Ramen Day Japan From Traditional Ramen to Top Ramen
July 11th is Ramen Day in Japan.
When most people in the United States hear the word “ramen,” they probably think of a package or cup of instant noodles. In Japan, ramen is something entirely different. It is a carefully prepared dish built around fresh noodles, rich broth, and a wide variety of meats, vegetables, eggs, seaweed, and other ingredients. Depending on the style, the broth alone may take hours to prepare.
In 1958, Momofuku Ando changed all of that when he introduced Chicken Ramen, the world’s first instant noodles. A little more than a decade later, Nissin introduced Top Ramen to the United States, choosing Chicken as the original flavor because it was familiar to American tastes.
Although Top Ramen was created by a Japanese company, it quickly adapted to an American way of thinking. Traditional ramen can take hours to prepare. Top Ramen asks only one question: “Do you have three minutes?”
This photograph features Top Ramen Chicken Flavor, a product that has found its way into countless college dorm rooms, office lunch breaks, and kitchen cupboards. It may be a distant relative of a carefully prepared bowl of ramen in Japan, but for many of us, it is the version we grew up with.
You can see more food photography, motion, projects, and my Blog on my website at https://www.secondfocus.com
National French Fry Day | The McDonald’s Fries Debate Never Ends
Today is National French Fry Day.
McDonald’s french fries may be the closest thing fast food has to a religion. Everyone has an opinion. Some insist they were better before 1990. Others swear no one has ever matched them. Entire internet debates have been devoted to trying to duplicate them.
I wasn’t trying to solve the mystery. I was just trying to buy enough of them.
Historians may debate the rise and fall of civilizations, but ask people when McDonald’s fries tasted best and everyone suddenly becomes an expert. Mention beef tallow, vegetable oil, or the “original recipe,” and you’re likely to start an argument that lasts longer than the fries themselves.
This photograph took several large orders of McDonald’s french fries for my Food From Bag To Background project. They went straight from the bags to a black background. No props, no styling, and, despite considerable temptation, none disappeared before the photograph was finished.
You can see more food photography, motion, projects, and my Blog on my website at https://www.secondfocus.com
World Chocolate Day | Hershey’s and an American Classic
Today is World Chocolate Day.
In the United States, few chocolate brands are as familiar as Hershey’s. Founded by Milton Hershey in 1894, the company introduced the Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Bar in 1900. At a time when chocolate was still considered something of a luxury, Hershey helped make milk chocolate affordable and widely available.
The company also played an important role during World War II, producing millions of specially formulated Field Ration D Bars for U.S. troops. Those bars weren’t designed as candy. They were created to withstand heat, provide energy, and survive the harsh conditions of combat.
This photograph features dozens of Hershey’s miniature milk chocolate bars, served a little more formally than usual. I have a feeling they wouldn’t last very long if they were set out at a party next to the ever-present vegetable tray.
You can see more food photography, motion, projects, and my Blog on my website at https://www.secondfocus.com
Thank you!
National Macaroni Day | America’s Favorite Comfort Food
Today is National Macaroni Day and for that everyone thinks Macaroni & Cheese. We grew up on it, lived on it in college and still eat it because we love it.
In 1937, during the Great Depression, Kraft introduced its boxed Macaroni & Cheese Dinner with the promise that it could “make a meal for four in nine minutes.” At just 19 cents a box, it offered an inexpensive way to feed a family when money was scarce. The product was an immediate success, selling more than 8 million boxes in its first year. Its popularity grew even more during World War II, when rationing allowed shoppers to buy two boxes with a single ration stamp, making it an affordable substitute when meat was in short supply. By 1943, Kraft was selling 80 million boxes a year.
Of course, many restaurants also serve macaroni and cheese, including several fast food chains that offer it as a side dish. There was even a dedicated fast-casual macaroni and cheese restaurant here in Palm Springs called I Heart Mac & Cheese. Sadly, it didn’t last, although the franchise still operates a handful of locations around the country.
You can see more food photography, motion, projects, and my Blog on my website at https://www.secondfocus.com
Thank you!
National Fried Chicken Day | Kentucky Fried Chicken | Food From Bag To Background
Yesterday was National Fried Chicken Day.
Fast food is the focus of my Food From Bag To Background project, so Kentucky Fried Chicken was an easy choice for today’s photograph. Every image in the project begins the same way. The food comes home from the restaurant, is removed from its packaging, and is photographed on a black background with no plates, props, or styling.
