Boy, how time flies by!

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So, it’s been a good six years since I last updated anything here. Honestly, between switching jobs, getting a tenure track position, getting tenure earlier in 2023, and just starting to recover a bit of my life… things have been pretty hectic, but all on the positive side of things! The main reason why I stopped working on food elements on this website is that I started to realize I could have much more of an impact by adding information and reviews in a service that people have much more exposure to… so I moved to Google Maps and that is now where I post all my food related reviews and content.

If you’re curious, you can just follow my Google Maps profile. I may come back to WordPress at some point, but for now, I can not only keep enjoying commenting on food and making recommendations, but literally thousands of people check what I post and I’ve been able to drive more traffic to the businesses I love when I travel (my pictures have been checked out more than 12 million times at this point!). And, isn’t that the whole point, to share with everyone so that y’all get to partake in good food?

So, feel free to follow me on Google Maps, and check out the places I visit! I promise to keep adding any delicious restaurants and food combinations I discover in my worldwide travels!

-X

Time for a new phone…

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After Windows Phone’s sad death, I moved on to Android. The iPhone SE currently retails for $350, which is quite tempting for the hardware involved, but I just cannot get over my dislike of iOS. It seems so antiquated, blocky, rectilinear, imprisoned. In contrast, Android’s material UI speaks to my tastes: lighting and color, with a touch of texture (mainly in dimensional planes).

So, here we are. $130 bought me a simple Moto E4 – does everything I need, except photography – but for that I have my actual equipment (post coming up on that soon). Ideally I would’ve got a Moto G5, but only the Plus 5.5″ version is available in the US, which seems gargantuan to me. The E4 was the only 5″ phone that supported T-Mobile’s bands 2/4/12 and had decent hardware for an everyday phone. Maybe the Moto G6 will offer 5″ models in the US again next year (and let’s face it, we all know by then I will have shattered this E4’s screen). In the meantime, this will do.

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Fun with layers

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SONY DSCI’ve been meaning to post more lately. In a few weeks I’ll be giving a guest lecture to some university students on food photography. I wanted all of the material to be my own – what better way to drive home the point that there’s so much they can do with their own photography and a little bit of image editing? I’ll post the HAL picture in a second, but this post’s focus is on the fact that I realized, I have no “signature” last slide that breaks the ice for a Q&A.

So, I got to capturing something fun but creative, emphasizing the many options of photography. I also missed working on B&W material, so I thought of doing 3 quick pictures with some wardrobe change for added differentiation; then layer, desaturate and playing with levels on Photoshop. The result is an original, informal and surprising last slide. I’ll probably do more of these, paying more attention to the scene and context, creating something cool with light/shadow. We’ll see what comes out of it. For now, today’s fun work: