Kirkland in Black & White

16. January 2016 · Comments Off on Kirkland in Black & White · Categories: Photography

I haven’t been out with the camera yet this year and was starting to feel the call, but I wasn’t sure what I wanted to shoot.

The other night I was checking out 500px.com (a really good site to visit if you are looking for photography inspiration) and I found a street photographer (Marco Larousse) that shot pretty much exclusively in black and white.  His images are amazing and there’s something very special about the black and white look he’s perfected (you can see for yourself here).

Now I have nothing against black and white, but usually shoot and process my images in color.  Sure I’ll process the odd image when I get home in black and white but I don’t think I’ve ever gone out with the express desire to just capture just black and white images.  Until that is today.

So this was my goal, go out for an hour and just shoot in black and white.  I wanted to keep this light and easy so I just grabbed my X100T which is a camera with a fixed lens, so no zooming.  What’s nice about the fuji gear is that you can set a film simulation mode and shoot all your images in that mode.  So I set it up to just shoot black and white and headed out.

I should say here that I’m no a street photographer.  A good street photog can capture real emotion in passers by, usually without them interacting with the camera, trust me it’s a real skill.  You can look at some of the good images and really understand the feeling or emotion of the subject – it’s amazing.  Also it requires you to be a little sneaky and shoot people without them knowing – and I have a bit of a problem with this.  I have no issue going up to someone and asking can I shoot you, but I feel embarrassed shooting people and then getting caught, silly I know but that’s me.

So I figured I’d just go out and take some black and white shots and see how they came out.  As Lisa and Abi wanted to go to Kirkland, I went along too and went off on my own for an hour while they did their own thing.  I took around 100 shots and after processing them when I got home, picked 16 I kind’a liked.  These aren’t great but it was fun setting myself a challenge so I thought I’d share

There are some of the town center and some of the harbor, there’s even a silly one of me taking a “sort-of” self portrait through a reflection in a Starbucks window.

I did enjoy doing this though so I’ll definately try this again, I’d love to try and capture some good street pictures so maybe I’ll work on that, and for some reason they do work well in black and white.

One image I took below that was interesting (6th one down), was where I found the place where Kirkland had temporarily stored the big Christmas wreaths the’ve just taken down.  When Lisa saw the picture she said “Oh – that’s so sad”.  I showed her a version of the same image in color and it didn’t have the same effect – and we decided it was MUCH better in black and white.  So there is something you get from black and white that color just doesn’t provide.

 

Fun with Food Coloring

29. December 2015 · Comments Off on Fun with Food Coloring · Categories: Photography

It’s been a while since I’ve had the chance to get the camera out so I jumped at the oportunity to take some pictures when Lisa came to me with a request.

Lisa wanted some pictures for our bedroom and she liked some food coloring images I took a couple of years ago. The idea is you get a fish tank, fill it with water put a white screen behind the tank and light that with a couple of speed lights. After positioning the camera in front of the tank you drip a couple of drops of food coloring into the tank and shoot what happens. Pretty easy really. The nice thing is every shot is different, unique.

The trouble is I no longer have the fish tank, I threw it away when we moved house. Lisa really wanted the shots so the other day she went out and came home with a couple of fish tanks, one the same size as the one I threw away (2 foot by 1 foot) and one tiny one (8 inches by 4 inches) used for a single fish. She didn’t know what size tank I needed so bought two.

So today we decided to take the shots and see what we could get. Lisa’s idea was to have three landscape orientated pictures in the room, all printed on canvas. So she got some food coloring and the fun began.

I decided to try the really small tank as after every attempt you need to change the water in the tank (you only get one go each time), and a smaller tank would allow us to move much faster. Fortunately the little tank worked fine.

In the end we had a cool little production line going.  I took the shots then Lisa changed the water.  She then wiped the tank while Abi removed any bubbles on the inside using an old credit card (funny I know but it really worked).  Then Lisa and Abi squeezed the food coloring into the tank and off we went again.

Lisa LOVED the results and decided to have a fourth image that was wider that could go above the bed.

Anyway, after 160 pictures (yes that’s how many times we had to change the water) we ended up with around 10 images we liked and picked four for the bedroom, you can see those below.

If you ever want to try this you should really give this ago, it’s surprisingly easy to do and actually a lot of fun.

Christmas Card Pic Time

13. December 2015 · Comments Off on Christmas Card Pic Time · Categories: General

So here we are super close to the Holiday’s (that’s Christmas for those of you in England), and we needed some new pics to put on our cards.

