You may not care, but Pioneer Woman had a great post on how to photograph food, in case you wanted tips. It might be too late for the Still Life: Food assignment, but that might come up again. http://thepioneerwoman.com/photography/2011/01/ten-important-things-ive-learned-about-food-photography/

I think this dish is perfectly photogenic. The contrast of chili with the rice and again with the cheese looks good to me. It just needs a little more light, maybe. (Please remember I know squat about photography. I'm just giving my uneducated opinion!)

This looks like a spot in a magazine, honestly. Like the ad would just have the tagline "Stand Out" or something. I love it! I signed up for the night photography class! I'm so excited to start!

I've found that I just cannot shoot the moon (ok that made me giggle a little) without a tripod. Either I'm too wiggly, or the California ground moves a lot, but all my shots end up looking like they've been smeared a little. I've never been able to see the man in the moon, but I've always seen the Energizer bunny. Maybe what I see as his drum is what you refer to as mochi? (Also, what's a mochi?)

I have a million of these shots of Mia. Glowing eyes, overused flash on the face, but shadowy body. But I love them. To me, it looks like he's interested in seeing what you're doing with that weird flashy thing you keep pointing at him!

I'm behind a few days because I forgot to put this feed in my reader, but if you should find an online class devoted to night photography, let me know! I've been looking for a few photography classes in my area, and have yet to find one I'm interested in. Maybe we can do the online class together! Also, I like these kind of pictures. Reminds me of the Toss the Camera post you shared in Google Read a while ago. I'm still trying to get a good one of those to work for me!

This one has a Halloweenie (yes that's a word. Now.) vibe to me. I like the bare trees and the way the orange light reflects on them. I'm loving this project! I've been taking a ton more pictures lately to try and get better at it, and I LOVE looking at what other people are doing. This is great!

I love this picture! It's such an unusual view. I've been trying to take some pictures from different perspectives lately, just to see how they look. I might have to try one through the tree to see if I can get something as interesting as this!

I love when they do this. Mia has been doing it since the day I brought her home, literally. It makes the cutest picture!

I'd often wondered where you'd disappeared to, and hoped that you were just loving life and enjoying your boys. Words cannot express how sorry I am for your loss. I hope posting stories and pictures here will help you heal.