{"id":2220,"date":"2013-03-02T12:30:20","date_gmt":"2013-03-02T03:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2013-03-02\/2220"},"modified":"2013-03-02T12:30:20","modified_gmt":"2013-03-02T03:30:20","slug":"priceless-candy-and-pottery-in-a-surprisingly-tasteful-display","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2013-03-02\/2220","title":{"rendered":"Priceless: Candy and Pottery in a Surprisingly Tasteful Display"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D4 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1 sec, f<\/span>\/2.5, ISO 100 —\nimage data<\/a><\/span>\n
Desktop-Background Versions<\/b>\n1280×<\/span>800<\/a>  ·  1680×<\/span>1050<\/a>  ·  1920×<\/span>1200<\/a>  ·  2560×<\/span>1600<\/a>  ·  2880×<\/span>1800<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D4 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1.3 sec, f<\/span>\/4, ISO 100 —\nimage data<\/a><\/span>\nPriceless<\/span>\njust look at all that candy\n
Desktop-Background Versions<\/b>\n1280×<\/span>800<\/a>  ·  1680×<\/span>1050<\/a>  ·  1920×<\/span>1200<\/a>  ·  2560×<\/span>1600<\/a>  ·  2880×<\/span>1800<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

Today's post combines a couple of things I've written about recently,\nL\u00e4kerol candy and Japanese pottery, as seen in “Cornucopia of Tasty L\u00e4kerol\nLicorice<\/a>” and “Failing a New<\/span> Portraiture\nChallenge: Reflective Pottery<\/a>”.<\/p>\n\n

The latter post detailed the tough time Zak\nBraverman and I had<\/span> photographing some reflective tenmoku<\/a><\/i> pottery by Koji Kamada (\u938c\u7530\u5e78\u4e8c)<\/span><\/a>. In the end<\/span> we were able to rescue enough shots in Photoshop that he could\nuse them to create the invitation cards for a show,<\/span> and in thanks he gave\nus each a bowl<\/span> that he had made but couldn't sell due to some (apparently\nminor, because I don't<\/span> see it) flaw.<\/p>\n\n

I've recently been redoing my home office, installing a wall<\/span> of cabinets<\/a>\nthat include some display areas, so I dedicated<\/span> one such area to the bowl. And to show<\/span> it proper respect, I filled<\/span> it with something I really<\/span> like,\nthe L\u00e4kerol candies I wrote<\/span> about before. (I have<\/span> a large<\/span> variety of\nflavors, and found that I enjoy<\/span> them best when I get<\/span> two random flavors at\na time.<\/span>.. the 121 possible flavor combinations keeps things interesting.)<\/p>\n\n

I wanted to show how it looks in my room while I normally<\/span> use it, which\nis with the lights pretty low, but the dynamic range (the darkness of the\nshadows vs.<\/i> the brightness of the lights) is just too much for the\nNikon D4. So I turned<\/span> on the big bright fluorescent room light just to snap\na shot<\/span>:<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D4 + Nikkor 24mm f\/1.4 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>10 sec, f<\/span>\/8, ISO 1000 —\nimage data<\/a><\/span>\nMy Home Office<\/span>\nas it stands at the moment\n<\/div>\n\n

This is a different room from when I showed<\/span> my office in\n2012<\/a>; it seems that we re-rearrange rooms every few years. I'm still<\/span> in\nthe process of getting settled in to this new layout.<\/p>\n\n

I do most of my photo\/plugin<\/a>\/blog work on my laptop while sitting in the La-Z-Boy\npartially seen in the lower left; for the most part, the two monitors on my desktop machine just cycle through desktop-background photos that I've\nposted on my blog, one\nvertical background<\/a> and one\nlandscape-mode background<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

For what it's worth, the two shots that happen to be up at the moment are from\n“Photographer\u2019s Low-Hanging Fruit: a Pretty<\/span> Flower<\/a>” (April 2012)\nand\n“Some Desktop Backgrounds from Kyoto\u2019s Koumyou-in Temple<\/a>” (June 2012).<\/p>\n\n

Anyway, I like it fairly dark while I work,<\/span> with only a small<\/span>\nincandescent light reflecting above the desk, and a small<\/span> LED puck\ndownlight directly above the pottery....<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D4 + Nikkor 24mm f\/1.4 — 0.5 sec, f<\/span>\/8, ISO 1000 —\nimage data<\/a><\/span>\nSort of Closer to Reality<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

I'm really happy with how the presentation highlights the bowl. It's remarkably<\/span> tasteful, I think,<\/span> especially for a geek<\/span> like me to have come up with.<\/p>\n\n

(The pun with “tasteful” and the tasty candy was not intended, but now that I notice<\/span> it, I'll intend it. :-))<\/p>\n\n

The photo<\/i> of the presentation, though leaves much to be desired. I probably<\/span> just don't know how to take a photo,<\/span>\nbecause it took a lot<\/span> of work in Lightroom to get\neven this much balance between the shadows and the brights. I didn't<\/span> want to bother with a\nfull<\/span>-on HDR<\/a> set,\nbut I did<\/span> try the camera's HDR mode to decidedly\nunsatisfactory results, but the result above is after a\nlot<\/span> of Lightroom work on the in-camera HDR effort..<\/p>\n\n