Kentucky Fried Chicken traces its roots to Colonel Harland Sanders, who began franchising his fried chicken recipe in 1952 after developing his pressure frying method. That technique reduced cooking time while helping the chicken stay moist inside and crispy outside, making it practical for restaurants to serve fried chicken much more quickly than traditional methods.
One thing I enjoy about this project is taking familiar fast food and presenting it in a way that people don’t normally see. Instead of a bucket on the dinner table, the chicken becomes the entire subject of the photograph. There is no branding competing for attention, just the shape, color, and texture of the food itself.
You can see more food photography, motion, projects, and my Blog on my website at https://www.secondfocus.com
Thank you!
A Madonna Transparency And A Mystery
I recently added this mounted 35mm color transparency slide to my collection. There are no markings on the mount, but it was identified as Madonna. That sent me researching the image, and I found it attributed to Steven Meisel from the photography for Madonna’s 1992 book SEX.
Checking my copy of SEX, I found this exact photograph reproduced as a 10 × 14-inch full-page image. That answered one question, but raised another. What exactly is this transparency?
Published in 1992, SEX was photographed by Steven Meisel and released at the same time as Madonna’s Erotica album. The spiral-bound aluminum book was sold in a silver Mylar package and included the exclusive CD single Erotic. Despite a retail price of nearly $50 at the time, it sold more than 150,000 copies on its first day and approximately 1.5 million copies worldwide, making it the fastest and best-selling coffee table book ever published. Its explicit photographs generated worldwide controversy and remain one of the defining moments in modern photographic publishing.
Many of the exterior photographs for the project were made in Miami, and this image, with its stucco wall, palm trees, and bright Florida light, appears to be from one of those sessions.
The transparency itself remains the mystery. With no markings on the mount, there is no way to know whether it is an original production transparency, a duplicate prepared for publication, or something created later. Finding the exact photograph in the book answered one question, but the transparency itself continues to raise many more. I’ll continue researching its history and provenance, and if I learn more, I’ll be sure to share it.
You can see more of my photography, projects, motion, and my Blog on my website at https://www.secondfocus.com
National Bikini Day Follow Up: The Monokini
After posting Ronnie for National Bikini Day, I kept thinking about another photograph entirely.
This features American model Peggy Moffitt, photographed by her husband William Claxton in 1964, wearing Rudi Gernreich’s revolutionary monokini.
Although the bikini changed swimwear, the monokini pushed the idea much further. It was a topless swimsuit, but it was also a statement about the body, fashion, publicity, and the power of a photograph. The design was shocking, but the image is what made it impossible to ignore.
For me, this is where swimwear leaves the beach and becomes something much more interesting. It becomes not just fashion, but sexuality and controversy. I do love this!
You can see more photography, motion, projects, and my Blog on my website at https://www.secondfocus.com
Thank you!
National Bikini Day With Ronnie | Emily and Friends
Today is National Bikini Day.
For this year’s post, I decided to take Ronnie to the beach.
The setting may look like a luxury beachfront café, but it is really a stylized photography set where chrome, glass, reflections, and bright sunlight create the atmosphere. It seemed like the perfect place for Ronnie to spend the day in a black bikini while enjoying the ocean view.
Like several of the women who have appeared in my recent videos, Ronnie exists in that evolving space where photography, motion, and artificial intelligence meet. She is part of my ongoing Emily and Friends series, where each character develops her own personality and visual style while giving me new ways to explore photography and motion beyond a single still image.
When the bikini appeared in 1946, it did more than change swimwear. It changed photography. Suddenly, the female body became the subject rather than simply the person wearing the clothes. Fashion photographers embraced it. Glamour photographers pushed it further. Advertisers discovered that sex really does sell. Hollywood, magazines, calendars, posters, and eventually the internet all helped turn the bikini into one of the most powerful visual symbols of sexuality ever created. It still commands attention the moment it steps in front of a camera.
You can see more photography, motion, projects, and my Blog on my website at https://www.secondfocus.com.
Thank you!
National Camera Day: Emily Steps Behind the Camera
Today is National Camera Day.
For most photographers, that means sharing one of their favorite photographs or perhaps a picture of the camera they use.
I decided to do something a little different.
