Week 6 from Out on Buford Highway

El Taco Veloz at 5084 Buford Highway is a great little place. Their chicken burrito is a thing of beauty with a creamy sauce and lots of cilantro. It doesn't have a dining room, but there are picnic tables enclosed in a tent-like structure, so if the weather is bad you can sit with a roof over your head and there are heaters if it gets cold. Their neon signage is wonderful, so I'll be going back to shoot exteriors at night.

Employee Eva Kaya was kind enough to sit for a portrait.

Pentax K-5 IIs w/ 16-50mm f/2.8 lens, ISO 1600, 1/200 @ f/4

Nikon D600 w/ 20-35mm f/2.8 lens, ISO 100, 1/640 @ f/5.6

Week 5 from Out on Buford Highway

Fiesta Farmers Market is at 4166 Buford Highway. It has primarily Asian food, but lots of other international fare as well. Fresh fruits and vegetables, fish and meat, dried and packaged beans, rices, and pastas. And it's huge! It's definitely worth the trip if your looking for otherwise hard to find ingredients and products.

So, what's not to love about giant pictures of food?

Fuji X-E1. ISO 200, 18mm f/2 lens. 1/900 @ f/8

Week 4 from Out on Buford Highway

Of course, the restaurants on Buford Highway have some remarkable food. It's often interesting, authentic, and usually reasonably priced. But I'm a photographer not a food critic.

I've gone out there a number of times when many of the places weren't open. Very early in the day. Late in the day. I drive up and down and look to see how the light is hitting the buildings. I watch how they're lit up at night. A lot of them are extraordinarily banal. Anonymous storefronts in anonymous strip malls. Anywhere USA. But there are some that stand out. Odd architecture. Explosions of color. Strange signage. So I'll be showing some of those, too.

China Bucks sits by itself at 5412 Buford Highway. I've never eaten there. Inside it looks more like a cafeteria than a restaurant, but I love the building. It reminds me of a cross between an alien fortress and a 1960's world fair pavilion. I thought the brilliant blue sky played nicely against the red and white structure.

Shot with the Nikon D600 and 20-35mm f/2.8. ISO 100, 1/320 at f/5.6. Gitzo tripod

Week 3 from Out on Buford Highway

It was early on a Tuesday and I was driving around hoping for the sun to peek out from under the clouds. I drove a few blocks east of Buford Highway to a Cuban bakery I knew about, The Pan American. As I was photographing, the proprietor of the business next door, La Chiquita Cafe, arrived and was tidying up before he opened and customers began arriving. Jose Lopez and I spent a few minutes talking as I thanked him for letting me take his picture. I love the fact that his window lets you know that he has products from Cuba, Argentina, Uruguay, and Mexico as well as accepting EBT (food stamps). By 10:00AM the regulars are at tables inside and out, drinking coffee and playing dominoes and cards. La Chiquita is at 3669 Clairmont Rd.

This picture was shot with the Nikon D600, 60mm f/2.8, ISO 100, 1/60 @ F/5.6, Gitzo tripod

Picture of the Week- from Out on Buford Highway

This is Jason Chai. He's the chef at Ming's BBQ in Asian Square, 5150 Buford Highway. Jason is originally from Malaysia and he makes the best Peking Duck around. It's truly a thing of beauty! Keep in mind that Ming's doesn't have a liquor license and doesn't allow byob. They tend to close early if they run out of duck, so it's not a bad idea to call ahead, 770-451-6985. Take out works quite well.

I received some requests, so here's the technical information. This was shot with a Nikon D600 and 20-35mm f/2.8 lens. Shot at ISO 1600, 1/125 @ f/3.2.

Last weeks shot was done with the Fuji X-E1 and 18mm f/2 lens. ISO 800, 1/105 @ f/4.

Picture of the Week- from Out on Buford Highway

Hello Dau Hu is primarily take out. They're in the Asian Square plaza at 5150 Buford Hwy. I had a banh mi sandwich which was fine, but the grilled stuffed grape leaves were truly outstanding. It was a huge amount of food and all together, both sandwich and grape leaves cost just $ 5.00. Definitely worth a visit.

On Location

I recently took students from my Portrait Photography class to the sculpture studios at SCAD Atlanta. We did three shots in a little over two hours and had a great time. Susan Krause and Steve Jarvis were kind enough to let us take over their facility, as well as pose for us. We did three shots- one with four lights, one with two, and one with only one that also incorporated the available light. My Elinchroms worked perfectly and had plenty of juice to light such a large space. And the Skyports once again were flawless, both triggering and adjusting the strobes remotely.

If you'd like to see what it looked like, you can see a web gallery here.