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I’m currently working on a new web site for Cafe On The Green, a fine restaurant at Richter Park in Danbury.  Richter has been rated among the top 50 public golf courses in America.  Built around some reservoirs, it is extraordinarily scenic and rather hazardous for hacks like me.  This is where I play (*cough* shank) most of my golf, so I have a Pavlovian happiness whenever I head over there… even if I’m not pulling out my golf clubs.

It had been several years since I ate at Cafe On The Green, but I remembered it having good food, and probably the most scenic setting in Danbury.  I knew that the new web site needs to capture these two important elements, so photography was going to be an important part of the project.  You can’t capture taste or smell, but with vivid photographs, you can provide some powerful suggestions.

So last week I spent a few hours at the restaurant, shooting a bunch of photos.  Photographing food presents its own challenges.  Often you have only a couple of minutes to capture the food before it looses its fresh appeal.  By dinner time, the restaurant is lit very dimly, so I had to setup my key and fill lights.  I shot mostly with an open aperture, using my 50mm 1.4 lens, grabbing very narrow depth-of-field shots.  This was my first shoot for fresh, hot food, and it was lots of fun!  I learned some new lessons, but for the most part, I’m pleased with the results.

The best part is that after the shoot, I got to eat the food!

Memorial Day has become one of my favorite holidays.  Our country has several holidays intended to memorialize certain important events in our nation’s history, but Memorial Day is a day set aside to remember and honor those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for the sake of our country.  After all, it is only because there have been those who have fought and died that we can enjoy our sunny barbecues and backyard volleyball with little more than our morning commutes to weigh on our mind.  We enjoy truly extraordinary comforts in America.  A crisis for us is a broken air conditioners or poor service at a restaurant.  Most of the “inconveniences” that afflict our lives certainly pale when compared to the plights of the thousands who have huddled in muddy foxholes and bled their futures away.

I fear that many who “celebrate” Memorial Day fail to pause even momentarily to remember what this day is all about. It’s a day off work. An opportunity to fire up the grill. Maybe go shopping. In a way, these are all wonderful legacies of those who have fought to make these luxuries possible, and for as long as I can remember, these are things that I’ve also done on Memorial Day.  In fact, for each of the past, oh, eight years or so, my church gets together for a big party. We enjoy fantastic food, lots of games, and remarkably, perennial sunshine.  Thankfully, though, we also incorporate a memorial service into the afternoon.  There’s special music, prayer, and a presentation on some of our nation’s heros.

The grilling, the smoothie bar, the socializing, the softball games, the camp fires… these are all a key part of what makes this day special to me.  But let’s not forget the blood-stained fields and shattered dreams that went into making all of this possible.

(click the full screen button on lower right to view in detail)

Notice anything different about my site? Perhaps something in the typeface? Yup, my site and blog are sporting new fonts, and the really amazing thing is… none of them are the standard web fare of Verdana, Georgia, Arial, or Times. Typefaces that went beyond this limited list where usually done through rendered graphics, but not now!  Go ahead, try selecting the text on this page.

“Web Typography” used to be an oxymoron. The palette of type faces was limited to a “safe” list of …continue reading »

There are still a few days left in this rainy month, yet it seems like events at its beginning occurred ages ago.  This is the common result of a schedule so incredibly jammed packed that the passage of time takes on strange dimensions.  Let’s see… the beginning of the month found me in California, skiing for a couple of days and chillaxing on the beach.  The next weekend I was in New Hampshire, busy with all the best man stuff for my friend’s wedding.  The following Monday I flew to Las Vegas for the NAB show.  The only money I lost in Vegas was to some overpriced meals at the hotel; it’s great not being a gambler!  Then just this past weekend, I jetted out to …continue reading »