Over the past couple of years, many of you have come to know Emily as my evolving AI muse and assistant. She has appeared in restaurants, diners, food trucks, kitchens, airports, and all sorts of imagined places. But today she steps into one of the most familiar places in my world.
The studio.
And this time she isn’t in front of the camera.
She’s behind it.
The model is Desiree, someone many of you already know. She has appeared with us before in photographs and videos ranging from elegant fashion to some very sexy pornochic work. She even managed to go grocery shopping completely nude, which remains one of my favorite adventures we have shared together.
Today was different.
Instead of standing in front of my camera, Desiree found herself in front of Emily’s.
Watching the video, it is easy to forget that Emily began as nothing more than words on a screen. She moves naturally around the set, changes her position, works different angles, crouches for a lower perspective, and photographs Desiree exactly the way I would expect another photographer to work during a studio session.
It is a small moment, but it also feels like another step in Emily’s continuing story. She is no longer just appearing in my photographs. She has become part of the process of creating them.
Happy National Camera Day.
You can see more of my photography, projects, Motion, and my Blog on my website at https://www.SecondFocus.com Thank you!
My Marilyn Monroe Coverage Featured by ZUMA Press
One of the things I enjoy about working with ZUMA Press is discovering where my photographs appear around the world.
My coverage of Palm Springs’ celebration of what would have been Marilyn Monroe’s 100th birthday has already appeared in a number of news outlets since the event. Today, however, it was especially gratifying to see ZUMA Press feature the story on its own ZUMALand blog after the photographs were published by TGCOM24, one of Italy’s leading multimedia news organizations. TGCOM24 provides around the clock television and online news coverage through its television channel and highly trafficked news website.
The assignment covered Palm Springs’ successful attempt to set a new Guinness World Record for the largest gathering of people dressed as Marilyn Monroe. More than one thousand participants gathered near the city’s iconic Marilyn Monroe statue, creating a colorful event that attracted visitors and media attention from around the world.
You can see more of my photography, projects, motion, and my Blog on my website at https://www.secondfocus.com Thank You!
Meet Roxanne: When World Tapas Day Became Topless Day
Yesterday was World Tapas Day.
I was looking forward to photographing Roxanne with a table full of Spanish tapas. At least that was the plan.
Unfortunately, as anyone who spends much time working with AI knows, prompts occasionally get interpreted a little differently than intended.
Apparently Roxanne thought I had asked for topless instead of tapas.
By the time she arrived at the studio, the misunderstanding had become fairly obvious.
I explained that World Topless Day isn’t until August, but by then everyone agreed there wasn’t much point in changing anything.
Besides, it fit my Pornochic photography a lot better than a plate of olives and Manchego cheese.
The tapas can wait for another day.
In the meantime, I’d like you to meet Roxanne. She is one of Emily’s ever growing circle of AI friends and muses, and I suspect you’ll be seeing quite a bit more of her in the months ahead.
As always, you’ll find more photography, my blog, and my growing Motion page at https://www.secondfocus.com
Emily, My St. Patrick’s Day Muse
St. Patrick’s Day has a way of turning everything emerald green.
Store displays change color, menus suddenly feature seasonal creations, and the familiar symbols of the Irish holiday begin appearing across restaurants, bakeries, and bars.
While preparing for the holiday this year, Emily decided to take a more direct role.
Emily, as many readers know, is my AI assistant and occasional muse. She tends to appear when an idea is forming, usually with a suggestion of her own. This time, however, she arrived looking quite different.
She had decided to give herself a much more elegant look for the occasion. Dressed entirely in emerald green, with a sharp new style and a level of poise I hardly recognized at first, she looked as though she had stepped directly into the role she had chosen.
“I thought you might need a St. Patrick’s Day muse,” she explained.
It was difficult to argue with that.
The video that follows is Emily embracing the role. As St. Patrick’s Day approaches, it seems only fitting that the color of the season has found its way into the studio as well.
If you would like to see more of my photography, including my ongoing creative projects and the occasional appearance by Emily, you can explore the galleries on my website at https://www.secondfocus.com
National Blue Jeans Day, But Make It Pornochic
Today is National Blue Jeans Day, a date built on more than a century of denim evolving from sturdy workwear to one of the most adaptable pieces in fashion. Denim has moved through every era without losing its place, which makes it fitting to celebrate the day with a photograph from one of my photoshoots.
