Yesterday, I was sent out to do something I haven't had much experience with, taking photos of food. This particular restaurant is opening a third location within Orange County, so I was sent out to get photos at their flagship location in Costa Mesa.

I had to work quickly because I was shooting plates as they came out of the kitchen, before they went out to customers . In a portrait setting we make our subjects feel relaxed and comfortable and stop to talk learn about the person. This usually draws out the amount of time person is willing to be photographed. With food, no amount of talking or jokes will warm the food back up, so time is THE major limiting factor.

For all these shots I mostly utilized window light but filled in the shadows by bouncing a strobe off my white shirt, (yes I wore white on purpose for this very reason.)

 Last night the City of Long Beach elected Robert Garcia as mayor with a trifecta of firsts for the city. Garcia is Long Beach's youngest, first Latino and first openly gay mayor.

This race was no cake walk, Garcia narrowly won with 52.1% of the vote. While the dramatic closeness of the race is always exciting to watch, looming deadline with no clear results in sight proved to be difficult. Garcia finally appeared at his watch party about 20 minutes before my deadline and got completely mobbed with fans upon his entrance. I had just barely enough time to make a few frames and send them off to the desk, but I had to fight through his dedicated fans first.

Garcia supporters watch the projector as results come in. For most of the night Garcia only led opponent by one percent or less. 

Some recent daily work that has the color green in it.