In the past this has been a pretty painful experience for everyone. I wanted to create some nice pics for Lisa (so the pressure was one) and James and Abi were made to clean up and pose for pictures (which they hated).

However, over the last few years I’be got a lot faster at capturing these types of images and this year I wanted to be especially quick as we were planning on taking the pictures outside in the rain! Redmond town center has a nice Christmas tree and we thought it would be nice to shoot the kids in front of that. As you would expect the weather was crappy with a light rain coming down the whole time.

To make this super fast I grabbed my Fuji X100T camera which is a fixed focal length (35mm) camera so I couldn’t zoom in or out with he camera. This made me “zoom with my feet” and enabled me to quickly position the kids in front of the tree and grab the shot.

Obviously it was dark out (these shots were taken around 6pm), so I needed some light on their faces. Now I could have gone nuts and got out any number of lights and light modifiers but I again chose to go really simple. I grabbed a single Nissan i40 speed light that I triggered off camera using an infrared trigger. The camera, light and trigger all fitted in my coat pocket and were super easy to set up and use.

I just held the light at arms length off to my left pointing in the general direction of James and Abi and took the shot.

Each image took around 15 seconds and we captured the shots we wanted super fast. James’ girlfriend Bale was with us and he wanted a couple of shots with him and her and we captured those really quickly too!

Lisa was pleased with the images and James and Abi were happy as they didn’t have to stand in the rain for a long time (something that would have been the case a couple of years ago). I’ve clearly come a long way.

Anyway here are the three images that are going on the cards.

Snohomish Classic Car and Hot Rod Show

27. September 2015 · Comments Off on Snohomish Classic Car and Hot Rod Show · Categories: Photography

This weekend was probably one of our last really nice sunny days of summer – yes I know that summer is officially over, but you know what I mean. Anyway I really wanted to go out with the camera and get some nice pics.

So Lisa looked online for anything interesting taking place and found out that the city of Snohomish had its annual Classic Car and Hot Rod show – and who doesn’t like classic cars!

The show was on from 10am to 4pm so on Sunday after a quick breakfast (and a chat with my Sister on Skype) I was showered and changed and out of the house on my way.

I decided to take a couple of cameras and a couple of lenses only, preferring to just enjoy the day rather than spend a load of time agonizing over which lens to put on – Yes I do that too.

So I took the Fuji X100T that has a fixed 35mm lens and the X-T1 with an 18-55mm lens and an 18-135mm backup, just in case I needed anything longer.

Snohomish is about 35 miles from Redmond and took around 50 minutes to get there. Parking was a little painful, the city was pretty much closed for pedestrians only and there was nowhere to park. After driving around for 15 minutes I found a spot and walked into town.

In the end I didn’t use the 18-135 and just used the 35 and the 18-55 (you can try and figure out which is which below).

There were so many cars there it was ridiculous! And they were all fantastic. Some were classics that were refurbished to look like the day they rolled off the production line (those are my favorite) and some were hot rods that were supped up with lowered suspension and amazing paint jobs.

I love these shows and could easily spend several hours walking round admiring the cars, but there were so many people there it was difficult to get clean shots without people in the way. But you need a bit of patience for this kind of gig and the end images are (I think) worth it.

I don’t really say it enough but I LOVE my Fuji cameras. They are small and light but produce the most amazing images. I sold all my expensive Nikon gear a few years ago and have never regretted it or looked back.

I don’t really talk much about gear but I got to use a new bag I purchased recently. Just in case you don’t know photographers have a lot of bags – and when I say a lot I mean LOADS. I have over a dozen around the house. So why so many bags? Well it’s very hard to find that “Perfect” bag, that fits your gear so you just keep trying new ones – of all my purchases this is probably the thing that drives Lisa nuts the most (which is funny when you consider how many handbags she has). Anyway this new bag is my best yet, it’s definitely a keeper and is absolutely amazing! It’s called an ONA Prince Street and I got it in leather. I may do a review in the future but I’m really pleased with it and it was PERFECT today.

In the end I spent a couple of hours at the show but had to hurry home so I could watch the Seahawks beat the Chicago Bears .

I didn’t look at the pictures until after the game and have now picked my favorites to post.

Hope you like them too.

How to Smoke a Pork Shoulder

05. September 2015 · Comments Off on How to Smoke a Pork Shoulder · Categories: Smoking

If you like pulled pork as much as my family, the day will come when you want to try and cook a perfect pork shoulder. To do this well requires a little knowledge and some specialized equipment.

