Lunch Time Sushi

Today I experienced my first time in a Japanese restaurant and I was not disappointed. I have had sushi before, we have it frequently here at home and I always really enjoy it. But up until today I had not eaten in a proper authentic Japanese restaurant. And even as I sit here writing this post my mouth is watering at the thought of the meal we experienced a couple of hours ago. You know the old saying "Twas like an angel crying on me tongue!" well now I know what that saying means.

This was the delicious meal we were presented with at Sada Sushi & Izakaya.We purposely chose a variety of different sushi so we could experience as much as possible without turning ourselves into Mr Creosote.

The Rainbow rolls consisted of salmon and Tuna rolls and was really nice and light. It was a great one to start with because it eases you into the experience nice and easy without over powering your taste buds. Just behind the Rainbow rolls were the Spicy Kiska rolls. These rolls were slightly spicy but still quite mild and the spices definitely did not light your tongue up like a chilli might. This was also my first time trying roe (fish eggs).

Next came the Spider rolls, now these were also a first for me because it was my first time trying soft shell crab, deep fried soft shell crab to be exact and it was delicious. Soft with a slight crunch and mild flavour.

And last but definitely not least were the Crunchy Lobster rolls. Now these were my personal favourites. They were lightly fried to give them that soft crunchy consistency and had a lovely mild mustard sauce on top for that extra flavour. I'm not a huge fan of very hot mustard but the milder variety can really add to a meal.

I remember a couple of years back watching a +Chris Pirillo video where he visited a friends sushi bar in Seattle and had sushi for the first time. He nearly collapsed in shear delight when he had that first taste. Now I know what he was talking about, it really is a must try meal and well worth a try even if you're a some what fussy eater. And if you're in the Corvallis area I highly recommend Sada Sushi & Izakaya.

Tuna Balls and Beef Burgers

Yep, home made tuna balls and beef burgers or beef patties as they are known here in the US. We've been cooking and snapping again on our quest to avoid junk food at all costs and eat at home with healthy home made food instead. But I'm not here to discuss the cooking techniques but instead try and show you the food itself. For the various recipes you'll have to ask my wife +Linda Dean .

Tuna balls are a very tasty lunch time snack made with rice, tuna and cheese. Simple to make and only twenty minutes for the rice to cook followed by a few minutes in the oven to heat the tuna and melt the cheese. They are light but at the same time stop a craving and keep you going until dinner time. 

For dinner we prepared home made beef burgers. We're lucky where we live because we can buy good quality grass fed beef and don't have to rely on commercially mass produced beef. And contrary to what some say, there really is a huge difference in quality and taste. 

The meat was prepared by mixing it in a bowl with egg, Worcestershire sauce and of course diced onion for the extra flavor. Then it was mashed together into a burger ready for cooking.

The aroma in the kitchen was incredible even before we started cooking. But the home made ginger beer might have helped to exaggerate the effect. When the cooking started though, there really was no mistake, the smell of the beef and onions made our mouths water and bellies rumble in anticipation of the coming meal.

The sounds of the sizzling meat and onions, bubbling and spitting as the burgers cook and the various flavors blend together and become a fantastic meal.

Cheese melting on top of the cooking burger and all home made, no need to waste money on junk food when you can prepare much better burgers at home yourself.

Google or Flickr?

If you haven't heard the big news of the last week and you're a photographer, then you have really missed out. Yahoo announced a complete Flickr revamp not just including a new look and redesign, which to be honest was really needed, but also that from now on Flickr will be offering 1 TB of storage free, yep, 1 TB and not just that, you can now also upload full size images. This is huge, with our image sizes getting larger all the time having access to 1 TB of storage space is incredibly handy. The new design is also fantastic, very modern and really helps to show off your images, whether they are on a desktop, laptop, tablet or phone. Flickr is now a great example of how a unified experience across multiple device types can work really well.

But getting back to the question I asked in the title, Google or Flickr? Well, with Google announcing at their I/0 all the new and mostly great features for Google Plus I was stuck because even though I really like the idea of Auto-awesome and Auto-enhance, I really don't want Google messing with images I have already edited myself. But I really would not mind leaving those features on for my everyday images. And that is where I get my answer to the question of Google or Flickr, why not use both? Google for your light everyday snaps and Flickr for your better, more professional images and collections? At least that is what I've decided to do given that I like the idea of auto enhancing normal snaps and really don't want to turn off that feature. I've spent today updating my Flickr account and moving images over from Google.

And just as a slight trip down conspiracy lane where the Popes and Pirates remain, here's a thought. Given that Marissa Mayer is a former Googler who has been given the unforgiving task of rescuing Yahoo from the jaws of corporate take over or worse and Google are constantly having to battle investigation for antitrust behavior because, well, for better or worse, they have their fingers in everyone's apple pie, could it be that a small deal was struck behind closed doors, that Google would become the photo backup and auto-enhancer for normal everyday pictures and Yahoo through Flickr would reclaim their place as the go to sweet spot for photographers? Just a wild thought that obviously could never happen in real life. Either way though, we the public are benefiting from Yahoo's fight for survival and they have won me back for one, at least where pictures are concerned. It would be nice if the big tech giants could cooperate on a small level for the public's benefit and to help push technology forward, making life better for all instead of constant patent disputes which just lead to delaying our technological advance. Anyway, for now I'm enjoying both Google Plus for my pictures and also really enjoying being back on Flickr since the announcement.

