Essay #71: Spice of Life

 

Peppers were ubiquitous at the farmer's market this week. All shapes, colors, and degrees of heat. 

There was a very interesting article in the New York Times this week about hot peppers and why people love to consume these barely edible little bundles of fire. Pleasure in pain seems kind of masochistic to me. I've never understood the appeal of food that makes you cry, but I've never ventured much beyond medium salsa. What I found interesting about the article was the science of how a vegetable can mimic the sensation of setting one's tongue ablaze. Capsaicin, the chemical that makes peppers "hot," triggers the heat receptors in the mouth, making the brain think you're chewing glowing coals regardless of the actual temperature of the food. Here's another fact that a spice-wimp like me learned early on: Reach for milk, not water. Water won't dissolve capsaicin or lessen the burn (although the ice may feel good while it's in your mouth), but milk proteins will tame the flame.  

I haven't done this in a while, but here's the specs: 1/60 f/4.4 28mm ISO200

Essay #70: How much is too much?

One thing I'd forgotten about Photoshop is how easily time is frittered away tweaking tiny details that only I will probably ever notice. Yet I'm never entirely satisfied.

For example, I spent about an hour piecing together this photo from three different frames:

And I could have spent more by pulling the obscured bridesmaid from another shot. But at some point you just have to say enough is enough.

This is my love/hate relationship with Photoshop. I like playing with some of the special effects, and I like that I can make adjustments when the original shot wasn't as optimal as I'd like. But it's easy to get sucked into trying to make every shot "better" when my year-long hiatus from software showed me that I was more satisfied with the end product when shooting without the safety net of post-processing. When does it cross the line from optimization to obsession? Ten minutes? An hour? When does it turn from tool to crutch? When I'm too lazy to take a picture right the first time - or worse, forget how?

Oh, Photoshop. Blessing and bane wrapped up in a slick Adobe package.