So, first the set up:

There were two Foam Boards. The black was used as a background and the white was used to help reflect the light a bit. The white also worked as a wind-break at the time.

I used the fill-in reflector (Silver) to add a bit more natural light on the flower.

To get right up-close to flower, I used this computer wrist rest. This wrist rest has little micro-beads that allow you to adjust the camera location. I have found it makes a GREAT on-the-ground rest for my camera, especially for doing macro shots.

To capture the image itself, I used a 50 mm Canon macro lens with an el-cheapo extension tube set.

That site, Deal Extreme, has a lot of amazing deals on REALLY cheap camera items. Remember, you get what you pay for… but, these deals are hard to beat. Also, I think with my original order, it took about 2 months or so for all of the parts to come in… but the prices really are great.

I have included links to where I bought all of the items, too. I hope this helps you.

So, yes, this was VERY good. Think of a bacon covered meatloaf, that is made with pork, instead of other meats. What it boils down to, that is what this is. So, a few thoughts. First, don’t use a salt-based rub. I didn’t plan on it, but unfortunately, when I was putting this together, I forgot about the rub, so I grabbed some spices out of the cabinet, and one of the spice mixtures I used was salty. In the future, I will not use a rub mix with salt in it.

So, one item I did differently, was put a stripe of applesauce down one strip, to try it. I thought that the applesauce would be good. Unfortunately, after I pulled it out… I forgot to try to find that slice… and never got to try it. And this went FAST. A friend made some Pillsbury rolls to put this on. They were the right size, and WOW, they made it complete.

I had it on the grill for about 3 hours. I used a gas grill. All three burners were turned up, to sear one side. I then cranked the one on one side down to nothing. I pulled the “flavorizor bar” off one, and put chunks of hickory on it, to add smoke. The grill’s heat sensor was running about 280 the whole time. In the middle, I rolled it over, Since the heat was coming from one end, I turned it twice, to make sure both sides were well cooked. I had thought about adding cheese or something, but couldn’t figure out, off hand, how to add it.

3 lbs flank or skirt steak, trimmed of excess fat – Marinated in Mojo marinade.
1 lb fries
3 Roma Tomatoes, chopped
1 bunch green onions
1 package Guacamole
1 container sour cream
1 package shredded mexican cheese

Mojo:
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 large handful fresh cilantro leaves, finely chopped
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 limes, juiced
1 orange, juiced
2 tablespoons white vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil

Make the Mojo marinade 5-8 hours ahead, and marinate the steak in it. Toss all ingredients in a food processor, and puree.

First, Marinade the Flank steak for at least 5 hours, though, I would suggest closer to 8.

Crank your grill up to 400-500. Toss the steaks on, and cook until well done.

Prep all of the foods, and cook the fries.

That is about all there is. Once everything is done, put it together

Some additional items to toss on the Carne Asada Fries, include Chili, or Fresh, sauteed mushrooms.

Here, are the shots of the week, for Project 365.

The sun is shining! Snow, Sun, and fence posts. I used HDR to capture the shot, and Topaz Adjust to filter it.

Shoes are for walking. This is another one processed in Topaz Adjust to pull out some fine detail.

Dreams of summer. It is COLD right now. While I am not a fan of baseball, I DO equate it with summer. The funniest comment I have received (so far) is also tagged on this. (And, it was done seriously…)

The Moon and Stars. This is actually venus, not a star. I really like the background, but wish that the moon and Venus were exposed better.

The Moon and Venus up close. In this picture, The Moon and Venus are close together, and star together. I like the exposure on this one, on the two, but the BLACK background is kind of… blah.

Dragonborn Barbarian – This is a miniature painted by my buddy Dave. He is a great painter. I played with White and Black backgrounds.

Fire hydrant in the snow – So, Tanya pointed this fire hydrant out, at the McCall Winter Carnival. I thought it was VERY funny, and had to get a picture. It is processed in Topaz Adjust, and I increased the saturation on the yellow, to get it to really pop out.

This is my favorite for the week. This was an amazing photoshoot for me. Frost, bright blue skies, fog, the sun… it was very diverse, and amazing to see.

I figured I would get a picture of my daughter from her gymnastics class. She even posed for me.

This is some miniature paint-work I did. I should probably zoom out a bit, to avoid showing off how bad of a painter, I am.

Here is a cool picture featuring tacks, cropped into a square format. I like the artistic look of square, ovr the normal 4×6 aspect ratio.

Darth Vader and Halo Master Chief – Good vs Evil in the ultimate face-off.

My girlfriend and I went out looking for a picture on Friday night. No kids, so we got to kind of goof off. The trip took us past Merrit’s Cafe. It was a fun night. This is in HDR, to even out the brighter lights, and used Topaz Adjust to put more pop in the photo.

This was kind of phoned in. I wasn’t sure WHAT to do, and had thought about doing this one. I could have probably gone for a more creative format, than just taking a picture of the bookshelf. I did spend some time adjusting the books to get better looking bindings. It was processed with Topaz Adjust to bring out some minor details.

Woods in HDR: Idaho City Woods and Stream, in HDR

Depth of Field: This was taken for a Depth of Field guide I did.

Traffic Lights: Traffic lights in the fog.

Dinner: This was made for dinner last night. Wow, it was good, and Tanya put it over-the-top with the salad on it. I also posted the recipe if you want to try and make it, yourself.

