Months ago we had to trow away our grill pan because it was
all used up and dirty. I wanted to buy a good one next, not from IKEA. It
had to be smaller, better material and the right weight. But months passed,
I saw only one I liked which costed like 50 euro, way too much. And others where
of cheap material. Meanwhile I had to pass up all grilled dinners until I got a new pan.
Yesterday I decided I wanted to make panini, but a panini press isn’t as useful as a grill pan. So I went out looking for a grill pan and got one, small sized, from the brand “Le Chef” which is a decent brand and decent prized. Then I went by the supermarket and got ingredients for my first dinner to be made on the grill pan: “Grilled Pizza Sandwich” I just made it up decided to try it out.
I got the most useful bread one can get at four o’clock on a saturday at the supermarket, shredded mozzarella, artichoke, basic tomato sauce, green bell pepper and red onion. Today I decided to give a try at lunch with one bread slice.
See the whole series
It came out so good that I just had 2 slices for dinner, I spiced it a bit more with some oregano, garlic and cappers plus I let it sit a bit longer on the grill to make the bread crunchier.
Anyone can make this very easily, just use a larger then normal bread, smear on butter on the bottom so it won’t stick on the pan. Start with a basic tomato sauce, add mozzarella cheese, toppings of your choice and grill it!
Since recently I have been trying out Adobe Lightroom. I always used Photoshop for touch ups. So Lightroom was very different, it’s basically just a digital darkroom. Instead of Actions like in Photoshop it has Presets. You can load downloaded ones, or create your own. Once the preset is loaded you just mouse over on it and get a small thumbnail preview of how the photo will look. Once you apply a preset you can change settings and adjust the photo to your taste.
But you can easily go to far with Lightroom, so a good photo composition is still key factor to a good photo. But taking photos with the Ricoh really lets one see how good DSLRs are. With my Nikon D70 in automatic mode I can shoot away perfect photos. But the Ricoh GR is not so great in automatic. I never shoot automatic, since I got the D70 I’ve been using manual 100% of the time. Once you can use manual easily automatic is like a handicap.
Everyone who owns a DSLR with a kit lens can take a good photo quality wise, so to stand out nowadays composition is everything. 10 people can photograph the same item, but only a few will take a unique view of the item.
The trick is to take a mundane object and make an interesting photo out of it. And also to know how the photo will look best, e.g. in B&W or colors? I decided to give it a try and create a composition in my room and use my desk lamp as only light source.
My shoes
See full size versions on my flickr macro set
The whole process took very little time to get done. The longest part was taking the photos. Then load them on the computer, open Lightroom, select the best shots, apply presets and done. But for me the thrill of photography is always getting a good composition. When I started taking photos with a Fuji S5000 I would sit/stand for hours observing animals in the nature to get that one great shot.
If you want to challenge yourself, get a fixed lens like a 28mm or 50mm and shoot in manual only. Think good about the composition and remember that digital editing is just the finishing touch, not what makes the picture.
