Mind your manners

One of the interesting aspects of Bloomsburg University's College of Business is the Zeigler Institute for Professional Development. Sure, this is going to read a bit like shameless marketing, but happily, it's happens to be true.

The Institute is created through an endowment from Terry Zeigler '76 and JoAnn Schultz Zeigler '77. The Zeigler Institute is all about cultivating the professionalism ... including the soft skills that aren't found in text books.

Like how to manage a formal dinner. Which fork goes with what? How quickly should you eat? And how do you manage spaghetti? In short, dining etiquette. And who couldn't use a refresher in that once in a while.

Through the Zeigler Institute, upper level business students get to experience a formal dinner guided by Maria Bauman, catering manager for Aramark at BU and a pro at all things in the dining room.

From a photographic perspective, this is a challenging event. There's just not much light to work with or room to move in. Food and dining photography is a specialty in its own right and it's not an area I'm especially practiced in (yet). But it was a lot of fun to watch.

The bottom photo is of the Aramark team working behind the scenes at a large event several years ago. Though it's just tangentially related, I included it because I think illustrates teamwork wonderfully and it's one of my favs.

Click on any photo to see them larger.

Science on my mind

Classroom and lab shoots can be a lot of a fun. A lot of times, you learn a lot just visiting the class.

A recent anatomy lab for speech pathology majors taught be John Hranitz from biology was a special treat. The lecture was fun to listen to and photographically there was a lot going on. A lecture, some microscope work, and exploring with plastic models. Almost three photo shoots in one.

Shooting was done with the Canon 7 and (primarily) Tokina 16-50 f/2.8. The Tokina is a nice lens, but difficult to find now. Sharpness is very good, though there's a fair bit of distortion at the wide end that will show up in ceiling lines. The last photo in this series was done with the Canon 50 f/1.4.

ISO was set at 1600 for the entire shoot. Aperture was generally in the f/4 to f/5.6 range.

The top photo has some subjective color in Dr. Hranitz's face because he's illuminated by a projector.

Canon color tends to run a little warm as well. The "auto color" option in Photoshop will typically cool it down. But often I leave the Canon warmth in altogether or a fade the auto color by about half to keep a portion of the warmth.