Red is Blue: This is a bit of red paint, surrounded by blue tinsel. I thought it was kind of interesting.

Mushroom Man: This miniature is painted by a good friend of mine, Dave Stinger. This is the second picture I have taken for Project 365, painted by Dave. I really do like the square format.

Arch-Nemesis: This was in our Battlestations game. That is our arch-nemesis, “Kingsford”. He is “Captain Hammer” to our Dr. Horrible. Though, we captured him this time… so maybe his light is finally extinguished.

Sausage Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms

4 Portobello Mushrooms
16 oz Jimmy Dean Sage Sausage
1/3 cup bread crumbs
1/3 cup parmesan cheese
1 sprig fresh thyme
1 tsp Mrs Dash
2 cloves crushed Garlic
1 tsp seasoning salt
A bit of Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Garnish
3 chopped green onions
2 chopped Roma Tomato
1 chopped Cucumber
3 chopped Radishes
Salad Mix
Ranch Dressing, diluted with milk

Lightly rub mushrooms with Olive Oil

Pre-heat grill to 400 degrees.

Cut off the Mushroom stems, and chop them up.

Cook the sausage until browned. Then, add chopped mushroom stems, thyme, Mrs Dash, and Seasoning salt. Mix well. Cook until the mushroom is soft, usually about 3 or so minutes. Toss in the crushed garlic, and cook for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Make sure all is mixed VERY well. Remove from heat.

Add breadcrumbs and parmesan cheese.

Divide filling among mushroom caps. Place the filling on the gill-side of the mushroom.

Turn off one burner, or move coals to one side, to set the grill up for indirect cooking. You want the rack hot, though. Put mushrooms on the grill for 10-15 minutes, or until soft, and stuffing has browned.

Place salad mix on plate, followed by 1 mushroom, then some green onion, tomatoes, cucumber, and radishes as garnish.

Dilute some ranch dressing with milk, to make it thinner than normal. Drizzle it over the salad and stuffed mushroom.

This picture is at f/2.5 – The depth of field is about .03″. The applications shows .02″ in front and behind my focal plane. There is not a lot of depth of field here.

This picture is at f/5.6. The Depth of field is a total of .08″. The applications shows .04″ in front and behind the focal plane.

This picture is at f/9. The depth of field on this one is about .12″. The applications shows about .06″ in front of and behind the focal plane.

This picture is at f/13. The depth of field on this one is about .18″. The applications shows about .09″ in front of and behind the focal plane.

What I find very interesting, is what happens as you move to longer distances, the balance of the depth of field goes from nearly even, to more and more depth of field behind the subject. For example, with this combination, at 10′, the depth of field is balanced at 35% in front of the plane of sharp focus and 65% behind the plane of sharp focus. At double that distance, the depth of field extends 19% in front of the subject, to 81% behind the subject.

Before looking at the calculator, I had been wondering what the actual depth of field “spread” was. Finding that it is 100% dependent on subject distance should have been obvious to me, and I understood how it worked, without thinking about it. By learning the technical specifications of how it works, actually adds it to my photography toolbox, to use later. For the most part, I do not think about depth of field, beyond the fact that a smaller aperture, gives me a greater depth of field. If you need to get technical, many modern smart phones (like the G1, iPhone, and Windows Mobile based devices) have DoF calculators, and/or you may be able to use the mobile web to access the Online Depth of Field calculator I have been using.

Adding tools to your personal toolbox helps you to become a better photographer. I hope this quick primer on DoF helps you, on your way in this wonderful hobby, called Photography.

I want to share one more picture. This is one of my all-time favorite pictures I have taken. It also happens to be one of the earliest pictures I took with my SLR. The Depth of Field really stands out, with the gosling’s head in focus, and you can see the grass below it, how shallow the actual Depth of Field was. But, since I was taking the picture at it’s profile, I didn’t need a lot of depth of field. I was shooting as open as possible, on that lens, since the goslings were moving so fast.

Thanks to Baz from dpreview for help clarifying the difference between plane of sharp focus and focal plane. (The focal plane actually being the point where the surface of the sensor is)
Thanks to WilbaW from dpreview for a link to a technical article about Depth of Field or Field of Focus. The link can be found here: http://www.hobbymaker.narod.ru/English/Articles/sharpness_eng.htm. It is pretty techincal, and I plan on figuring it out, in the near future.

Here are the photos:

Syran: She is gettin up there in age, but is very pretty. Here is Tanya’s version of today’s photo.

Maul: This is using one of our backdrops. (foamboard). He was really not happy when I brought him into the bedroom to shoot these. But, after about 20 minutes (Tanya and I shooting pictures) he got kind of tired of it all, and tried to go to sleep. Here is Tanya’s Version.

Paints: I was running out of time to get a picture on this day, since I had been painting miniatures all evening. I tossed this together really quick, with my macro lens.

Dinner: This was quite yummy. The recipe is posted here.

Tony and Anna: Our friends came over, and we had been planning on going out and getting a picture. The picture from the NEXT night, was my origional idea, but the parking lot was closed. Tanya came up with going to the Anne Frank memorial. This bridge is right there. This was done in High Dynamic Range, along with the Topaz Adjust filter.

The Boise Depot: This picture is taken off the top of one of the downtown parking garages. I had wanted to take this pictuer the night before, but the garage was closed. This was taken with my 250mm lens, and cropped in some.

There are this week’s photos. Watch for next week’s photos, starting with an HDR shot of the mountains of Idaho City!