You can find me on Flickr here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chedean/

Playing with Fire

With BBQ season fast approaching +Linda Dean and myself have been getting in some practice. Of course wanting to test out the brand new BBQPad site was also a good excuse. It was also a great excuse to try and capture some fire shots because I've never really played around with fire photography. So as the BBQ began to light I got my chance to start shooting.

I prefer food shots but it is always fun to play around with new ideas. I need to get more practice in with fire as we BBQ over the summer. But for now I'm happy enough with these captures.

It is very true that fire has a life all of its own, at least it appears to, especially as the breeze catches and fuels the flame. There is a strange irony about flames, it has incredible destructive power but it also has a calming effect when viewed safely.

You can drift into the worlds of your own imagination while staring into flames. I've often wondered if the very early peoples that first learned to control and use fire, had their imaginations sparked to life as they stared into the flames, if it brought them an escape for a short time from the dangers around them.

Of course when Barbecuing you really don't want or need a massive big flame for long, you just need the flame to get the coals started and to make them white hot and ready for cooking. We then wait, knowing that within a very short time the aroma of BBQ will be drifting through the evening air and making us drool in anticipation of the coming meal. The sounds that it makes as the juices drip down onto the hot coals, to sizzle and spit flame back up and onto the cooking food above.

But that's for another time. For now, we can enjoy for a brief time the beginning of the cook and let ourselves for a few moments get lost in imagination, dreaming of the past.

Transplant of a Rose

Last autumn we transplanted a miniature rose bush from a very dull spot on one side of our house. It was a sad looking object that was really struggling to survive. We have massive trees on three sides of the house, not all ours but they still block a lot of sun light during the summer. This had caused this particular miniature rose bush to really struggle. So we decided to transplant the bush to the front of the house in the hopes that we could save it and hopefully watch it bloom this year. Well, I'm glad to report the transplant worked and we have a blossoming miniature rose bush in our front garden, full of flowers and life. And to prove it, I have taken a small but nice collection of shots to show off just how bright and colourful it has become.

The clear blue sky really helps bring out the colour of the roses and variation in the different roses shows just how healthy the bush has become since we replanted it.

The yellow gives the petals a velvet like appearance near the centre of the flower. We'll be trimming these early flowers so more can be produced as the season continues.

To give you some perspective, the bush itself is only about a foot high but the first cutting produced nine or so flowers with tons of blooms left to produce more.

I love the contrast in the above image between the rose and the background leaves. The red edges and veins in the rose leaves look fantastic and I am very happy with this capture. Hopefully over the course of the summer I will get a lot more opportunities to capture more shots from this miniature rose bush. But until then I will be keeping a close eye on it to see how it develops. It really is incredible to see such positive change since we replanted it though.

From the river to the web

Its been a week or so since my last confe...post but that time has not been wasted. I have not only been enjoying the fantastic weather we've been having but also clicking away with my trusty Canon. As the title suggests, I have been interested in the local river rocks here in Corvallis and while on our evening walks I've had great opportunities to grab some images. That is of course provided +Linda Dean isn't trying to "accidentally" push me in the river.

I like capturing the ripples and thought the above image turned out well. Not only capturing the rippling waves but also the various colours of the rocks and sand from the river bed. The water is pretty clear considering it runs through a major town, I was surprised, the river Lee back home isn't quite so lucky unfortunately.

These were really fun to play with, I've been using a mixture of Google Picasa on Ubuntu and Snapseed on Android. It takes time to get the images the way I want them and sometimes it just doesn't work and you just have to start over.

The heat here has been crazy and it doesn't take long for the rocks to dry out. I like the light grey dusty look they get when dried off. Capturing them is interesting to me because I know every time I go back the river will have changed them and there will be a whole new scene to capture.

A week is probably to long between posts and I'm going to try and improve that. With the great weather we have also been busy Barbecuing so expect food posts in the coming days. I really like shooting food at its best and what's better on a sunny day than BBQ Steak, Pork or Chicken? Ok, maybe homebrew or craft beer, but normally the two go hand in hand.  

Warping Chaos

Warhammer 40K is one of the greatest table top games ever created and I used to spend hours and hours preparing my figures for battle. Originally I collected Imperial Space Marines but in the late nineties I moved to Chaos Space Marines also known as Traitor Marines, though from the point of view of the Chaos Marines, it's the Imperial Marines who are the real traitors.

It takes a lot of dedication to get into Warhammer 40K because not only is it very expensive to start off but it's also a huge investment of time and effort painting your chosen army. It is however a fantastic hobby and very rewarding seeing your army all painted up and ready for battle.

I got a pack of five of these generic Chaos Marines from a friend of mine who decided he didn't want to play Chaos and had instead decided to play Orks. The paint scheme I ran with was a variation on the World Eaters Legion with a slightly less gold trim and a more oily tarnished finish to them. I wanted them to have an old, battle hardened look instead of a polished straight out of boot camp look.

The figures at the time were the newer plastic type and not the lead figures that they all used to be through the eighties and early nineties. I kind of prefer the plastic ones as they are cheaper and easier to paint and transport to a game. Having a lot less weight to transport to different games makes life that bit easier.

I used a few different layers of paint on the trim and I loved the way it turned out. It turned out looking almost like tarnished brass which was exactly the way I wanted them to look, old and battle hardened, like they had spent millennium in battle. Which of course as Chaos Marines they would have, leaving the warp to lay waste to Imperial worlds.

The above is a Chaos Terminator Marine, the figure is circa late eighties early nineties. Unfortunately I never got around to finishing off painting it but it was turning out very nice. His power fist looked like it was caked in the blood of his enemies from endless years of hand to hand combat with Imperial forces or anyone else who dared challenge the mighty World Eaters.