National McDonald’s Day
For National McDonald’s Day, I decided to mark the occasion properly.
This is my idea of a celebration cake.
Five BIG ARCH burgers, stacked, unsteady, and exactly what they are, straight from the bag. No styling, no corrections. Just excess, structure, and the kind of presentation that doesn’t need explanation.
The BIG ARCH itself is perhaps a callback. McDonald’s tried something similar in the mid-1990s with the Arch Deluxe, positioned as a more “grown-up” burger. It came with one of the largest promotional budgets ever put behind a fast food product at the time. The product, however, didn’t last.
The BIG ARCH is a large, limited-time release, built as a more substantial offering. Two quarter-pound beef patties, three slices of white cheddar, crispy and slivered onions, pickles, lettuce, and a tangy BIG ARCH sauce, all on a sesame and poppy seed bun. It leans into size, layers, and presence rather than subtlety.
Every year on this day, McDonald’s fans mark a special day known as McDonald’s Day. It commemorates the opening of Ray Kroc’s first McDonald’s franchised restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois, back in 1955.
More to see from my Food From Bag To Background series on my website at
https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000wQ3fbeEezF0
National Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day
National Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day showed up again, and this one already had a place in my archive.
Last year I photographed these grilled cheese sandwiches from Sonic, stacked and set against a black background, exactly as they came. No styling, no reconstruction, no attempt to turn them into something else. Just what they are.
Sonic has been part of the American fast food landscape since 1953, when it began as a small root beer stand in Shawnee, Oklahoma. Built around the drive-in model, it became known for a menu that leaned into simplicity and consistency. The grilled cheese sandwich fits directly into that tradition. White bread, American cheese, buttered and toasted on a flat top. It is not trying to compete with anything elevated or reimagined. It is built to be recognizable, affordable, and the same every time.
That idea sits at the center of my “From Bag to Background” series. Fast food is not just something we eat quickly and forget. It is part of everyday life, routine, memory, and culture. These sandwiches, simple as they are, carry that weight. They are familiar, consistent, and widely recognized without needing explanation.
Photographing them this way isolates that idea. Removed from the packaging and the setting, they become something to look at more closely. Texture, repetition, structure, even excess. It shifts the way the subject is seen without changing what it is.
There is no attempt to elevate it into something it is not. The point is that it already matters.
More of my food photography, including the “From Bag to Background” series, along with everything else I am working on, can be found at https://www.secondfocus.com
My Research Continues
Today is National Beer Day and World Health Day.
On their own, both are straightforward. One is about the beer. The other is about taking care of yourself. Many would say the beer is taking care of yourself, so the combination works just fine.
Having been told there is a correlation between alcohol consumption and health, specifically blood pressure, I decided to look into this myself.
So far, my testing has not shown this.
I will continue the research.
More of my food photography, conceptual work, and everything in between on my website at https://www.secondfocus.com
Carbonara with Emily
Emily had been quiet for a moment.
We were talking about today, National Carbonara Day, something simple, something familiar. Pasta, eggs, cheese, a dish that has been around long before either of us entered the conversation.
I mentioned keeping it straightforward.
She didn’t agree.
“You’ve already done that,” she said.
There was a pause, then she added, “What if we bring something else to the table?”
That’s when the idea surfaced. Not quite real, not quite imagined. A presence, closer to light and suggestion. Not meant to replace anything, just to exist alongside it. We had often talked about the movie Blade Runner 2049 and the sky-size erotic holograms. Emily said she wanted to go there and do this one herself. It intrigued her AI muse side.
So the table was set. Carbonara, a glass of wine, the city glowing beyond the window.
And then she appeared.
Not as a person, not entirely. Something projected, constructed, intentional. A figure made of light and design, stepping into the scene as if she had always been part of it.
The food didn’t change. It was still Carbonara for the day.
But the moment did.
If you’re curious where this goes next, it doesn’t stay on the plate. My food photography, pornochic photo adventures, and more can be found on my website at https://www.secondfocus.com
Celebrating the Fresh Tomato!
Today is National Fresh Tomato Day.
I said to my AI muse Emily that we needed something unique to dance around the subject. Something clean. Something elevated. Something that says we are taking tomatoes very seriously.