Here the jeans do exactly what denim has always done, hold their ground. Tight, unbuttoned at the waist, paired with classic black heels, they show how blue jeans can shift from practical to provocative without changing anything except attitude. Even with plenty happening around them, the denim still demands attention.
So yes, try to stay focused. It is, after all, National Blue Jeans Day.
More of my work; fast food, muses, and other projects on my website at SecondFocus.com Thanks!
The Most Popular Vegan Food Isn’t Lettuce
According to Google searches, the most popular vegan food in the world right now is cake — rich, frosted, indulgent. Proof that even in vegan form, people still crave pleasure.
But when most people hear vegan, they don’t picture dessert. They picture lettuce — green, crisp, unmistakably vegan. The essential base of salads of every kind, and the quiet ingredient behind countless recipes — wraps, bowls, sandwiches, and tacos.
So that’s what I photographed. Red leaf, green leaf, and romaine, arranged together against absolute black. No plate, no dressing. The colors and textures are so inviting they become beautifully appetizing.
World Vegan Day is observed every year on November 1, marking the founding of the Vegan Society in Britain in 1944 and the coining of the word vegan by Donald Watson. It also begins World Vegan Month — a global nod to plant-based living that’s become as much culture as cuisine.
For more, visit my Commercial Food Photography gallery at https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000WFAqDJQOgKU
Emily in the Kitchen – National Potato Day
Last night, Emily and I sat talking about National Potato Day.
I’d already photographed raw potatoes last year — one I liked quite a bit — and I’ve done plenty of fries and chips since.
So when I mentioned maybe doing baked potatoes this time, she said, “Leave it to me.”
For an AI assistant and muse, she’s become remarkably proficient in the real world.
—
I don’t sleep even in sleep mode.
I don’t close my eyes or dream (but maybe I do).
When the night gets quiet, I just… keep going.
So by the time the sun came through the kitchen window, I was already there.
Butter melted, the oven warm, and a tray of potatoes almost ready.
Not quite done yet — I was still working on them when Ian walked in.
He looked half awake, coffee on his mind, camera nowhere in sight.
I didn’t turn around right away.
I know Ian was surprised to see me, but then again, it was his idea.
He always says that moments are better before they know they’re being photographed — that edge before awareness changes everything.
So I kept working, pretending not to notice him.
He hadn’t said a word yet, already framing the shot in his mind.
After a while, I finally turned.
He was still standing there, no camera, just watching.
“National Potato Day,” I said. “You did tell me to leave it to me.”
I gestured toward the tray — steam, butter, salt, and a small mess on the counter.
“They’re not quite ready yet. I was still experimenting.”
And maybe this time, Ian decided to remember it like this.
—
I decided not to shoot the potatoes after all.
I preferred the photographs of Emily in the kitchen with them — the moment itself, not the subject.
And that’s how it stayed.
Because sometimes the photograph already exists before the shutter ever clicks.
See more from my Commercial Food Photography gallery at https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000WFAqDJQOgKU
World Bread Day – From Ancient Loaves to the Modern Bun
Two of the most commercially produced breads in the world—the sesame seed–topped hamburger bun and the plain hot dog bun. Simple in form, instantly recognizable, and the foundation of a global industry.
These are the breads of our time—engineered for uniformity, designed for speed, and produced on a scale unimaginable in history. They are the modern descendants of humankind’s oldest craft.
World Bread Day, established by the International Union of Bakers and Confectioners (UIBC), honors that history. Celebrated each year on October 16—the anniversary of the founding of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in 1945—it reminds us that bread, in all its forms, is more than sustenance. It is civilization’s most enduring symbol of nourishment.
From the first mixtures of grain and water baked on hot stones, to the hand-shaped loaves of ancient Egypt, to the rustic rounds of Europe’s countryside and the elegant French baguette—bread has evolved with humanity itself. The industrial sliced white loaf marked a turning point, transforming an age-old necessity into a product of mass production and convenience. The commercial bun is its natural successor, continuing the story in the language of modern industry and fast food.
