It’s Just Justin

Twitterastic Fun Time

So I’ve been a naughty blogger.

Last week I went out with some awesome twitter friends, @ProzacGod, @ok2baprincess, @EricCox and his wife @BigRed77.  ok2baprincess brought her friend Nicole along and it didn’t take long to know that I was in great company.

We started out at the Heidelberg where we had a few drinks and dinner.  I came late so I missed happy hour and dinner.  After the Berg, as we call it out here, we headed to Top Ten Wines.

Had some great wine and cheese there, Bigred77 played around with my camera and took some pretty good pics really!  I snapped one of her too.

We had our fun and eventually parted ways.  I went off to do homework, bumped into some kids who wanted their picture taken.  They were interesting, really young to be out at like 1am but I’m not their mom and Columbia is a decently safe place.

So yeah, that was the other night.  Which night, I don’t actually quite remember haha.  But fun all and all.  Yay for Twitter uniting such different people.

Tags: Berg, French wine, Friends, Fun, Going Out, Happy hour, Heidelberg, Twitter, Wine

Wine and Cheese Bistro Photoshoot

I did a photoshoot today at the Wine and Cheese Bistro featuring Chef Cyr and his dish, Seared Scallop with Spring Asparagus and Apple Cider Country Ham Vinaigrette.  Yes, quite the mouthful.  

Micheal and I went to the Wine and Cheese Bistro a few weeks ago and were definitely not impressed.  We had a good time but the salad was weak and the cheese tray a disappointment.  I guess we just ordered the wrong things because the dish that Chef Cyr delivered to the table today was beautiful and if it tasted as good as it smelled, incredible.

The lighting in there wasn’t so great.  Was hoping to use the “natural” light in the restaurant but had a sneaky suspicion that I wasn’t going to get that option.  The combination of overhead, low wattage incandescent lights with the green tinted sunlight streaming in the windows… yuck.  Green faces and orange foreheads.

Here’s what I had taking a shot of the area before adding my lights.

 

Then, we turn on the left light and see what that looks like.  It is a 650w light bouncing off a white light screen.

Let’s try the right light.  It’s a 1000w light shining through a softbox to diffuse the light.

 

Put them together and this is what you get!  1650 watts of lighting power!  Muhahahaha!!!

 

Click below to see all four combined and larger

So here are a few shots of the dish and Chef Cyr.  He was a fantastic sport getting his picture taken. 

 

Click above picture to enlarge

I had a fun time taking the pictures and he was fun to talk to while I did the portraits.  I wish I had another softbox so I could close the aperture a little more to decrease the depth of field but, oh well.  Sure looks a lot better than what I started out with!  Just goes to show the necessity of good lighting.

Oh, and that I’m a huge nerd… ;-)

Tags: Chef, Food, Lighting, Photography, Photoshoot, Restaurant, Wine, Work

No Smoke, Just Mirrors

I decided to dip my hand into this tight aperture (f-22 to f-36) on a mirror game, literally.

Hard to take a picture of your own hand…  Lesson = learned.

Next time I am going to spin that dradle, I bet it would make for a pretty awesome shot.

Looks like motor oil but it is honey.  Sweet, delicious honey injected with red wine to increase the golden color.  Thought up that one on my own ;-)

Learned how to double my money in a flash!

My prized Nikon F3.  I never use it, but I do prize it.  Click for a larger version.

I didn’t have any food coloring and corn syrup to make fake blood so I just tried some of that wine.  No go.  Just couldn’t get that blood look.  So here’s the pic sans faux blood.  

Funny story, after putting all of this stuff up, i accidentally cut myself and bled all over the mirror haha, damn the timing.

Tags: Blood, Honey, Jew, jewish, Mirror, Money, Nikon, Photography, Picture, Ryan, Wine

I’m Building a Wine Room

This week I’m starting the conversion of a utility room into a Wine and Booze room.  Painting the walls a dark burgundy with copper faux finish.  Then installing some wine racks.  I have so much room for storage and will never be able to fill the entire room with wine… I’m thinking of other things I could build for the room.  Some speakers for music is a must of course, I mean, it is Justin’s wine room and every room deserves good sound.

So the walls are dark burgundy with a copper faux finish, but what color for the trim and ceiling?  Currently the trim and ceiling are a combination of sand beige and off white.  I’m thinking a solid bright white would make for some serious crisp lines.  I’ll try to take pics and you can tell me what you think.

Tags: DIY, Renovation, Wine