I Shot It Food Photo WIN!

It was a little less than a month ago that one of my photos won a  "Mark of Excellence Award" in a I Shot It competition. This morning, another entry of mine won the "Food Photo Competition 2013 No 2" contest. This time there was cash and prizes...YEAH! Here is the winning photo.

Judge Duncan MacArthur's Comments

Beautiful warm colours, tones and shapes, the gas flame and the pot in the
background all make this scene so real. An everyday subject from everybody's
kitchen, beautifully composed and so simple. Great food shot and this round's
worthy winner. Congratulations !

my response...

My name is James Markus from James Markus Photography, and Photomatter.com located in Michigan. What a wonderful surprise - thank you.  Judge Duncan MacArthur's comments are spot on.  It was about colour, tones, and shapes. It is "real", because that was my breakfast cooking there.  I shot it in my kitchen. Camera was the Nikon D800 in manual mode. Lens was a manual focus 28mm Nikkor f2.8 ais.  Royalty free licenses, products, and prints are available in my "Food" gallery... (See Link Below)...Thanks again!

My Stock Photo Galleries

markus.photoshelter.com/gallery-list

I Shot It Competition Link

http://www.i-shot-it.com/competition.php?id=51e47026ad2ef

Phoebe comes home

I picked up Phoebe from the vet today. She got spayed. When I got home she wouldn't let me out of her sight. At one point she balanced on my left foot with three of her feet...closed her eyes and purred for 10 minutes (I didn't dare move). I decided to take her to work with me. Phoebe immediately took up postion between me and the computer monitor.

She chased the cursor, walked on the keyboard, stole cough drops, rubber bands, my lunch, and laid on my mouse hand. All day she was my shadow, and very little work got done. She needed this contact with me at all times, and she never stopped purring.

We all are happy to have Phoebe home sporting her shaved belly, and new tattoo.

Fractals in nature...the sunflower

Here are a lovely bunch of sunflowers. Shot with the Nikkor 16mm f3.5 ai.

 I recently watched a documentary about fractals. In the 1980's Mandelbrot sets were discovered and the mathematical equations to describe fractals. In the Mandelbrot fractal "sets" are ever repeating and never ending patterns. Regardless of direction (either smaller or larger) the pattern repeats over and over again. There seems to be a key fractal to define each and everything in nature. These shapes are beyond simple geometry. Shot this with a Nikkor 105mm ais + extension tubes.

The sunflowers have reminded me of these Mandelbrot fractal sets. The complex geometry seems to be a repeating pattern. It also reminds me of what I was taught in school about Democritus in 450 BCE thinking that matter was made up of indivisibly small versions of the object we could see. For example:that a chair atom looked like a little chair.

I'm not sure If I have remembered this all correctly or not, but I can see a repeating pattern in sunflowers...in the petal, leaves, and seed forming area. I find it all fascinating. In the center of these grocery store bought sunflowers is a dime sized area with a tightly packed black geometric pattern of the sunflower. Shot this with a reversed Nikkor 28mm ais.

For more info see Arthur C. Clarke's documentary about fractals
 "Fractals: The Colors of Infinity" http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/fractals-colors-infinity/