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Curious 52, Week 8: Product Photography on a Shoestring

I wasn’t sure what to photograph for Phillip McCordall’s Product Photography lesson - I looked around my living room for electronics but my Roomba filled with cat hair just didn’t seem to fit the bill. Luckily, my roommate left her gold Massimo shoes in the living room - now this was a product I could get excited about!

 Product Photgraphy with Phillip McCordall

 

Set-up
Although I have a nice camera (Nikon D90), I don’t have any fancy still-life equipment like Philip so I had to get creative. I knew lighting would be the biggest issue so I set-up the shoot near a window with a thin curtain that diffused the light. I used my lamp as the artificial light source and then set-up a white back-drop with chart paper. I kept the lamp in front of the paper, rather than behind it like Phillip suggested, because the lamp light was not very bright. I initially thought showing the wood of the coffee table would make the photo more interesting, but ultimately decided it was too much of a distraction so I covered it with paper.

  Original set-up

Final set-up

The Shoot
I grabbed a bathroom mirror like Phillip recommended and that’s where the fun began. I had never used a reflective surface to enhance my photos in the past and loved how much more control it gave me over the lighting.

The Final Shot
These are two photos I liked the best from the shoot. Although I like the higher contrast lighting in Photo A better, Photo B would probably be best for commercial purposes since it’s a more honest representation of the shoe color.

Photo A

Photo B

Take-aways
It’s worth buying black cards to block the glare and help frame the shot. I had to do some cropping post-production to help with this.

I also discovered that my roommate wears the same shoe size as me...she might want to hide her shoes in her bedroom from now on. :)

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Curious 52, Week 7: Searching for Marie Antoinette

This week for the Curious 52 Challenge I decided to try my hand at French. Shooting for the stars, I thought that learning a couple French love phrases could only come in handy for when I find my Marie Antoinette!

I don’t know about you guys, but when I travel internationally I have three goals: eat delicious food, see the important sites, and try not to stick out like an obvious American foreigner. Speaking the local language is a risky step to accomplishing the last goal -- especially when I’m trying to be a real Romeo. How can I impress the locals and minimize the snickering that comes after butchering their native tongue?

The lesson from Learn French Now! was a pleasant balance of simple words and longer, more elaborate phrases. I eased into the lessons with some fundamentals. But beyond the simple “Je t’adore” (I adore you) and the like, I earned a whole new appreciation for the meaning of romance language. Now I know how to say some silky smooth phrases like “Je vis d’amour et d’eau fraiche” or I live on love and fresh water.

 

Based on my experience doing this lesson solo, I’d recommend finding a partner to practice the phrases with. Unfortunately, I was left muttering French at my computer while my colleague Dara worked in the background, probably ready to report me to HR the whole time. It would have been helpful to bounce pronunciations back and forth and hear someone else say the words too.

Can a single, well-produced Curious lesson rehabilitate a scared French speaker? I can’t say that I’m ready for my Marie Antoinette to waltz into my life just yet--she’d still probably laugh at me--but I at least know how to mangle the right words. For that, je suis fou du tois (I am crazy about you) Learn French Now!  

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Curious 52, Week 6: February Flowers

With Valentine’s Day coming up, I was excited to accept the latest Curious 52 challenge! Plus, given my not-so-stellar pie making attempt in Week 4, I was ready to redeem myself.

 How to Arrange Store-Bought Flowers with uBloom

I’m a sucker for bright colors - so I started with a bouquet that had Gerber Daisies, Tiger Lilies, Snapdragons… and some others. It looked very similar to uBloom’s bouquet and was about $12 at the local Safeway. 

The lesson was geared towards arranging a bouquet in a short vase - so I reused a vase that was about 8” tall and 6” in diameter. All of the tips are straighforward though, and could easily be applied to vases of any size. If you experiment with the size or type of vase you use, let us know how it goes!

uBloom recommends trimming flowers using an angled cut -- so they don’t rest flat on the bottom of your vase and cut off water flow. So, I trimmed all of the stems at a 45 degree angle using a pair of scissors and arranged the flowers haphazardly around my vase.

Once I had all of the flowers in, I wished the vase was a tad narrower (maybe 5” in diameter), because my final arrangement looks a bit sparse on one side. Here’s a picture of the pretty side for your enjoyment:

Next time I might trim the middle flowers so that they stand a bit taller than the flowers at the edge. Regardless, I’m enjoying the arrangement - and I hope you enjoy yours! Thanks, uBloom!

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Curious 52, Week 5: Guacamole Joe

"California; come for the weather, stay for the produce." This is what I tell my friends back home in Illinois. It’s easy to see that Californians are fond of their avocados - they put it on their toast, their burgers, their potatoes, and pretty much use it to brush their teeth. The best way I’ve found to feature an avocado is in guacamole, and boy do Californians take their guac seriously. Guacamole is hard to mess up, but a fresh and balanced guacamole will knock anyone’s hair back.

I’ve made a few mediocre attempts at guacamole, but Honeysuckle Catering’s recipe blows anything I’ve tried out of the water. We hosted a super bowl party this year and knew that a mediocre guacamole wouldn’t cut it here in California. So my wife and I fired up Curious in our kitchen and got to work.

We whipped this up just before our guests arrived. We diced, chopped, mixed and were done in about ten minutes. The recipe calls for it to rest for an additional 20 minutes in the fridge - this was just enough time to get folks in the door and on the couch. We greeted our guests with a cold IPA and fresh guacamole as soon as they sat down. California at it’s finest.

Now, you don’t have to live in California to eat like a Californian. Next time you’re at the market, grab some avocado and try it on everything you eat. This guac lesson is the perfect way to kick off your new addiction.

 

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Curious 52, Week 4: Making pie

As part of the Curious 52, I was challenged to make a pie.  And not just any pie - Joyce Maynard’s Homemade Apple Pie.

Now, let me share a little known fact: when I was a kid, I was a terrible cook. My mother once caught me adding 1 cup of baking soda to a cornbread recipe - instead of a mere 1 tablespoon. You can imagine how that would have turned out! Granted, I was in elementary school - but coming from a family of great cooks, it chafed to be bad.  So, I took a break from culinary endeavors… for years.

It wasn’t until I was out of college and living on my own that I tentatively started cooking.  I devoured food magazines - especially articles about cooking techniques and the science of food preparation. Understanding why things are prepared a certain way and how to ensure a great outcome made me more confident in the kitchen - and more relaxed about not following recipes exactly.

 

 

Which brings me to Joyce Maynard’s pie lesson. Joyce’s secret is that “it’s not about the recipe - it’s how you handle the dough” - and to learn by watching someone make a good pie. So I set about learning her technique and watching and re-watching the lesson.  Joyce is all about keeping her ingredients cold, handling them as little as possible, and not worrying if the dough doesn’t look perfect.  And you know what?  She was right.

 

 

When the pies came out of the oven, they didn’t look perfect.  They looked homemade.  But when it came time for the Curious team to eat them - nobody declined and some even went back for seconds!

 

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Curious 52, Week 3: Stretching...

The Curious 52 Challenge is on. One lesson a week, lots of different topics. Learn something new. Stretch your mind.

Bring it on.

 How to Step the 8-Count with Ryan Perez:

Step 1: Got my kids involved. I've learned that doing things with your kids is (often) a lot more fun, (frequently) the only way to get something done, and (pretty much never) easier. It went something like this:

 

Me: "We're going to take a Curious lesson tonight!"

Them: "Yay!" 

Me: "We're going to learn to dance!"

Them: "Ok. Do I get a cupcake if I dance?"

 

That's how we roll at my house.

 

 

Step 2: Set up the laptop on the coffee table and hit play. And that's when they locked in. They counted along with Curious teacher Ryan Perez. 1, 2, 3... 5, 6, 7... They clapped along, getting louder and sillier, crazier and bouncier. Hey! They're having a lot of fun!

 

And no, I did not promise them a cupcake if they danced.

 

They had actually already had cupcakes. Might explain a lot.

 

 

Step 3: Danced. My 8-year-old was too cool to dance, so he just wanted to count and clap along. My 5-year-old interpreted the "small steps" in the lesson as "giant strides that make you do the splits, then fall on the floor giggling".

 

At some point between 5 and 8 years old, a child goes from thinking dancing is better when you're giggling uncontrollably on the floor to being too cool to dance with your father. And so they may not remember much of the salsa lesson they took tonight, but they know they had fun. And they know that doing something new, something different, something unexpected, something with their dad can make for a great evening. And I know I can't do anything approaching the splits. That's a lot of learning for just a few minutes.

 

So, Curious 52 Challenge: Lesson #3 complete.

 

Ready for Lesson #4.

 

Bring it on.

 

Kristen, do I get a cupcake now?

 

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Curious Takes on the 52-Week Challenge

One of the reasons we work at Curious - besides recess, of course - is because we are passionate about learning new things. That’s why we’re so excited about the Curious 52 Challenge and have decided to take it with you!

Each week, the Curious team will be posting about our own learning adventure - and sharing our unique take on the lessons. Don’t worry, we aren’t experts either, so we’ll need to get creative. Like Sean Vigue says, “modify as needed!” 

Now, without further ado… the first two challenge lessons of 2014:

 8 Minute Beginner Pilates Workout with Sean Vigue:

With its relatively easy sequence of exercises, we can vouch that this lesson was truly designed for beginners. For us, it was a fantastic way to get ready for recess! And our favorite moment was...“The Swim” [5:13]. 

Avid runner or swimmer?  You can even use this lesson as a nice warm-up or cool-down routine.  And, at only 8 minutes, it’s easy to fit into any busy schedule.

There seems to be a great divide in the fitness world between pilates and yoga enthusiasts. We’ve started off the Challenge with a pilates lesson, but there will surely be a yoga lesson too. 

Sparkling and Rosé Wines of the World with Sunset Magazine:

Who doesn’t love a little bubbly? We enthusiastically headed over to our local market (thanks again for your help, Willows Market!) to choose some mid-range sparkling wines and rosés.

We also picked up some sparkling cider - so that we could test our noses and taste buds on some non-alcoholic bubbly. A bottle of sparkling cran-apple cider served to cover the ‘rosé’ tasting.

We’re on this journey with you, and we’re excited to share our experience - and see yours.  Good luck and tweet @curious to let us know what you discovered about sparkling wine! 

Until next time,
Maggie & Kristen

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