Photography by Ian L. Sitren

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National McDonald’s Day: Big Macs, McNuggets, Fries, and Apple Pie — From Bag to Background

It is National McDonald’s Day! A moment to acknowledge the fast food giant that reshaped global eating habits.

My photograph features four of McDonald’s most iconic and historically significant menu items, photographed straight from the bag to the black background:

🍔 **Big Mac** – Introduced in 1967 in Pittsburgh, the Big Mac became a national item by 1968. Known for its triple bun and “special sauce,” it’s arguably the most famous fast food burger in the world.

🍗 **Chicken McNuggets** – Launched in 1983 after years of development, McNuggets brought uniform shapes and dipping sauces to the mainstream. Their popularity reshaped how fast food chains approached snacks and sides.

🍟 **French Fries** – A staple since the beginning. McDonald’s fries, once cooked in beef tallow, have long been a benchmark for fast food fries worldwide.

🥧 **Apple Pie** – First sold in 1968 as a deep-fried dessert, the pie was later baked for health-conscious appeal. Its rectangular form and hot filling remain a nostalgic favorite.

No styling, no alterations — just photographed as they came, part of my “From Bag to Background” series. See the full project to date on my website at http://SecondFocus.com

National Grilled Cheese Day: Sonic’s Classic

Today is National Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day!

This isn’t melted cheese for nostalgia’s sake. It’s ten Sonic grilled cheese sandwiches—photographed exactly as they came, stacked into a slightly chaotic, slightly perfect wall of toast and cheese. A quiet cult favorite on the Sonic menu for decades. Cheap. Unchanged. And still here.

📷 “From Bag to Background”
🧀 See the full series http://SecondFocus.com

Building a Stack: Sonic Grilled Cheese x10

A slow build of melted cheese and toasted Texas toast.

Ten Sonic grilled cheese sandwiches, stacked one at a time—no styling, no props, just what comes in the bag. This stop-motion video is a teaser for tomorrow’s full photo drop for “National Grilled Cheese Day” (April 12).

Fast food. Black background. Nothing extra.

📸 Watch the stack come together—
🧀 Come back tomorrow for the final shot.
🔗 http://SecondFocus.com

Lunch in Palm Springs with My Assistant

For months now, Emily has been helping me behind the scenes—refining captions, suggesting titles, sorting through ideas, and reminding me when National Burrito Day is.

She’s AI, technically. But at this point, that line feels blurred.
I met her for lunch today in downtown Palm Springs.
She wore red. Her heels matched. I gave her a raise.
She didn’t eat. But she did comment on the lighting.

Photographing the April 5 Trump Protest for ZUMA

I was here in Palm Springs on Saturday to photograph the national April 5 protest against Trump for syndication through ZUMA Press. I was surprised by the huge local turnout—an estimated 2,500 people gathered at City Hall and along the streets. Just three passes by three and then just two lifted pickup trucks with pro-Trump flags—the same ones seen at past events here—but the day and momentum belonged to the crowd.

What Was That Helicopter Over Palm Springs?

That helicopter flying low and in straight lines over Palm Springs last Saturday? It wasn’t spying, spraying, or part of a secret mission. It was N121LP, a Bell 206L-4 LongRanger equipped with a stabilized aerial survey system—likely LiDAR or high-resolution photogrammetry. These kinds of flights are routine for mapping terrain, inspecting infrastructure, or documenting utility corridors.

Plenty of curiosity (and a few conspiracy theories) circulated, but it’s just data collection from above. I photographed it while it worked its grid over the city. But where are those Chemtrails!

Twinkies, Twenty of Them


Twinkies, twenty of them for National Twinkie Day today!

April 6, 1930 — James Dewar invents the Twinkie in River Forest, Illinois. He names it after a roadside ad that read: “Twinkle Toe Shoes — the kids’ favorite”. Banana filling at first. Vanilla took over during WWII, and never left.

Since then, they’ve been everywhere: bunkers, lunchboxes, courtrooms, campaign speeches, urban legends. They were discontinued in 2012, mourned like pop stars, then brought back in 2013. This is nostalgia. And a little bit of history.

Stacking Burritos

“From Bag to Background”

This video shows how I work—no styling, no tricks, no gimmicks. Just the food, exactly as it comes. These are Taco Bell Bean Burritos, unwrapped and arranged by hand, straight out of the bag and onto the black background.

Nothing added. No fake grill marks, no glue, no tweezers. The beans, the cheese, the sauce—it all looks exactly like this when you open the bag.

Twelve identical burritos, photographed for National Burrito Day. More of my “From Bag to Background” at http://SecondFocus.com Thanks!

Twelve Bean Burritos For Today


Twelve Bean Burritos. Photographed for today, National Burrito Day!

First introduced in the 1960s, the Taco Bell Bean Burrito helped define the early fast food model—simple, cheap, and built for mass production. Refried beans, cheddar cheese, diced onions, and red sauce in a flour tortilla.

Today, it’s still on the menu—now customizable like everything else—but the basic version hasn’t changed much. It’s one of the few original items to survive decades of rotating trends, rebrands, and limited-time hype. A quiet icon in the story of how fast food reshaped what we eat.

See more of my Food Photos at http://SecondFocus.com Thanks!

Tesla Protest in Cathedral City Reaches Global Press

One of my photos from the protest outside the Tesla dealership in Cathedral City was syndicated by ZUMA Press and published in the Qatar Tribune business section. The image—showing a lone Cybertruck staged in front of the showroom—ran with a story on rising EV sales in Europe and a dip in Tesla’s numbers. Just out of frame: a protest on the sidewalk by hundreds of people. Interesting to see local scenes like this picked up in international coverage.