Number 12 from Out on Buford Highway

Pollo Norteno is at 2501 Chamblee-Tucker Rd. just east of Buford Highway. I haven't eaten there yet, but I'm told it's very good. I love the way it was glowing this night, just before the sun went down.

Nikon D600, 20-35mm lens, ISO 100, 1/200 @ f/5.6

Week 10 from Out on Buford Highway

I posted two pictures from El Taco Veloz a few weeks ago, but I decided these were worth showing, too. It looks fantastic at night.

Leo Roque, Pentax K-5 IIs, 16-55mm, ISO 1600, 1/100 @ f/2.8

Fuji X-E1, 18-55mm, ISO 1600, 1/80 @ f/3.6

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.

Light Meters

Sometimes I wonder if I'm old school and a borderline dinosaur. But then I think about it and I realize that sound technique is critical to fine photography. It's not a substitute for a keen eye and interesting content, but when combined with those attributes, a photograph sings and encourages the viewer to spend time and linger.

I've been a diligent user of handheld light meters for a very long time. My first serious meter was a Gossen Luna Pro. It was the industry standard for decades- if you wanted the most accurate results, you owned a Luna Pro. As I started using flash, my meter use became even more important. When I light a scene, I can do it faster because I've taken meter readings all over and I know exactly what things will look like.

Now, many years later, I still use Gossen meters. In my Studio in a Backpack I carried the Gossen Digisky. It's a very full featured meter with a huge range of f/stops, shutter speeds, and ISO settings available. It's always on the money and consistently repeatable. And the nicest thing is that it has a wireless transmitter built in. The Elinchrom strobes I use (stay tuned- there will be an in depth article about them in next week or two.) have a wireless system built in, too. The Skyport system (also to be reviewed in coming weeks) is a small and powerful radio slave and having it inside my Digisky makes things simpler and more convenient. My Skyport can stay connected to the camera while I walk around reading the strobe exposures. Nice.

Now, if you don't need the extensive features contained in the Digisky, you might want to look at the Digipro F. I carried it as my back up and I've found it to be a perfect complement to the more expensive unit and available for a price that the budget conscious photographer will find attractive.

The Lastolite Tri Flip Kit Reflector

When you open my Kata backpack, the first thing you see is a large flat compartment with a 33" Lastolite TriGrip Reflector in it. This is a fairly indispensable item to own. It's relatively small, light, and can be used in a bunch of different ways.  The primary way I use it is as a fill for my portraits. When I light, I almost never use a second light to fill shadows. The fact is I love shadows- they give faces shape and character. But I want to control just how dark they are. In some situations they need to be inky dark, in others barely there, and, most of the time, somewhere in between. Using a reflector to bounce a little light into those shadows gives me the control I need.

Generally, I use the TriGrip with the Trigrip bracket . Although this bracket includes an arm so you can attach a shoe mount strobe, I took this off. The arm made it a little bulky to carry in my backpack and I figured if I needed to use the Tri Grip as a diffuser, I had other options. I generally put one end of the bracket on a light stand and on the other I attached the reflector with a Super Clamp . The bracket has a double ball joint which makes it infinitely adjustable, so I can place the reflector in any position I need.

The TriGrip has some features I really like. Unlike other collapsible reflectors, it has a  built in handle with a velcro strap. If I'm working with an assistant, this makes it really easy for them to hold wherever I need it. The kit also comes with two reversible covers with different surfaces. These include black, silver, gold, half silver, half gold, and others. They slip over the translucent white stock surface and essentially give you 8 tools in one. The black can be especially useful if you want to put an outdoor subject in the shade and then light them with a strobe. Or the silver can be used to bounce a little sparkle into your subjects face on a cloudy day or when you have to shoot under florescent lights in an office situation. And using the translucent white as a diffuser on a sunny day to soften that hard (and often hideous) light can allow you to make an attractive portrait in less than opportune conditions.

Giovanni

Giavanni Elia owns Paitin Winery in Bricco de Neive with his brother Silvano. The winery has been in their family since 1796. Their best wine is a Barbaresco. It's similar to the Barolos more common in the US, but many think is just as good. Giavanni was kind enough to give us a tour of his winery and spend some time telling us about the region's history. He was unassuming yet still obviously proud of his family's heritage.

Finally, a new post and a new adventure

I've gotten several e-mails asking me when I would post again, so here it is. The last several weeks have been a bit of a blur. Finishing the quarter in Lacoste was a marathon of broken printers, low paper and ink supplies, matting disasters, and generally panicked students. It all came together admirably with a Vernissage the students were all proud of. (And I was, too!) The weather was perfect, the sales were brisk, and the relief after so much time and effort was significant. A good time was had by all.

The last official dinner was a boisterous and bitter/sweet affair. Adam Sklenar put together a slide show of highlights from the "Spring in Lacoste" and made us all laugh before many started getting teary at the prospect of it all coming to an end. I must admit, I haven't ever had an experience like this with feeling so much affection for my students. I genuinely liked them, as well as admiring both their work and their work ethic. Eight weeks living and working together every day makes for much more intense emotions than "normal" college.

As soon as the students left on the bus for Marseille airport, Andrea and I left for Nice. We spent two days in the beautful town of Vence, ten kilometers from the Mediterranean. We walked around the old city of Nice, went to the Matisse Museum, and went to the Matisse Chapel- all delightful. The Cote d'Azur is very dramatic with huge mountains rising from the sea.

We headed east and north into the Piedmont region of Italy and happened upon a rural B+B outside the small town of Alba. This is wine country and is famous for it's Barolo and Barbaresco wines. They're hardy and heady wines and well know in the States. After two days touring and tasting, we traveled to north of Milan and stopped near the northern border in a town called Chiavenna.

Today, we drove into Switzerland and stopped in a tiny town called Guarda, halfway up a mountain and with a panoramic view of the valley. It's raining, so Andrea and I have holed up in a room in our pensione and are catching up with e-mail, pictures, and blogs. We're looking at snow covered, jagged peaks out our window. We're drinking wine given to us from the proprietor of a winery I photographed the other day. All is right with the world.

Stay tuned for pictures. . .