The colors were really hard to balance among the three light sources (incandescent, LED, and the pair of monitors),\nso maybe it looks better in B&W?<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D4 + Nikkor 24mm f\/1.4 — 1 sec, f<\/span>\/8, ISO 400 —\nimage data<\/a><\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

My wife doesn't care for the dark dungeon look... this is probably how it looks to her:<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D4 + Nikkor 24mm f\/1.4 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>15 sec, f<\/span>\/8, ISO 400 —\nimage data<\/a><\/span>\nGloomy or Cozy<\/span>\nis in the eye of the beholder\n<\/div>\n\n

Anyway, back to the bowl of candies, the LED spotlight directly above\nthe bowl creates very strong shadows, and the parts of the bowl in shadow\nappear essentially black, but while processing these photos I decided<\/span> that\nI wanted<\/span> to show a bit<\/span> more of the bowl, so tried to bring out some detail\nfrom the shadows. Not sure it<\/span> was worth it, but here it is:<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D4 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 0.3 sec, f<\/span>\/2.5, ISO 400 —\nimage data<\/a><\/span>\n
Desktop-Background Versions<\/b>\n1280×<\/span>800<\/a>  ·  1680×<\/span>1050<\/a>  ·  1920×<\/span>1200<\/a>  ·  2560×<\/span>1600<\/a>  ·  2880×<\/span>1800<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

While I was actually taking the shots, the local Co-Op<\/a> stopped by to deliver this\nweek's groceries, which includes some dry ice to help keep the frozen items\nfrozen in transit, so I thought<\/span> I'd try to incorporate the “smoke” into the\nshots...<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D4 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1.3 sec, f<\/span>\/5.6, ISO 1000 —\nimage data<\/a><\/span>\nMisty<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D4 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 0.5 sec, f<\/span>\/5.6, ISO 1000 —\nimage data<\/a><\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

I was hoping for something more dramatic, but there you are.<\/p>\n\n

While on the subject of Koji Kamada and his pottery, I'll include a few<\/span>\nphotos from his show in January<\/a> at the Hankyu Umeda Department Store (\u962a\u6025\u767e<\/span>\n\u8ca8\u5e97\u3001<\/span>\u6885\u7530)<\/span> in Osaka, 45 minutes south of Kyoto. They have a little<\/span> museum\narea walled off in the middle of the sales floor, and on display was the big\npiece that lead my blog post, along with a photo<\/span> of Kamada-san at work\ntaken by Zak...<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D4 + Nikkor 50mm f\/1.4 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>500 sec, f<\/span>\/5, ISO 1600 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nBehind Glass<\/span>\nat the Hankyu Umeda Department Store (\u962a\u6025\u767e\u8ca8\u5e97\u3001<\/span>\u6885\u7530)<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

It's a really amazing environmental portrait that I hope<\/span> Zak will post\non his blog. (In this case, “environmental” means not in a studio<\/span>; it was\ntaken in Kamada-san's pottery workshop, exactly where we'd done the pottery\nphotos earlier.) <\/p>\n\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D4 + Nikkor 50mm f\/1.4 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>500 sec, f<\/span>\/5, ISO 6400 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nEnjoying Tea<\/span>\nKamada-san, Zak, and Aeron<\/a>\n<\/div>\n\n

Kamada-san had many different kinds of pottery on display. Here's a bowl<\/span>\nsimilar to the one he kindly gave me, though presumably without the\nimperceptible flaw...<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D4 + Nikkor 50mm f\/1.4 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>500 sec, f<\/span>\/5, ISO 2000 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nFlawless<\/span>\ntenmoku pottery by Koji Kamada (\u938c\u7530\u5e78\u4e8c\u3001<\/span>\u5929\u76ee)<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D4 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 13 sec, f<\/span>\/22, ISO 400 —\nimage data<\/a><\/span>\nPriceless<\/span>\na personal gift, tasty candies, and a nice<\/span> presentation combine very well\n
Desktop-Background Versions<\/b>\n1280×<\/span>800<\/a>  ·  1680×<\/span>1050<\/a>  ·  1920×<\/span>1200<\/a>  ·  2560×<\/span>1600<\/a>  ·  2880×<\/span>1800<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

That last shot is identical to the second photo of this article, except\nat f\/22, this one shows most of the candy in focus.<\/p>\n\n

Continued here...<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today's post combines a couple of things I've written about recently, L\u00e4kerol candy and Japanese pottery, as seen in \"Cornucopia of Tasty L\u00e4kerol Licorice\" and \"Failing a New Portraiture Challenge: Reflective Pottery\".<\/p>

The latter post detailed the tough time Zak Braverman and I had photographing some reflective tenmoku pottery by Koji Kamada (\u938c\u7530\u5e78\u4e8c). In the end we were able to rescue enough shots in Photoshop that he could use them to create the invitation cards for a show, and in thanks he gave us each a bowl that he had made but couldn't sell due to some (apparently minor, because [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,1,2,6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2220"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2220\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}