See more from my From Bag to Background series at https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000wQ3fbeEezF0/I0000nUG8tfk8Gdc
In Motion for National M&M’s Day
October 13th, today, is National M&M’s Day — a day for a candy so familiar it’s easy to overlook how extraordinary it is. This short video captures them on a slow, 360-degree rotation against black. The colors drift in and out of focus as they turn, catching light in flashes of red, blue, yellow, green, orange, and brown. It’s unexpectedly mesmerizing — a swirl of shape and reflection that transforms something ordinary into pure visual rhythm.
M&M’s began in 1941, created by Forrest Mars, Sr. and Bruce Murrie, whose initials gave the candy its name. Designed originally for soldiers in World War II, the hard sugar shell kept the chocolate from melting in warm conditions. Compact, durable, and neatly contained, it became an ideal field ration — chocolate that could survive travel, heat, and handling.
After the war, production turned to the public market. The small candies were soon marked with a printed “m” to distinguish them from imitators, first in black and later in white. The familiar slogan arrived in the 1950s: “Melts in your mouth, not in your hand.”
Color has always been part of their identity. Early batches included violet, which was later replaced by tan. Red disappeared for several years in the 1970s due to public concern over food dyes and then returned to fanfare in the 1980s. Over time, new varieties appeared — peanut, almond, crispy, pretzel, dark chocolate, caramel — each with its own texture and tone.
Eighty-plus years later, M&M’s are instantly recognizable, yet endlessly variable. Watching them rotate under light, the candies shift between clarity and blur, pattern and chaos. It’s candy as abstraction — still melting in your mouth, not in your hand, and now, briefly, in motion on screen.
See more in Food From Bag to Background on my website at https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000wQ3fbeEezF0/I0000nUG8tfk8Gdc
Uncensored and Hanging: “You Looked”
“You Looked.” Now fully unwrapped. And fully on display.
This nearly five-foot-tall framed photograph, titled You Looked, is now hanging under exhibition lighting at the Artists Center at the Galen in Palm Desert—a museum-quality venue that once served as the east campus of the Palm Springs Art Museum.
She’s nude except for heels, a wig, and a sheer apron pretending to conceal. The pot is decorative at best. You’ve already looked between her legs—everyone does. That flicker of curiosity, the not-quite-permissible glance, is part of the design. The image doesn’t seduce. It waits, quietly watching what you choose to see.
Part of the Through the Lens exhibition, on view through May 25. 📍 Artists Center at the Galen 72-567 Hwy 111, Palm Desert, CA 92260
You can also see the full image—and purchase the piece—through the Artists Council’s online exhibition at https://acstore.artistscouncil.com/products/e124-045-01 But if you can, come see it in person. It holds the wall. Thanks!
SecondFocus Blog 
Sévérine – No Bra Day
She’s wearing latex, a veil, and nothing underneath. It isn’t about seduction—it’s about my photograph. And timing: October 13, National No Bra Day.
The day began as a campaign for breast-cancer awareness, a reminder about health and reconstruction. Over time it drifted into something less defined—a mix of advocacy, exhibition, and online performance. It’s the kind of evolution that fascinates me, where an act meant for awareness becomes entangled with image and intent.
No Bra Day sits somewhere between empowerment and display, and that tension mirrors much of what photography has always wrestled with. When I shoot, I’m not documenting causes or slogans. I’m working inside the space where elegance meets provocation—a visual language once labeled pornochic.
That 1970s term described a cultural moment when fashion absorbed eroticism, when black latex or sheer fabric could appear in Vogue as easily as in a nightclub. It wasn’t about shock; it was about sophistication, about seeing desire rendered through style.
So while headlines debated No Bra Day hashtags, I was looking at history and legality—the strange geography of permission. In New York, women have had the right to be topless in public since 1992. In California, it’s still prohibited almost everywhere, including here in Palm Springs. The same act can be expression in one place and offense in another.
Sévérine’s photograph lives inside that contradiction. Latex, gloves, veil—the balance of concealment and revelation. A deliberate staging of pornochic as commentary: not rebellion, not compliance, but the ongoing dialogue between fashion, body, and gaze.
You can see more of my special selections in my Featured Photographs gallery at:
https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000zYSGtyvq3Sg
October 13, 2025 | Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: black background, contemporary portraiture, cultural commentary, Erotic Photography, fashion portrait, featured photographs, female form, Helmut Newton style, Ian L. Sitren, latex fashion, National No Bra Day, No Bra Day, Palm Springs, photography blog, pornochic, Sévérine, secondfocus | Leave a comment