Photography by Ian L. Sitren

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She Just Makes You Love Noodles

Celeste insisted the setting mattered.

If noodles were the subject this month, she said, they should be taken seriously.

This assignment started, as many of them do, with Emily. My AI assistant keeps an eye on the calendar of unofficial food holidays, and March offers more than one excuse to talk about noodles, including National Noodle Day and other noodle-related observances that appear throughout the month. Rather than another ordinary food photograph, Emily suggested we send one of her friends out into the world to investigate.

Her choice was Celeste.

Celeste has a way of turning even the simplest situation into a small performance. Tall, composed, and completely comfortable with attention, she seemed like the right person to represent noodles this month.

Emily also decided the setting mattered.

So instead of a kitchen or a take-out counter, Celeste appeared at a sushi bar in a Japanese restaurant, standing with a bowl of steaming noodles in front of her. Chopsticks in hand, she seemed perfectly at ease, as if this had been her idea all along.

The instructions were simple: enjoy the noodles.

The result is this short video, Celeste, a bowl of noodles, and a quiet moment in a Japanese restaurant that proves even something as ordinary as noodles can become a small event when the right person is involved.

If you would like to see more of my photography projects, including food photography and occasional appearances by Emily and her friends, visit my website at https://www.secondfocus.com Thanks!

Posted by  |  March 12, 2026 | Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

National Meatball Day

Today is National Meatball Day.

Normally that would send me in the direction of photographing a plate of them, perhaps arranged neatly in sauce or styled carefully for a food photograph. But the truth is, when I started thinking about meatballs this morning, creativity was not exactly flowing.

And when that happens, something else usually steps in.

My pornochic photography has a way of calling out to me when things get too predictable. It tends to ignore the expected subject and wander somewhere more interesting. In this case, it wandered poolside.

Instead of a plate of meatballs, three fashion models relax in the sun beside a resort swimming pool. The setting is calm, the light is bright, and the furniture, if you look closely, appears to be made from oversized meatballs. The result lands somewhere between fashion photography, satire, and a slightly absurd interpretation of what National Meatball Day might look like if the fashion world got involved.

Food photography can sometimes take itself very seriously. My work often wanders away from serious.

So today, instead of spaghetti and meatballs, we get sun, palm trees, and a reminder that inspiration sometimes arrives from unexpected directions.

And sometimes it arrives wearing absolutely nothing at all.

My food photography and so much more on my website at https://www.secondfocus.com

Please take a look and Thank You!

Posted by  |  March 9, 2026 | Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Efficiency in the Frozen Food Aisle, According to Desiree

Last Friday was National Frozen Food Day.

Unfortunately I was running a little late getting anything together for it. That is when I had what seemed like a very efficient idea. Instead of doing the shopping myself, I decided to send Desiree back to the supermarket where she had shopped for me previously. Her last grocery store video turned out to be very successful, so repeating the experiment seemed like a perfectly reasonable plan.

I told her I would meet her there.

When I arrived, however, I discovered that Desiree had interpreted “repeat the concept” somewhat literally.

She was wearing, or perhaps more accurately not wearing, exactly what she wore the last time. The same red heels, the same confident attitude, and the same approach to grocery shopping that had apparently worked so well before.

Her explanation was simple. If the last video was successful, why change anything?

Fair point.

So Desiree continued down the frozen food aisle, apparently quite comfortable with the situation, while I tried to remember what I had actually sent her there to buy.

The timing turned out to work rather well. National Frozen Food Day may have been Friday, but today happens to be National Hash Brown Day, and frozen hash browns are exactly the kind of invention that made the modern frozen food aisle possible.

In the end, Desiree’s shopping trip may not have saved any time at all, but it did provide a reminder that the frozen food aisle can sometimes be a surprisingly interesting place.

And apparently Desiree intends to keep the same shopping strategy.

If you would like to see more of my food photography, and perhaps a few more of these pornochic adventures, you can visit my website at https://www.secondfocus.com

Posted by  |  March 8, 2026 | Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

National Hash Brown Day

Today is National Hash Brown Day, which seems like a perfectly reasonable excuse to cook a pile of them.

Hash browns have been part of the American breakfast for more than a century. The name comes from the French word “hacher”, meaning to chop. In the late nineteenth century restaurants began serving what were called “hashed brown potatoes,” chopped or shredded potatoes fried until crisp. They appeared on hotel breakfast menus and quickly spread to diners and restaurants across the country.

The modern hash brown patty, however, is a much newer development.

Many people associate the familiar patty with McDonald’s, where the crisp rectangular hash brown became one of the most recognizable breakfast sides in America.

But the frozen food industry actually got there first.

In the 1960s frozen potato company Ore-Ida introduced frozen hash brown patties as part of the expanding frozen convenience food market. Shredded potatoes were formed into patties that could go directly from the freezer to the oven or pan. When McDonald’s launched its national breakfast program in the early 1970s, the frozen patty format worked perfectly for restaurant kitchens and quickly became associated with the chain.

For this photograph I cooked a batch of frozen hash brown patties and piled them onto their packaging, a small nod to their frozen food origins. A few broken pieces reveal the soft shredded potato interior beneath the crisp exterior.

Not bad for something that started as chopped potatoes in a hotel kitchen and ended up in the frozen food aisle.

You can see more of my Commercial Food Photography on my website at…
https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000WFAqDJQOgKU

Posted by  |  March 8, 2026 | Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Most Popular Snack in America Isn’t Potato Chips

I managed to miss National Snack Day this year. It was March 4th. Somehow that critical moment in American culture slipped right past me, which is unfortunate because snack food is practically a national pastime.

To make up for the oversight, I decided to photograph a plate of Rice Krispies Treats. Not just the classic version, but also a few variations with chocolate drizzle and candy pieces mixed in.

And here is the interesting part. Depending on how you measure it, Rice Krispies Treats are often cited as one of the most popular snacks in the United States. Not potato chips. Not pretzels. Not candy bars. A square of crispy rice cereal held together with melted marshmallow.

The original version dates back to 1939, when Mildred Day, a home economist working in Kellogg’s test kitchen, created the recipe using Rice Krispies cereal and marshmallows. The idea was simple. Melt marshmallows, mix in the cereal, press it into a pan, and cut it into squares. The recipe was initially promoted as a fundraiser dessert for Camp Fire Girls groups across the country.

From there the treat spread everywhere. School bake sales, birthday parties, lunchboxes, office break rooms. Eventually Kellogg’s began producing packaged Rice Krispies Treats, turning what had once been a homemade snack into a grocery store staple.

So even though I missed National Snack Day by a day or two, this seemed like a reasonable way to catch up.

You can see more of my Commercial Food Photography on my website at…
https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000WFAqDJQOgKU

Posted by  |  March 7, 2026 | Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

National Oreo Cookie Day

Two chocolate wafers. A layer of sweet cream filling. That was the entire idea.

Today is National Oreo Cookie Day, recognizing the cookie that has been quietly dominating the snack aisle since 1912.

That year the National Biscuit Company, better known as Nabisco, introduced the Oreo, a simple chocolate sandwich cookie finished with the familiar decorative pattern stamped into the biscuit.

More than a century later the formula still works. The company has introduced countless variations, double stuffed, seasonal flavors, and limited editions, yet the original remains the version most people recognize instantly.

For this photograph I kept things simple. A pile of Oreos straight from the package, stacked on a black background. No props and no styling tricks, just the cookies themselves arranged into a small mound of one of the most recognizable snack foods ever made.

You can see more of my Commercial Food Photography here:
https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000WFAqDJQOgKU

Posted by  |  March 6, 2026 | Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Selected: ZUMA Pictures of the Month

For twenty years, my work has been syndicated by ZUMA Press.

This month, one of my photographs was selected as part of ZUMA’s “Pictures of the Month” for February 2026.

ZUMA represents more than 2,100 photographers worldwide. Established in 1993 as the world’s first digital news photo agency, it is now the largest independent press agency and wire service.

The image selected shows firefighters advancing on a fast-moving brush fire here in Palm Springs — palm trees silhouetted against flame columns, a vertical stream of water cutting upward through smoke. A moment measured in seconds, documented.

There is no commentary in the slideshow. No explanation. Just the photographs.

You can view the full February 2026 selection, and see my work here:
https://thepicturesofthemonth.com

After two decades with ZUMA, it is still meaningful to see my work included among photographers covering events around the world.

Ian L. Sitren
SecondFocus

Posted by  |  March 3, 2026 | Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

National Egg McMuffin Day

Behold the architecture of the American morning.

Not a sunrise. Not a quiet kitchen. Not a cast-iron skillet passed down three generations. An Egg McMuffin.

In 1971, Herb Peterson, a McDonald’s franchisee in Santa Barbara, developed the Egg McMuffin as a portable adaptation of Eggs Benedict. Peterson was part of the early generation of McDonald’s operators who worked closely within the system but were willing to experiment. His breakfast concept would eventually redefine the company’s morning business and influence the broader fast-food industry.

