Lights, Camera, Action

I got this idea a week ago about posting what it takes to get my Sunday Dinner Episodes on my blog. I never gave it much thought but I put in a lot of time to get these done. It may be time better spent elsewhere but it is my time and I can use it anyway I want.

1. Either early in the week or close to the weekend I try to come up with an menu or recipe I haven't done yet. As weeks go by this gets more and more difficult to do. I have grilling cook books, past recipes I have saved and the internet to search but it still takes time. I also have to find recipes both the wife and I like.


2. I will normally decide what I am cooking and then I decide how I am going to cook it. Just because I might find rack of lamb in a recipe book doesn't necessarily mean I am going to cook it according to that recipe. Now I have to search for the way I want to cook it or the way I think I or the wife might like it best. This takes time and I normally do this on Saturday morning before we go shopping so we only make one trip to the store. Going to the store around here can be a bit frustrating too. When we lived in Virginia we could find almost anything we needed for the recipes I use. Around here some items you would think should be easy to find isn't always necessarily so. I do try to use recipes with simple ingredients because the last thing I want to do is buy $5 ingredient and use it once.

3. When Sunday rolls around I figure out how much time I will need to cook the meal. I usually end up late because I never alot enough time. Once this if figured out I have to have get the camera set up to take pictures.

I never use a flash inside anymore I only use my tripod for still shots. This has made a big improvement in my pictures and I recommend it to anybody taking still shots inside.

4. Ingredients need to be lined up for their photo session but I always seem to miss an ingredient.

This actually helps because now everything is already out for me to use. As I use the ingredients I put them away so I don't use them twice.

5. At some point while I am preparing the meal of the week I have to go out and start the charcoal.

It will normally take anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes to have good hot coals to cook from.

Now it is time to decide do I cook over direct or indirect heat and do I need hot or medium coals to cook with. What I am cooking for the week will decide what heat or method I cook over. By now I have dragged the camera outside to start taking pictures of the cooking operation.


6. Time to start cooking.

By this time I am normally rushing around trying to take pictures while the food is cooking and also not letting to much heat escape by leaving the lid off to long.

7. Once everything is cooked it is time to eat. Not so fast my friend before we can eat pictures need to be taken of the final plating of the meal.

Now we can sit down and enjoy the meal.

Now you may be thinking to yourself "That doesn't seem to bad." Well to be honest I am only half done now. For me that is the easy part the hard part is still coming up.

8. By this time all the pictures have been taken. I normally will take between 40 and 50 pictures by the time I am done. Thank goodness for digital photography. The pictures get uploaded into the computer and I sort through them all getting rid of pictures I don't like. I try to save the best of the pictures and also try to get down to less then 10 for posting.


9. Once I have chosen the pictures I want it is time to Photshop them. That's right I use Photoshop on all my pictures thanks to my much older sister. This takes time cropping, adjusting contrast, sharping, adjusting colors, etc. I think it's worth it because it will take an average picture (one of my average pictures) and turn it into a good picture.

10. After the Photoshopping has been done I upload all my pictures to the Photobucket website. Why do I do this? I discovered you can control the size of the pictures much easier. Plus it gives a backup place for my pictures. I discovered the Photobucket website from older sister again. I couldn't figure out how she was able to get those nice big pictures on her blog until one day I noticed if you double click on the picture it would take you to her Photobucket site where she stores her pictures. Well I'll be a monkeys Uncle that is how she does it. I have been doing it ever since I discovered this. If you double click on one of my pictures it will now take you to my Photobucket site where all my pictures reside that goes onto my blog. If you ever see a picture you want from my blog you can go here and get it. And to let you in on a little secret every now and then if you go there you can get a sneak preview of upcoming posts. Sometimes I upload my pictures a couple of days before I post them on my blog.


11. This is the hard part for me. This is the part I wish I had paid more attention in English class. This is the part where I must write the Sunday Dinner Episode. Sometimes I think I would be better off letting the pictures tell the story. It takes me anywhere from 1-2 hours to write an episode. I will write, edit, write, edit, write some more, edit some more and when I finally think I am done I hit preview and so I can view what it looks like before it goes on my blog. I normally will find mistakes and correct them and then hit preview one more time and check it again. I still make mistakes that get onto the blog but oh well, I knew when I started it wouldn't be perfect.


12. Finally I feel comfortable enough to hit the little orange button that says "Publish Post" at the bottom of the screen and let the whole world see what I am up to on Sunday.


There you go, this is what I do every week to get Sunday Dinners on my blog. This is why every now and then it takes a few extra days to get the Sunday Dinner Episode on my blog. I enjoy doing it because if I didn't I wouldn't do it.


Enjoy your Sunday Dinner this week.