owl, and it is a crop zoomed to 100%. It would have been a bit better if I took my D3x body with double the sensor size vs. the D3s body. I took the D3s because of the better low light capabilities coupled with the 70-300 f/5.6 limits. Jon got some better images with his 400 mm f/4 + TC.

After the Owl, I then switched to my 105 mm f/2.8 macro lens and focused on closer objects. In addition to close-up images of insects and flowers, the 105 mm lens is also great for people. The remainder of the following images are of a small girl in Tarrales, a local jail, a close up of a China Berry, and of a flower with a bee. Then images from the bus ride back to the M/V Explorer. A school girl, Guatemalla mass transit, a coconut vendor with his machete, limes at a produce stand, woman walking past a produce vendor, a cross-eyed guy next to a “Prohibido Estanciona” sign, woman vendor cutting coconut, her son, and several images from an open market produce vendor.


Individual images in the slide show can be viewed and/or purchased here.