Carl Weaver Photography

I was assigned to do a composite photo that will be used for a Web banner. Rather, some portion of it will be used. It had to incorporate candy, chocolate and gum. What do you think?

Well, it may not be fit for Thanksgiving use, but I will have to check the rulebook on that to be sure. Seriously, this is great stuff. I can’t say in all honesty that it tastes like duck, but it’s not bad in a stir-fry.

Have a great Thanksgiving, folks, and remember not to overdo it with the vegetarian duck.

Yes, these are the candies inside the box I photographed before. Perfect little orbs of sweetness, made from white and dark chocolate. Give them a try.

What’s your favorite chocolate treat?

Okay – I am really digging product photography. I had never really done much of it until I was hired by a local company early this year to photograph some stuff for their website. Since then, I have branched out a bit and have been doing lots of candy photography, as you have seen. Something else I have enjoyed is getting some shots of things either around the house or else in my cabinet. Yes, it may seem weird, but at least it keeps me out of trouble!

Carabao is an energy drink, similar to Red Bull or M-150, which I first experienced while in Thailand. It’s not super palatable but does put a little zing in your step.

What do you have in your home that would be interesting to photograph?

If you have not tried these, go straight to your local gourmet chocolate store and get a box. They are incredible – little balls of mixed white and dark chocolate that melt in your mouth and taste like pure goodness. Not only are they delicious, they are also fun to photograph!

We have already had two good frosts here in the DC area, which means the end of any sort of crops that are at all fleshy or otherwise delicate and full of water. I was able to get the last of the jalapenos and a handful of basil before the frost came and ruined it but was sad because of this harbinger of the coming winter. Winter was one of the two seasons we had in Massachusetts when I was there (the other being “bad skiing”) and one of the reasons I had to come back south, or closer to it. My people aren’t made to handle that kind of weather! At least here in northern Virginia the weather is not terrible most of the time and my years up north prepared me for how to deal with various inclemencies. Also, I have some of these peppers to pickle, which will put some fire in my belly throughout the winter and give me the feeling of warmth, if not the actual thing.

How is your garden faring in the weather where you are?

You know by now that I am a sucker for candy photography, if you will excuse the pun. Well, as you might guess, I am a big lover of candy as well. Especially coffee candy. I fell in love with coffee candy when I was in Thailand with my friend Phramaha Nattapong, the monk you have heard me mention before. It turns out that small candies like this are okay for monks to consume even during the times they are supposed to abstain from eating food – from noon until the next morning. Why? I don’t know.

But now I have a problem. You have likely read about the melamine problem in Chinese milk. Well, these coffee candies I bought not so long ago are made in Southeast Asia and very well could contain Chinese milk. How can I know for sure?

I have three bags and now face the dilemma of deciding whether to keep them and take the chance or else simply throw them out when I am done photographing them. In the meantime, I feel like I should curse American tastes and sensibilities. If these were more popular, American confectioners would make them with good, old-fashioned American milk.

Regardless, they will probably just go into the trash when I am thoroughly done photographing them. The sweet, dark, deliciousness of these delights is no match for my love of good health. So adieu, sweet delectable candy. Our paths may not converge again for a while.

It’s that time of year again – time for the little ghosts and goblins to come knocking at your door and time to start stocking up on candy in anticipation of that. The king of candy, of course, is candy corn. People love this treat so much that it caused a recent controversy related to what the top of the candy corn is – the yellow or the white part?

Anyway, take a photo of your candy stash waiting to be doled out to the kids in your neighborhood, post a photograph to your Flickr account and link here so we can all see what you are giving out this year. After all, we have to plan our routes and wouldn’t want to miss your house!

Do you trick-or-treat? Go to Halloween parties? Take the kids out for candy collection? Tell us what costumes have caught your fancy this year!

Well, I missed moon cake season again this year, but as luck would have it, I am surrounded by Asian-type markets here in Northern Virginia. The lunar celebrations these delicacies are famous for are all harvest celebrations, so I figure these are good for the Halloween season as well, even if it is a month past the official time to eat them.

The ones I bought are filled with durian paste, so I can’t wait to try them. For some reason, though, they are remarkably scent-free, unlike durians in the wild. At least I acted within the first few months and was able to get a couple of these cakes to photograph. They seem to last forever, like the Chinese version of fruitcake, so I suppose I can photograph these for quite a while before eating them.

Technorati Tags: moon cake, Northern Virginia, lunar celebrations, harvest celebrations, Halloween, durian, Chinese, fruitcake

This time with a black background. Fun stuff!

My Lovely Wife thinks these look like pills. They are Tic-Tacs.

These, too, look a bit odd. They are also Tic-Tacs but someone asked me if they were lizard eggs. Um, I hope not.

The gum was fun to play with and getting it to stand like that was a challenge.