I like the blur of this seagull's wings as it's in flight, but the sharpness of the rest of the animal.

Handheld, 1/90 sec at f/2.8 on ISO 200, 70-200mm f/2.8 lens

Went to Sino at Santana Row for lunch. This was our second time there - the first time we had dim sum (which was decent) so we decided not to order dim sum for lunch.

Emperor's Fried Rice - passable; what any decent cook whose never cooked fried rice could do at home. It certainly did not justify the $15 price tag

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What I Ate: January 3, 2009 (Sino)

Last week, I was walking around the Lakeway City Park near Lake Travis, Texas when I saw this concrete walkway that went out in the middle of a grassy field and abruptly ended. What was more bizarre was this awkward zig-zagging that the path did. I couldn't figure out why it was built that way (and later I went down and walked the path and still couldn't figure out why it went back and forth like that - it wasn't all that weird to walk down though…)

Handheld, 1/400 sec at f/8 on ISO 200, 85mm f/1.8 lens

Due to an unforeseen sequence of events at work, I didn't get a chance to eat lunch. I had several pieces of fine chocolate confections followed by a granola bar at around 4:00pm before going home.

For dinner, I picked up some food from KFC - a couple of original recipe drumsticks, hot wings, honey BBQ wings, cole slaw, potato wedges, corn, and a biscuit. Hopefully, that was enough calories to cover my day.

Hamburgers are good food. A patty of ground beef cooked until browned on the outside set inside a bun. My favorite is probably In-N-Out's Double-Double which is near perfect with the textural and flavor differences between the soft sponge bread bun, crisp fresh lettuce, crunchy nearly-raw onions, chewy meat patties, and moist sauce all in the same bite. Sometimes, I want a different burger that's a little more and for those days there's The Counter. The Counter is a new kind of burger joint where you build your own burger on paper from a large collection of possible choices and, when it's made for you, eat it while enjoying a nice glass of wine. When I go to The Counter, I usually end up with a burger that looks something like this.

Handheld, 1/30 sec at f/2.8 on ISO 100, 17-35mm f/2.8

Now that it's 2009, I thought I'd try this whole "What I Ate" project again. Last year, I did it for almost three months and several people emailed me after I stopped that they enjoyed the series. So, I'm going to try it again.

The first "meal" of 2009 was at around 2:00 AM while I was at my friend Harold's home for their annual New Year's Eve Game Party. I had two beef taquitos and a couple of Olive Street Table appetizers.

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What I Ate: January 1, 2009 (World Wrapps)

I'll start off the New Year with one of my favorite photographs. I took this photograph right after it rained in Death Valley, California. The cloud was looming overhead and the wind was blowing sand into the air from the distant sand dunes. I shot this from a low vantage point with a 28mm lens onto Fuji Velvia 50. I chose the film for its nearly unparalleled resolution (pretty much only Provia 100 beats it in terms of sharpness and detail) and post-processed in photoshop to simulate a red filter over black and white film to emphasize the cloud by darkening the sky.

Tripod, unrecorded exposure on Velvia 50, 28mm lens