Night Shift at the Bakery
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Focus lots of it on his side, little on mine ( the shot just before had perfect focus, but the composition wasn't as good ) -- KidZania -- Nishinomiya, Hyogo, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/250 sec, f/1.4, ISO 1800 — map & image datanearby photos
Focus
lots of it on his side, little on mine
( the shot just before had perfect focus, but the composition wasn't as good )

Picking up the story of our most recent visit to the KidZania in Kobe, Japan, after some appliance repair and a bit of firefighting, it was time to make the doughnuts. Except it wasn't doughnuts on today's menu, it was melon bread (a very sweet bread that looks vaguely like a half of cantaloupe).

Too Many Cooks May Well Spoil The Broth but melon bread is apparently safe -- KidZania -- Nishinomiya, Hyogo, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/250 sec, f/1.4, ISO 900 — map & image datanearby photos
Too Many Cooks May Well Spoil The Broth
but melon bread is apparently safe

All the pictures inside were taken through the shop windows under less than ideal conditions, but what they lack from a technical point of view they make up for it in my totally unbiased mind in cuteness.

Dapper Chef -- KidZania -- Nishinomiya, Hyogo, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/250 sec, f/1.4, ISO 280 — map & image datanearby photos
Dapper Chef
First Things First -- KidZania -- Nishinomiya, Hyogo, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/250 sec, f/1.4, ISO 1000 — map & image datanearby photos
First Things First
Basic Instruction -- KidZania -- Nishinomiya, Hyogo, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/250 sec, f/1.4, ISO 220 — map & image datanearby photos
Basic Instruction
Inspecting the Grains -- KidZania -- Nishinomiya, Hyogo, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 240 mm — 1/250 sec, f/6, ISO 1800 — map & image datanearby photos
Inspecting the Grains
Milling Flour -- KidZania -- Nishinomiya, Hyogo, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 140 mm — 1/250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1600 — map & image datanearby photos
Milling Flour

I'm sort of fond of mills for some reason, such as the old coffee mill from a post a couple of years ago.

Freshly-Milled Flour -- KidZania -- Nishinomiya, Hyogo, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 500 mm — 1/250 sec, f/6.3, ISO 1400 — map & image datanearby photos
Freshly-Milled Flour
Squishing a Ball of Dough Flat now this is work a kid can enjoy -- KidZania -- Nishinomiya, Hyogo, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 50 mm — 1/250 sec, f/6.3, ISO 3200 — map & image datanearby photos
Squishing a Ball of Dough Flat
now this is work a kid can enjoy
Pleased With His Handy Work -- KidZania -- Nishinomiya, Hyogo, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 240 mm — 1/250 sec, f/6.3, ISO 1000 — map & image datanearby photos
Pleased With His Handy Work

Melon bread is made of a layer each of two different kinds of dough, so after smashing flat the second doughball, it was time to pancake them one on top of the other...

Almost Ready for the Oven -- KidZania -- Nishinomiya, Hyogo, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 170 mm — 1/250 sec, f/6.3, ISO 1400 — map & image datanearby photos
Almost Ready for the Oven
Next Shift Prepares -- KidZania -- Nishinomiya, Hyogo, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 8000 — map & image datanearby photos
Next Shift Prepares
Adding the Crosshatch Decoration from which melon bread derives its name -- KidZania -- Nishinomiya, Hyogo, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 2200 — map & image datanearby photos
Adding the Crosshatch Decoration
from which melon bread derives its name

They don't have time to actually wait for the bread, so after putting it into the oven, they pull out a tray of just-finished bread that the kids can have.

Melon Bread -- KidZania -- Nishinomiya, Hyogo, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/250 sec, f/1.4, ISO 2500 — map & image datanearby photos
Melon Bread
First Taste -- KidZania -- Nishinomiya, Hyogo, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/250 sec, f/1.4, ISO 3200 — map & image datanearby photos
First Taste
Mmmmmmmmmmmmm.......... these results are acceptable -- KidZania -- Nishinomiya, Hyogo, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/250 sec, f/1.4, ISO 3600 — map & image datanearby photos
Mmmmmmmmmmmmm..........
these results are acceptable

All 4 comments so far, oldest first...

Hi, dear. Cute kids, cute post.
Do the children eat cookies that were actually baked by the previous shift, or are they made by the staff? If so, what happens to the cookies that the children make?

I don’t know, but I expect they’re thrown away. They could never give them to someone else… they’d probably have boogers in half of them! —Jeffy

— comment by Grandma Friedl, Ohio, USA on July 4th, 2010 at 11:10pm JST (13 years, 10 months ago) comment permalink

Fantastic photos. I particularly like the second photo “Too Many Cooks May Well Spoil The Broth”. You have such a knack for isolating the subject in your plane of focus. I try my best to take photos like this, but I usually fail.

Just a side thing, in your reply in the above comment, I think you meant to say “boogers” instead of “buggers” LOL. I’m in no way a spelling freak, but I was like, “buggers? What?”. Then it dawned on me you probably meant “boogers”. It just took me too long thinking about what “buggers” were until I realized you probably meant “boogers”.

I’ve been so busy with work that I haven’t been checking out your blog as much as I would like to. When I do get the time to check out the blogs I like to check out, yours is the first I look at. Thanks so much for sharing.

I’ll take it as a badge of honor that I didn’t know how to spell “boogers”. Thanks, I’ve fixed it. 😉 —Jeffrey

— comment by Earnest Barr on July 5th, 2010 at 7:35pm JST (13 years, 9 months ago) comment permalink

The thing that most amazes me is that in NO photo do I see a kid eating the raw dough. I mean, I’m grown up and if I make a batch of Chocolate Chip cookies, if 5 actual cookies survive dough-hood to make it into the oven it’s a good day.

— comment by Marcina, USA on July 5th, 2010 at 9:58pm JST (13 years, 9 months ago) comment permalink

I have an observation about the first photo that sort of surprised me. Except for your son, all the kids are wearing shirts showing English text. Do you find that unusual? Would you care to comment about why?

English is very common for shirts, for both kids and adults alike. It’s often nonsensical. It’s just a (long-running) fad… it used to be “cool”, and now it just sort of is, I think. Anthony has them too (though most are from The States), just didn’t happen to have one that day. On the other hand, it’s extremely rare to find a shirt with Japanese written on it (except on tourists wearing “ICHIBAN” shirts) —Jeffrey

— comment by Roger, USA on July 7th, 2010 at 8:00am JST (13 years, 9 months ago) comment permalink
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