Now you can cook a really nice pork shoulder in a slow cooker but you won’t get a smoke ring or any smoke flavor, for that you need a smoker. Also if you cook the shoulder too fast, it won’t pull – you’ll have to carve it, and while that’s quite nice, it isn’t pulled pork!

So why am I writing about this? What do I know about pulled pork and smoking?

Well this year I found a new hobby, smoking or barbequing, which should not to be confused with grilling, is my new summer passion. At the beginning of summer, I went on a course, purchased a smoker and started to experiment. Over the last few months I’ve smoked Chicken, Pork Ribs, Brisket, Salmon and Pork Shoulder (also called Pork Butt or Boston Butt).

In time I’m thinking of posting a number of blog articles on my equipment and how I use it. Heck I may even post some recipes too (I’ve got some really good ones).

But today it’s all about pulled pork.

I should state here that I’ve been thinking of doing this for a while, but to be honest I get so excited when I’m preparing the food that I forget to take pictures, by the time I remember it’s all gone! And I think for this kind of article you really need pictures.

But today I remembered to take pictures as I completed each step so here’s how to cook a perfect pork shoulder.

So let’s start with the pork joint itself.

I went to QFC and purchased a pork shoulder with the bone in. The shoulder was actually 8½ pounds in weight, so pretty big (I would have got a smaller one but they didn’t have any in).

You ideally want to get one with the bone in as it improves the flavor of the cooked meat, plus it feels great at the end of cooking when you can pull the bone out with your hand and it’s clean!

The shoulder I bought had quite a thick fat cap, so I cut some of that off (not all, that will add flavor too as it renders.)

The joint then looked like this:

Now the meat was ready for it’s rub. You can buy rubs but it’s really easy to make your own. I make one here’s the recipe:

  • 2 cups brown sugar
  • ½ cup salt
  • ¼ cup paprika
  • 2 teaspoons black pepper
  • 2 teaspoons chili powder
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper

This makes around 3 cups of rub. You can make more just make sure the ratios are the same. Once you start doing this you can begin to adjust ingredients to taste.

Thing is a rub won’t stick to the meat by itself, you need a binder. For that I just use French’s Yellow Mustard. This works really well as doesn’t add any taste to the end result.

Here’s a picture of the joint covered in mustard:

Next it’s time to apply the rub. I do this pretty liberally as it creates a nice bark over the meat that tastes great.

After the rub is applied it looks like this:

Now we’re ready for the smoker. Before I started preparing the joint I turned on my smoker to 225 degrees Fahrenheit.

Now this is important. Once you put the meat in, you must not open the smoker until it reaches temperature. The way you know it’s ready is that you insert a temperature probe into the meat that extends to a temperature gauge outside of the smoker.

So the image below shows the shoulder in the smoker with a probe stuck into the joint. Here I was aiming for the middle of the joint, but not near the bone.

Now it’s waiting time! The question is how long do you wait? Well that depends on a few different things, how big the joint is, how hot the smoker is and how long it takes to get through the “stall”.

So what the heck is the stall? I can’t explain the science behind this but meat will raise in temperature to around 165 degrees and then stop going up. It can stay at that temperature for between 1 and 5 hours! I’ve read loads of articles on the stall and the reality is nobody really knows why this happens, but they all say the same thing – you have to wait it out, don’t turn up the heat or play with the meat in any way – you will just ruin it!

I’ve found on average though that it takes around 2 to 2½ hours per pound to get to temperature.

So what’s the temperature? Ideally it’s 205 degrees but I’ve found that anything over 200 is just fine.

The shoulder I cooked today took just over 20 hours. Yeah I know that’s insane! But low and slow means a long time and if you wait it out it’s worth it. So this went on the smoke at 8:30 Friday night and was ready at 4:45 Saturday afternoon.

Once the meat was ready, it looked like this:

Once the shoulder is done the fun begins. First you get to take the bone out. This should just pull free and be clean, if the meat won’t come off the bone – you didn’t get it to 200 degrees

Then it’s time to pull the pork. To do this I use bear claws, it’s so much easier with the right gear. These look exactly like their name you have one in each hand and just pull the pork apart. It should be super easy to do.

The result should look like the following:

At last, it’s time to taste the results of our hard work.

You really need a good barbecue sauce here, in a future blog posting I’ll tell you how to make your own, but added to the pork I promise you it’s all worth the wait.

Here’s the end result.

So what’s the takeaway here? Firstly it’s not hard to do, you just need patience and a smoker, maybe I’ll talk about smokers next time.

Happy smoking folks, I’ve got some pulled pork to eat (if there’s any left, James, Abi and Lisa are there already).

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