Tuesday Photo Challenge – Round Up 32

Fresh start, air and water!

After a light week of posting, as I took a bit of time off for the holidays, time to begin the week with round up of last week’s Tuesday Photo Challenge – Fresh.  Between the busy time of the Thanksgiving holiday and turning 60 on that day, a little time off and general laziness wasn’t bad 🙂  Now, back to work!

Your contributions to this week’s challenge were nothing short of phenomenal, which is what I have come to expect at this point (no pressure there 🙂 ).  The range of ideas that are contributed through your entries is fantastic going from fresh starts to fresh air and everything in between.

Here’s another little bit of freshness directly from a lovely pomegranate…

 

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Pomegranate Seeds

The following were this week’s participants in the challenge with links to their posts:

  • Charles was first out of the blocks with his post in CharlesEWaugh showing off the freshness of the tomatoes picked from his garden.
  • Scott’s post in Scott’s Place came from South America, where at least one of the coconuts was extremely fresh, as it had sprouted!
  • Emily’s brings us back to Summer in Zombie Flamingoes, as she shows us some delicious looking cherries and the tree that bore them.
  • Sasha’s post in Sasha’s Writings brings us a view of stunningly fresh flowers in a lovely bowl!
  • Xenia’s doubles up again this week, with her first post in Whippetwisdom showing her fresh whippets on the beach, and her second Whippetwisdom post.
  • Leaking Ink ‘s entry is not only fresh, but also incredibly precious!
  • Debbie’s post in Forgiving Connects reminds us of the importance of fresh starts.
  • Nature Knows Best, Judith’s wonderful blog, contributes the freshness of Nature and the majesty of elephants.
  • Miriam’s post in Out an’ About brings a breath of fresh air and a drink of fresh water!

Another fantastic set of entries!  The pressure is on to come up with another good theme to bring inspiration to this magnificent crowd!

Monday’s Food Moment – Pomegranate

Another red superfood!

The Punica Granatum produces a  a fruit that has become extremely popular during recent years, as it’s one of those superfoods that you just shouldn’t do without!

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Pomegranate Seeds

The pomegranate is native from Iran to the Himalayas in northern India and was cultivated and naturalized over the whole Mediterranean region since ancient times. It is widely cultivated throughout India and the drier parts of southeast Asia, Malaya, the East Indies and tropical Africa. The tree was introduced into California by Spanish settlers in 1769. In the United States it is grown for its fruits mainly in the drier parts of California and Arizona.

Loaded with anti-oxidants and also having anti-inflammatory properties, the pomegranate deserves the designation of superfood!  The only drawback it has, is that it can be a little tricky to extricate its delicious seeds without making a mess.  Two great techniques are shown in this BBC video on removing pomegranate seeds.

Hope you enjoy the photo and remember to get some pomegranates, when they are in season!

Technical Details

This shot was set up in my studio using a product table, on which I put just a smidgen of glitter to add some interest.  The pomegranate seeds were arranged with great care to ensure they looked their best.  Using two studio lights with softboxes, I dialed them in for just a bit of shadow and f/6.3 at 100 ISO and 1/100 second exposure.

Camera used was a Canon EOS 5D Mk II with an EF 70-200mm f/2.8 USM lens.