The Munchkin's Notebook

Today I spent some time working on my Photoshop skills, by removing annoying backgrounds from photos and creating collages. I used the photos I took at Katsucon for this exercise since, I thought I took some nice portraits but the backgrounds were distracting and full of random people.  I created my own backgrounds for most of these pictures except in a few cases.  You can see some of the final results here:  http://munchkinphotos.smugmug.com/Portraits/Cosplay .  I also worked on creating some collages. I made two for my Munchkin Photos Facebook page cover photos. The most difficult part of the process was identifying which pictures to use and showcase the variety of my work. I also made one of compilation of images depicting the same lady cosplayer showing different expressions. This was a simpler collage since it was all the same person, though the sizing of the images was a bit challenging.  Overall I think the collages came out ok. I now plan on u...

On Friday, February 14 th I went to an anime convention for the first time in my life.  Now a little disclosure, this was my husband’s idea (he is the one who watches anime, I’m usually in the room working on photos so only half pay attention to the episodes) as a way for me to expand my photography portfolio.   I have to say it was a unique experience.  We showed up at the convention center in the late afternoon of the first full day, and were thankful we got the VIP tickets. We just walked in, picked up our badge and were on our way.  This meant we skipped the hour long wait in line for our badge. From there we wandered around a bit, in the merchant’s hall, outside and in the atrium area before our first event/experience the “Maid Café”.  Yes, we ate at the Maid Café for our special Valentine’s Day dinner. It was a fun experience we had a crossplay maid (guy playing a girl) who was very entertaining, the food was pretty good too.   Then ...

Happy couple and their dog Today I got to be part of a beautiful couple’s special moment, by capturing their elopement .  The two ladies hail from Colorado but recently moved to Ohio for a job.  After being together for several years they decided to take the next step; so, they traveled from Ohio to DC to get married (with their dog).  Sadly the weather in DC was typical dreary cold winter day without snow to make the city look pretty, however, the couple still shined with joy.  It was simple quick little exchange of vows and signing of the marriage certificate.   I got to capture the exchange of vows and some pictures afterward before they got back into their car to head back home to Ohio.  I was happy I could capture the moment for them. I captured the moments with my camera set to aperture priority set at f/10 and a 200 ISO.  The background for the photos was across from the Archives metro stop across from the Navy Memorial.  ...

Every year there is a Chinese New Year Parade in DC’s China town; sadly, the parade is slowly deteriorating and becoming smaller and smaller.  Also people are just not being courteous, they move out into the street in front of the parade marchers and the security isn’t keeping the parade watchers on the sidewalk.  It is also becoming more and more difficult, to take pictures politely without having people with their phone and iPads jumping in front of me.  So I think this was my last year photographing the Chinese New Year Parade.  I did get a few nice shots of the dragon dancers.  I shot at ISO 200 at F10 with a 1/160s shutter. You can see all the parade pictures here. 

I like high speed photography, but I am limited to what I can do within my studio space and with the equipment I have.  So I usually focus on dropping things, this weekend it was gelatinous cubes and colored water.  The gelatinous cubes were a new for me, and still require refinement to the gel composition.  I bought clear Knox gelatin and made two batches.  (I did add food coloring to the mix for contrast.) The first batch was a little mushy while the second batch was firmer like a Jell-O giggler.  The softer batch worked better, providing more deformity while tumbling and a better splat upon impact.  As I dropped the cubes and sphere I hit the shutter release button.  The squishy cubes lasted for about 10 drops depending on the height of the drop.  While the very firm sphere appeared indestructible.   I may try this again, possibly throwing the cubes against a wall instead of dropping them. Firm Sphere Impact Squishy ...

Red Panda On January 18 th the National Zoo will present the new little panda cub, named Bao Bao , to the public. However if you’re a FONZ (Friends of the National Zoo) you got to see the baby panda a week earlier.  So I went early this morning to see the panda.  They routed people through the top of the Asia Trail to meter the crowds and then only let groups of about 20 people into panda house for 7 minute viewing intervals.   We only had to wait about 15 minutes to see the panda. While waiting in line we enjoyed the antics of the two red pandas.  When we finally made it into the panda house the baby panda was awake and feeding.  However, I didn’t get as nice a view or picture as I wanted.  The problem was they did not completely clear out the viewing area before letting more people in. Thus some people were not obeying the rules and leaving when their group’s session was up, basically hogging the panda.  There was one guy who just wou...

For Christmas I got the meat grinder and sausage stuffing attachments for my Kitchen Aid mixer (I love that mixer). Before you go and say that is a horrible gift, I actually asked for them due to the sausage making class I took earlier in the year at  Sur la Table . Also making sausage is not that hard if you have mechanical help.  I would not be making sausage if I had to use a hand grinder, because that would be too much like work.  Meat grinder attachment grinding up the pork So today I made my first batch of sausage. I made one pound of sage breakfast sausage.  The recipe called for pork butt (I used pork stew meat), fat back (I got rid of that since the stew meat had plenty of fat), sage, parsley, black pepper, thyme and salt. I also added some garlic and some cayenne pepper it to give it some kick.  I cut the meat up into 1 -2 inch cubes mixed the meat and the spices together then ran it through the grinder twice, the first time through the cour...