Dave's Photo & Travelblogue

What is this Sauce of Death?

Blair’s Death Sauce is one of my favorite hot sauce brands. It’s got real flavor, despite being very hot (which hardly any chili sauce can achieve). The sauces range from warm (Sweet Death) to outrageous (Ultra Death – see YouTube clip) to the hottest food ever: pure capsaicin extract.

I plan to bring a bottle of Death Sauce with me on my round-the-world trip. Which kind should it be? Currently I’ve got these babies sitting around:

I was debating about Salsa de la Muerte (Spanish-speaking export version), After Death, or perhaps Stronger than Death. I don’t want to bring one so hot that no one can do more than taste a drop on a toothpick. Of course, if Blair could comp me a bottle of Golden Death (and could get it into Europe despite the volcano), I’d gladly share the newest member of the family with those I meet around the globe…

Hot Sauce lovers, Chiliheads, lend me your taste buds… which sauce do YOU think I should take around the world with me?

For those interested in how the photos were taken, see the setup below:

The first picture featured here was taken with a red gel on the off-camera strobe with the umbrella. The second was taken without gels. In both cases I used a “puffer” on the camera’s flash to soften the light.

Snowboards 2009 Photo Shoot

Yesterday I talked with a friend about some Strobist stuff. I realized that I’ve hardly used my two off-camera flashes: a Vivitar 383 and a Nikon SB-600. Since I wanted some killer pics of my new Virus snowboard before I try some extreme carving with it, I thought this would be a good chance to play! The same techniques could be used for any shots, including travel photos if you choose to bring a bit of flash gear.

The flashes are to the top left and bottom right of the photo, with shoot-through umbrellas for soft light and less distinct shadows.

Santa Cruz 148, F2 Speedster SL 158, Virus X-Treme Carver Premium 162

For the next photo I just added color gels to the flashes:

Red gel camera left, green gel camera right, shoot through umbrellas

Now some solo photos, with no color gels. I also changed to the more focused reflective umbrellas here to get a better visual effect on the Virus’ nice carbon-fiber finish:

Virus X-Treme Carver Premium 162 - beautiful carbon fiber top for extra torsional stiffness, and super-sexiness!

F2 Speedster SL 158 - what a pretty board!

Finally, here’s a setup shot so you can see where I put the umbrellas for the single-snowboard shots. I had to do a lot of adjusting for the Virus board to avoid that anything from the rear wall reflected in the mirror-like finish. I even closed blinds in another room and took some pictures off the wall! Ah, to have a studio…

Snowboard photo setup for single-board shots