Friday, February 18, 2011

Chinese Chicken Salad at California Chicken Cafe



We have a healthy random meal of the day consisting of a small Chinese Chicken Salad. Yes, I do sometimes crave something healthy. I have always been a fan of the Chinese Chicken salad. I believe I like the tangy salad dressing combined with the crispy crunchy wontons. This variation of the salad switches out the wonton strips with crispy noodles and crunchy almonds. Plain curly pasta gives this salad a twist. I actually drove ten miles for this salad and it was well worth the drive. Yum...

The funny thing about this particular shot was that the lighting conditions were not exactly idea. This is actually the second California Chicken Cafe location that I have been to. This one is twice as large but also twice as crowded. I decide to set at a counter seat that has the table built right into the window. It was a great seat if you were just enjoying lunch. The shot was going to be a backlit shot. There was a large moving truck that was parked right in front of the restaurant and it shaded the windows enough to give it a diffused look. Well, by the time I received my plate of food, the truck had move on. This left me with a tinted window with the sun beaming directly though it. One of the keys of lighting is diffusion, diffusion, diffusion. With the harsh lighting, the plate became a dark mess even with some positive exposure compensation. I then decide to rotate the plate sideways and that helped but not enough. I then remembered to change my metering mode to center weighted and that was enough to save the shot. I ended up having a nice warm shot of my wonderful Chinese Chicken Salad.

Found at California Chicken Cafe in Venice, CA.

(Nikon D700, 50mm, 5.6, 1/200, iso 200)

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