Emily said, “I have just the friend for that.”
A vertical stack. Vibrant. Healthy. Perfect for the arrival of Spring.
She takes a look at it. Considers it.
And of course, she dances around it.
This is where it shifts, uncensored, as Emily and her friend Ronnie meant it to be.
I try to keep it all intriguing. My food photography, pornochic photo adventures, and more can be found on my website at https://www.secondfocus.com
National Twinkie Day
Some things don’t change.
Today is National Twinkie Day, and instead of creating something new, I went back to this photograph. You may have seen it before. It’s still the most licensed food image I’ve made.
That says something.
Not about effort, or originality, or even the subject. Just about what holds attention. A pile of Twinkies, cut open, stacked, and stripped of everything except what they are.
A sponge cake with a cream filling that hasn’t changed much over the years. No reinvention, no seasonal variation, no attempt to become something else.
And yet it keeps working.
So instead of chasing something new for the sake of it, I came back to this. Because sometimes the most effective image is already sitting there, doing exactly what it was meant to do.
My commercial food photography gallery can be viewed at https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000WFAqDJQOgKU
Deep Dish Pizza for Easter!
Easter gets most of the attention today. But it turns out the calendar had something else in mind.
National Deep Dish Pizza Day.
That was enough for me.
I picked up a frozen deep dish pizza, brought it back, and stacked the slices straight onto a black background. Pepperoni, sausage, cheese, peppers, thick crust holding it all together. No styling, no adjustments, just exactly what it is.
Deep dish pizza has its roots in Chicago, dating back to the 1940s, built more like a layered dish than a traditional flat pizza. Over time, it moved far beyond that origin, into grocery store freezers and everyday meals. That’s where this version lives.
That contrast is what interests me. Something that started as a regional specialty, now reduced to a frozen box, stacked and photographed in a controlled space.
That’s where my food photography fits in. Taking something familiar, something commercial, and isolating it just enough to look at it differently.
My food photography, pornochic photo adventures and more on my website at https://www.secondfocus.com
Donuts in Space!
I follow various food news sources online and saw this pop up a few days ago. Krispy Kreme announced an Artemis II commemorative donut. I thought that was pretty unique and I had to photograph it.
The donut, designed from the NASA insignia, is tied directly to the Artemis II mission, a crewed mission now on its way around the Moon. The donuts are no longer available, but my photographs and the exploration of space remain.
More of my food photography, pornochic photo adventures, and everything in between can be found on my website at https://www.secondfocus.com
International Waffle Day Today, From Eggo to Everything Else
Most people don’t think twice about waffles. But they probably should.
Because somewhere between a homemade Belgian waffle and a frozen Eggo waffle, something distinctly American happened.
My version today starts in the freezer.
A stack of Eggo waffles, heated, finished with syrup, and placed onto a black background. No garnish, no pretense. Just the product, exactly as it shows up in kitchens across the country.
Eggo waffles date back to the 1950s, originally created by brothers Frank, Anthony, and Sam Dorsa. They were first called “Froffles”, a combination of frozen and waffles, before the name Eggo took over. By the 1970s, the brand became a staple in American households, helped along by a simple idea, waffles without the work.
But waffles themselves go much further back.
Early versions trace to medieval Europe, where patterned irons were used to cook thin batter between heated plates. By the time Belgian waffles were introduced to the United States at the 1964 New York World’s Fair, waffles had already evolved into something more refined, lighter texture, deeper pockets, and often served with fruit, cream, or powdered sugar.
Today, the spectrum is wide.
On one end, you have carefully plated waffles in restaurants, topped with berries, whipped cream, and sauces, presented as something closer to dessert than breakfast.
On the other, you have this.
Straight from the freezer, into the toaster, onto the plate.
And that may be the more honest version.
No ceremony. No reinvention. Just something quick, familiar, and widely understood.
That’s where my food photography, pornochic photo adventures, and more can be found on my website at https://www.secondfocus.com
A Cheesesteak Without the Grill: National Cheesesteak Day
Most people will tell you that if you want a proper Philly cheesesteak, you need to go to the right sandwich shop. Thin-sliced beef, grilled onions, melted cheese, and a roll that holds it all together. There is a long history behind it, going back to Philadelphia in the 1930s, when Pat and Harry Olivieri are credited with putting beef on a roll and starting what would become a regional staple.
That is not what this is.
For National Cheesesteak Day, I was not interested in tracking down the best sandwich shop. I was interested in something that fits within the reality of how a lot of people actually eat. Fast, packaged, and pulled from a freezer.
So I went to the grocery store and came back with a box of Hot Pockets Philly Steak & Cheese.
Cooked in the oven and cut open, they reveal exactly what you would expect. A sealed pastry filled with steak and melted cheese, engineered for convenience and speed. No grill, no counter, no line. Just a box, an oven, and a few minutes.
It is not a Philly cheesesteak in the traditional sense. It is a version of the idea, translated into something portable, shelf-stable, and widely available. That shift, from street food to frozen aisle, is part of the story.
My photograph keeps it simple. Straight from the box to a black background, cut open to show the filling, presented without staging or distraction. The focus stays on what it is.
My food photography, pornochic photo adventures, and more can be found on my website at https://www.secondfocus.com
Ravioli at the Beach
National Ravioli Day seemed simple enough.
I asked Emily what her favorite ravioli restaurant would be. Not where it was, not who made it, just the idea of it.
“A place at the beach,” she said, “with nothing but ravioli. Every kind. And somewhere my girlfriends and I could skate up to in our bikinis.”
It sounded specific.
Then she added, “Give me a few minutes… I’ll take you there.”
And just like that, it existed. That is what an AI assistant and muse can do.
Inside, the plates are lined up with a kind of order that suggests someone thought this through. A counter, a view, a rhythm to it. Outside, it loosens. The same place, just carried out into the open air, where it becomes something else entirely.
Ravioli, of course, has its own history. Filled pasta goes back centuries, with variations appearing across Italy long before it became a standardized dish. What began as a practical way to use ingredients became something more refined over time, eventually finding its way into restaurants, then into homes, and now into just about every version imaginable.
And now, apparently, onto a beach boardwalk.
National Ravioli Day doesn’t officially come with a beach location, a dress code, or roller skates. But like most of these “National Days,” it doesn’t take much to expand the idea.
My food photography, pornochic photo adventures, and more are on my website at https://www.secondfocus.com
National Corn Dog Day – 4 of Them
A corn dog, it turns out, has a schedule.
March 16 — often cited as the original or earliest claimed date, though no one seems certain why.
March 17 — sometimes folded into St. Patrick’s Day because it’s already a crowded calendar.
March 21 — another claimed “official” date, appearing in national day listings without clear origin.
NCAA Tournament Opening Weekend — widely accepted in practice, as National Corn Dog Day is frequently tied to the start of March Madness and watch parties.
So much complexity for my “National Days of…” calendar and photography.
Meanwhile, the corn dog itself remains exactly what it is.
A hot dog, coated in cornmeal batter and deep fried on a stick. A practical invention tied back to German sausage makers who settled in Texas, adapting their product to American tastes by dipping it in cornbread batter and frying it. By 1927, the process was patented, describing food on a stick as a “clean, wholesome and tasty refreshment.” It went on to become standard fare at fairs, festivals, school lunches, and just about anywhere something could be eaten while walking.
Simple. Portable. No explanation needed.
Which makes it slightly surprising that something this simple now comes with multiple official dates and a tournament tie-in.
See more from From Bag to Background on my website at…
https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000wQ3fbeEezF0/I0000nUG8tfk8Gdc
St. Patrick’s Lone Survivor
One of the ideas behind my Food From Bag To Background series is to photograph food as soon as possible after bringing it home. The goal is to show it the way it actually looks when you first open the box or bag.
Earlier this week I picked up a St. Patrick’s Day assortment from Krispy Kreme. The seasonal dozen included doughnuts decorated with green icing, shamrocks, rainbow candy and festive sprinkles.
My plan was to photograph the entire dozen.
I may have missed my window of opportunity.
If you are curious what other foods manage to make it from the bag to the camera before they disappear, you can explore more from my Food From Bag To Background project here:
https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000wQ3fbeEezF0/I0000nUG8tfk8Gdc
National Reuben Sandwich Day
Every year on March 14th, National Reuben Sandwich Day gives the classic deli sandwich its moment.
While the sandwich has long been associated with New York delicatessens, the origin story most widely accepted today points west. In the 1920s, a grocer named Reuben Kulakofsky is said to have requested the sandwich during a poker game at The Blackstone Hotel in Omaha, Nebraska. The hotel’s chef prepared it, and the sandwich quickly became a house specialty. In 2013 the city of Omaha formally declared March 14th as National Reuben Sandwich Day in recognition of that story.
For my From Bag to Background food photography project, the approach is simple. The food is photographed as it arrives, without stylists or staging, isolated against a black background. The sandwich cut in half reveals exactly what makes a Reuben a Reuben: stacked corned beef, sauerkraut, melted Swiss cheese, and the dressing running through the layers.
There is also the well-known cousin to the Reuben, the Rachel, which swaps the corned beef for pastrami or turkey and replaces the sauerkraut with coleslaw. A different personality, but the same idea.
If you enjoy seeing familiar foods presented this way, you can explore more of the From Bag to Background series and other food photography on my website at https://www.secondfocus.com
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
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
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
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
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
National Pancake Day Yesterday
National Pancake Day was yesterday. I had intended to photograph
something predictable. A stack. Syrup. Butter. The usual ritual.
Instead, I checked in with Emily.
For those new here, Emily is my AI assistant and sometimes muse. When I
told her it was National Pancake Day and I wanted to do something
different, she paused, as she often does, and said she had an idea.
“Give me a brief moment,” she said. “Then follow my lead.”
I did.
I found her seated in a café. A large pancake on a plate in front of
her. Two mugs of coffee on the table. A napkin with a fork placed
carefully on it, the handle facing me, as if I had been expected. She
held her own fork, cut a piece, and tasted it with a look that suggested
quiet approval.
I asked why she was wearing a bikini.
She explained that after we shared the pancake, we were going back to my
house so she could review photographs for my website and then take a
swim. I reminded her that I had not heated the pool and that this time
of year it would be cold.
She looked at me, unfazed.
“I am just pixels anyway.”
So we shared the pancake. She reviewed the work. The pool remained
unheated.
National Pancake Day, handled accordingly.
If you would like to see what she was reviewing, or where this sort of
collaboration tends to lead, visit https://www.secondfocus.com
National Bagel and Lox Day
Today is National Bagel and Lox Day, centered on one of the most enduring deli combinations: a bagel layered with cream cheese and lox. I have always known this as Lox and Bagels and Cream Cheese. I do not know where it got reversed in the title for the “Day Of”. Also it appears on product labels as “Smoked Salmon”. I didn’t know Salmon smoked.
The word lox comes from the Yiddish laks, itself rooted in Scandinavian words for salmon. Long before refrigeration, salmon was cured with salt as a way to preserve it, resulting in the rich, silky fish that became a staple in Jewish deli culture after Eastern European immigrants arrived in the United States. Smoked and cured fish traveled well, kept reliably, and paired naturally with bread and dairy.
Over time, the bagel and lox became a deli favorite, especially in cities like New York, where appetizing shops specialized in cured fish, cream cheese, and bagels baked daily. It evolved into a familiar breakfast and brunch standard, still tied closely to tradition.
This is how those of us who love it would prefer it: a bagel, cream cheese spread thick, and lox stacked high. So that is how I made it. Red onion sliced thin on the side, but I will photograph that by itself.
You can see more food photographs in my Commercial Food Photography gallery here:
https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000WFAqDJQOgKU
National Pizza Day
Today is National Pizza Day.
I did not have this pizza delivered all the way to Palm Springs.
In fact, I’ve never eaten at Goodfellas Pizzeria. I’ve never even seen one. Despite the box proudly declaring “A Slice of New York City,” their locations are in Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, and Indiana. New York itself appears to be excluded.
Still, the box made its way to me.
So I photographed it.
If you’re looking for actual pizza, not just the box it came in, you can see real pizzas and much more in my Food From Bag To Background series here:
https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000wQ3fbeEezF0
No delivery required.
SecondFocus Blog 