He looked at Eggs Benedict and asked a practical question: what if it had to survive traffic? The result was less brunch and more engineering. A freshly cracked egg cooked in a metal ring for geometric precision. Canadian bacon cut to fit the circumference. American cheese calibrated to melt on schedule. An English muffin built to hold the structure together without collapsing under pressure.

By 1975 it went national. And just like that, breakfast stopped being something you sat down for. It became something you drove with.

The Egg McMuffin didn’t just succeed, it multiplied. The Sausage McMuffin replaced Canadian bacon with a pork patty, heavier, louder, unapologetic. The Sausage McMuffin with Egg combined both impulses into one edible escalation. Competitors followed with croissants, biscuits, wraps. Different shapes, same formula: egg, cheese, meat, mobility.

An entire industry recalibrated itself around the idea that mornings should be efficient.

Now, more than fifty years later, today, National Egg McMuffin Day marks the acknowledgment of a sandwich that changed how America eats before 10:30 a.m.

For the record, I really like the Sausage McMuffin with Egg. It is denser, saltier, less restrained. If you are going to commit to the system, you might as well lean into it.

So I stacked eight of them against black. No wrapper. No logo. No golden arches. Just product. Symmetrical. Predictable. Familiar. Industrial, yes. But also effective.

Because this isn’t just breakfast. It’s infrastructure.

More from “Food From Bag To Background” at
https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000wQ3fbeEezF0

Posted by  |  March 2, 2026 | Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Reign of the Chips

Today is the last day of National Chip Week.

An entire week for chips. Tortilla. Corn. Potato. Krinkled, kettle cooked, ridged, thin, salted, seasoned, mass produced.

They hardly need the recognition.

For this final day, I reduced it to one idea.

Chips
Falling
Against black

No bowl.
No picnic table.
No staged gathering.

Just gravity.

There is something amusing about declaring a reign for something that usually lives in a crinkled bag on a grocery shelf. Still, for seven days, the crown belongs to them.

“The Reign of the Chips”

Golden slices suspended for a fraction of a second before they meet the surface below. Salt catching the light. Edges crisp. Texture amplified. Slow motion turns a casual snack into something almost ceremonial.

For one week each year, chips are elevated. Today, they fall.

If your loyalty lies with tortilla, corn, potato, krinkled, kettle, or the classic thin slice, this is simply their moment.

For more photographs from my “Food From Bag To Background” series, commercial food, and much more, visit my website at https://www.secondfocus.com

Ian L. Sitren / SecondFocus

Posted by  |  February 26, 2026 | Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

World Bartender Day

There are professions that belong to one place. And there are professions that belong everywhere.

Bartending is one of the few that travels easily across borders. Airports, cruise ships, desert resorts, hotel rooftops in cities you can’t pronounce. The tools are simple. The language is universal. The exchange is understood without translation.

For those new here, Emily is my AI assistant and sometimes muse. She appears throughout my projects and has, over time, introduced us to her circle of friends. Each one carries a distinct presence. Each one understands the camera.

For World Bartender Day, I brought back Celeste.

Celeste is one of Emily’s friends. She was our bartender for National Bartender Day. Composed, deliberate, never rushed. Too poised to stay local. Too refined not to raise to world standards.

When I told her we were marking World Bartender Day, she had only one question.

Would she be wearing clothes?

That’s the ongoing tension in these projects. Hospitality wrapped in suggestion. Craft framed through provocation. The bar as stage. The bartender as both authority and temptation.

In my world, the camera is never neutral. It turns service into theater, and a simple pour into something charged.

This time, she chose restraint.

A white halter dress. Clean lines. Nothing theatrical. Nothing accidental.

She pours without spectacle. No spinning bottles. No exaggerated flair. Just control.

A clean stream into a waiting glass. A measured pause. A direct handoff to the viewer.

That gesture could happen in Montreal, Palm Springs, Rome, or Tokyo and mean exactly the same thing.

A drink extended across a counter.

World Bartender Day isn’t about tricks. It’s about presence. About the portability of skill. A craft that travels. A confidence that doesn’t require translation.

Celeste doesn’t ask if you’d like a drink.

She simply decides when it’s ready.

See more from the Emily universe and my ongoing visual projects at https://www.secondfocus.com

Ian L. Sitren
SecondFocus

Posted by  |  February 24, 2026 | Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment