Meet your Meat: Macro photographs of processed meats

[boutons_]

http://www.newstarget.com/022001.html

[midgetonadonkey]

This thread made me hungry.

[boutons_]

his follow-up comments today:

"(NewsTarget) Yesterday I posted shocking macrophotography pictures of processed meat products. Since then, over a quarter of a million people have viewed the photos in the first 24 hours, and word has spread all over the internet about these sick, graphic images of processed meats. I've already received numerous complaints of people vomiting (I'm not kidding)! More importantly, however, I've also received many comments from people who say they are no longer going to eat processed meat products at all. They're either opting for fresh meats or thinking about going vegetarian. I have not yet heard from Kraft Foods or Jimmy Dean, although there's not much they can say since these are accurate, honest pictures of the products they're making and selling right now (the photos were not altered).

Today I'd like to give you the behind-the-scenes story of how these photos came to be, along with a preview of some upcoming macrophotography projects you'll be seeing soon here on NewsTarget.com.

Do you really want to meet your meat?
This processed meat idea hit me one day as I was driving past a local Wal-Mart grocery store and thinking to myself, "I wonder if people would really eat processed food products if they knew what they contained?" On an impulse, I turned into the Wal-Mart parking lot and decided to enter the store and buy some processed meat products with the intention of photographing them. This caused a concern, since I would never be caught dead buying processed meat products, and certainly not in a Wal-Mart. I was worried that a NewsTarget reader might spot me buying this garbage food, snap a camera photo, and I'd end up all over the internet holding a package of Oscar Mayer hot dogs with that deer-in-the-headlights look...

So -- get this -- I put on a hat and sunglasses and actually stealthed my way through the Wal-Mart store, trying to buy these processed meat products without getting noticed! I know, it sounds ridiculous, but I've had people walk up to me in grocery stores before and start chatting about NewsTarget, and I didn't want to risk giving someone the wrong impression about my own lifestyle. This is actually a very important point with me because I live the lifestyle I recommend. I eat superfoods, exercise regularly and follow an incredibly clean diet. I would even think of taking a single bite of an Oscar Mayer hot dog or Jimmy Dean sausage, and even holding those foods in my hands made me feel icky just from the energy of the flesh from the slaughtered animals used to make those products. So I sure didn't want to get snapped by a camera standing in front of a Wal-Mart checkout lane with my hands full of junk processed meat products.

After I completed my undercover meat purchase, I headed home and set up the macrophotography equipment. Since I'm experienced at this (I love to take nature pictures, especially of flowers), that was easy. I already had all the equipment and know-how necessary. The next part, however, was not so easy: I had to touch the meat products to prep them for the camera.

For someone who never eats processed meats (and, in fact, eats relatively little meat at all, and never meat from mammals), this was an especially challenging task. It didn't take long before the sickening smell of hot dogs, sodium lactate, sodium nitrite, beef hearts and pork parts filled my kitchen. And as I started taking the photos, there were several times I felt like gagging. My appetite was diminished and I actually started feeling angry at the meat processed industry for the way they manufacture and market these sickening products. But I intuitively felt this was an important documentary photo project and that the world needed to see these photos, so I continued on, tearing open the hot dogs, sausages and salami, arranging them for the camera, and searching for the most visually interesting elements to photograph.

Way beyond "point and shoot"
Macrophotography is a tricky thing. If you've ever tried it yourself, you probably know that you can't just stick a camera up close to something, snap a photo, and expect it to look good. It involves a lot of specialized equipment, optics knowledge and a whole lot of light pointed at exactly the right spot. Depth of view is extremely limited at these ranges, so camera focus becomes critical (and there are no auto-focus professional-grade macro lenses, you have to do it manually). A lot of photos ended up being deleted because the focus was off, or the lens filter was dirty, or the exposure was wrong, etc. But if you stick with it -- and you have the right equipment -- you can snag some incredible shots of really tiny things.

When you're zoomed in that close on something, it's also easy to get lost in the topography of the object. It's like being a microscopic person walking around a huge moonscape, and sometimes it's hard to find your bearings. For example, looking at a piece of salami with the naked eye, I could locate a giant fat blob that I wanted to photograph, but inside the viewfinder of the camera, it actually takes quite a bit of searching to find that same fat blob (it's sort of like trying to find something on a slide under a microscope).

Another interesting thing is that if you zoom in too much (like 5x magnification, which is really more like 50x by the time it gets on screen), the objects lose their context and just look like isolated blobs of anything. It could be a galaxy, or a molecule. Sometimes it's hard to tell what you're looking at if you're in too close, right? I found the best magnifications were between 1x and 3x.
"

[midgetonadonkey]

Salami is good. I like to cut it into small pieces and stack it on a Ritz cracker with some cheese.

[whottt]

Geezus H...are you and this guy members of the Pussy League of America?


He talks about how he got his hands on the icky sausage and had to wash them immediately. What a complete wuss.


If you look at anything at 5 times magnification it's going to look nasty. Damn...what a bunch of weakminded spoiled soft wimps.


I hope you and this guy get trapped on an Island with nothing but insects to eat...that'd be pretty fucking funny.



I can see it now...

Pussy Cameraman: ooh! it got my hands where's the soap? Hureeeeee where's the soap! Get it off of meeeeeeeee!!!!!!! Getitoff! Getitoff! Getitoff!

pusstons: I don't know but don't you come near me with icky goo on you! Eeek! Get awayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy from meeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!



What a fucking loser you are boutons.

[boutons_]

Go fuck yourself, Whott the fuck. and eat that industrial shit until you puke.

[whottt]

People used to eat most of the animal anyway...and there are some schools of thought that you will be healthier if you do. Edit: And that it shows more respect to the animal whose life was given to feed you.

[nsrammstein]

Go fuck yourself, Whott the fuck. and eat that industrial shit until you puke.


Boutons? Thats not the way for a 60 year old to talk!

[MaNuMaNiAc]

the only pic in there I found weird was the dumbass with the big ass camera at the end...

[midgetonadonkey]

People used to eat most of the animal anyway...and there are some schools of thought that you will be healthier if you do. Edit: And that it shows more respect to the animal whose life was given to feed you.

No shit. My grandma used to use hardcore animal lard to fry everything. Never did she think about calories, fat grams, cholesterol or any other thing people now claim to be "bad". People die when they are going to die. Regardless of diet or lifestyle.

[whottt]

No shit. My grandma used to use hardcore animal lard to fry everything. Never did she think about calories, fat grams, cholesterol or any other thing people now claim to be "bad". People die when they are going to die. Regardless of diet or lifestyle.


I was thinking that when I made the post. My grandma still does eat that stuff and she's 90 now. She eats everything....if you give it to her she'll eat it. Including stuff like liver and brain. Most of all..bacon and eggs every morning for breakfast. She saves the grease on her stovetop to season everything she eats.

If you bring her some alfalfasprouts...she'll eat em, but she's going to fry them in that grease first.

Got this big iron skillet that hasn't been washed since 1942.

She redefines the term balanced diet...I hope I'm in as good of shape as she is at 90.


And that food she cooks is fucking good too...

[PM5K]

You're an idiot if you don't already know that the hot dog or other derivatives don't exist in nature. You can't for example, kill a pig and cut off a hot dog.

Every one of these types of products is a bunch of shit ground up and pressed into that particular shape, hot dogs, vienna sausages, sausage links, etc....

[Buddy Holly]

Must say... truly disappointed. I thought these pictures were going to be mind blowing... they're not. I thought they were going to expose things we've never seen... they don't. I thought they would turn me off to processed foods forever... nope.

Lotta hype for nothing more than a little black thing on a piece of baloney. I didn't bother to read the article or the commentary so I probably suffered less than most people who clicked that thread.

[Buddy Holly]

Every one of these types of products is a bunch of shit ground up and pressed into that particular shape, hot dogs, vienna sausages, sausage links, etc....

Yep and it's good eats.

http://images.egullet.com/u2/i7361.jpg

[Ed Helicopter Jones]

I wonder how oral sex would have been affected if they'd of done the same thing to a vagina?


"I'll pass honey. I've seen that thing at 5X its original size and suddenly I've got a headache. Is the game on?"

[Johnny_Blaze_47]

http://www.boosman.com/blog/images/2003-08-15-02.jpg

[whottt]

I wonder how oral sex would have been affected if they'd of done the same thing to a vagina?


You do realize you're talking to boutons right? You trying to make him even more nauseated?


If you are...just say vagina.

[Ed Helicopter Jones]

You do realize you're talking to boutons right? You trying to make him even more nauseated?


If you are...just say vagina.


:lol

But, but, boutons IS a vagina! The irony of it all.

[TxJudsonRocketTx]

In the picture of himself at the end, I thought he was going to do a 1x, and 3.5x zoom of his penis

[ashbeeigh]

Any second grader could get a microscope and look at this crap. Seriously?

[CuckingFunt]

In the picture of himself at the end, I thought he was going to do a 1x, and 3.5x zoom of his penis"Thought" and "hoped" are not synonymous.

[Johnny_Blaze_47]

"Thought" and "hoped" are not synonymous.

I have to admit, I wasn't expecting you to be the one to come in with that one. :lmao

[xrayzebra]

I was thinking that when I made the post. My grandma still does eat that stuff and she's 90 now. She eats everything....if you give it to her she'll eat it. Including stuff like liver and brain. Most of all..bacon and eggs every morning for breakfast. She saves the grease on her stovetop to season everything she eats.

If you bring her some alfalfasprouts...she'll eat em, but she's going to fry them in that grease first.

Got this big iron skillet that hasn't been washed since 1942.

She redefines the term balanced diet...I hope I'm in as good of shape as she is at 90.


And that food she cooks is fucking good too...

Tell her to stop eating all that stuff, it is gonna kill her
one of these days. :lol

Cause boutons said so.


Hey whottt, I almost didn't recognize his post since he
did use any bold type in it. :p:

[T Park]

I honestly wish boutons would move to France so he can be happy with his miserable bitch friends over there.


Hot dogs and other things are made of all parts of the animal!?!??!

NOOOO WE NEVER KNEW!!!!


Grow spines morons.....

[RashoFan]

Hell...I have seen worse at a 3 vehicle MVA with 2 Fatalities. I had to help extricated the remains of one of the fatalities in the heat of a Texas Summer....now that smell, I will never get used to. Processed meat dosen't phase me a bit.

[E20]

I heard some hot dogs are made out of (the fruit)apple cores and old Chinese newspapers.

[RuffnReadyOzStyle]

No shit. My grandma used to use hardcore animal lard to fry everything. Never did she think about calories, fat grams, cholesterol or any other thing people now claim to be "bad". People die when they are going to die. Regardless of diet or lifestyle.

Um, no. I hope you were joking, because otherwise that's the dumbest thing you've ever said. Sure, occasionally someone who lives unhealthily will live a long time, but the demographic statistics clearly demonstrate behaviours that lead to higher death rates, such as high cholesterol intake and smoking. To say that death/illness rates are independent of diet or lifestyle is absolute BULLSHIT.

As for the photos, I don't find them disgusting at all. I mostly avoid processed meat, but not because of a few photos...

[MannyIsGod]

:lmao @ this thread.

:tu Boutons. You delivered.

Now where's my bacon?

[MannyIsGod]

LOL wrong thread

[xrayzebra]

I honestly wish boutons would move to France so he can be happy with his miserable bitch friends over there.


Hot dogs and other things are made of all parts of the animal!?!??!

NOOOO WE NEVER KNEW!!!!


Grow spines morons.....

I buy National Hebrew Winnie's. And they are good
And I don't care what they are made from. Everything
you eat turn to crap anyhow.

[Samr]

Hell, it's just meat (...and other stuff too maybe, but I'd rather not think about that...). People should be happy we are using all parts of the animal. It has been confirmed now, photographically, that nothing goes to waste. haha

I mean, come on, everything is going to look disgusting if you look at it close enough. What, did the photographer actually expect to look at that stuff magnified and see something that looks MORE appetizing? It is food, plain and simple. And it is quick, cheap, easy, and delicious food at that.

Yeah, processed meat is not as good for you as, say, a steak or fresh deli slices or something, but most people cannot afford to eat steak or deli meat for every meal. I'm not suggesting people start a diet centered around bologna, salami, and prepackaged sausages, but hell, eating it once in a while is not going to kill you. It's like being a health extremist is the popular thing to do. People need to start being more realistic.

[T Park]

Um, no. I hope you were joking, because otherwise that's the dumbest thing you've ever said


Thank you Doctor :rolleyes