Earlier in the week I said that I was going to take questions about anything on Facebook and Google Plus, then answer five of them here in a blog post. And guess what? I meant it! Ha! I got some very good questions. Sit back, have a coffee, and read my Q&A for this Sunday.

1. What are your favorite lighting modifiers? (submitted by Jennifer).

Anything with a grid. Specifically a beauty dish with a grid but I also like a big octa with a grid or a stripbox with a grid. Grids, grids, grids. Did I mention grids? I love the light control that they give. And guess what Jennifer...it is on my radar to do a blog post comparing different lighting modifiers! So you may get your wish.

2. What was the first camera that made you say, wow, I love doing this? (submitted by Sarah)

Probably the first camera I ever held. My father's Canon F-1. I remember looking at all the photos he took with it, of travels and my mother and us as kids and him telling me how he took those cool long exposure shots and letting me take photos with it. I got my own film camera when I was about 8 or 9...it was a Fisher Price 110 camera. If you wanted to use flash, it had these disposable flash bars that had eight bulbs in them and each bulb, once you shot it once, was done. I think it was called a flip flash. Anyhow, I used to follow my family and my cat around (hey, much the same as today) and take their photos then wait patiently for my prints to come back from the Mystic Color Lab.

3. If you could travel anywhere in the world to photograph for a day, where would you go? (submitted by Vanessa)

Venezuela. Carlos (aka my Enthusiastic Assistant) grew up there. He lived there from the age of 6 months until age 15, when he came back to the states. His grandfather, for whom he was named, was a very famous photographer in Venezuela. (Incidentally, our cat, Reina, is named for the elder Carlos' second wife, ha ha). He is one of my photography heroes. About eight years ago I got a hold of a lot of his photos and was able to get prints of them. He shot almost exclusively in black and white and also shot through a microscope sometimes which is very cool. He photographed the jungle interior of Venezuela from the wings of a biplane and those photos were manually stitched together and were instrumental in helping to map the interior of the country. I want to go to Venezuela to see where my Carlos grew up and to see the mountains and the trees that the elder Carlos photographed and to see his photos hanging in museums. I know the Venezuela now is not the Venezuela of the 60's and 70's or even the earlier Venezuela of the elder Carlos' photographs. The political situation down there now is bad and I might never get there, but it will always be a dream of mine.

4. What does putting coffee grounds in your breakfast taste like? Was it gritty? (submitted by Ron)

I have to preface this answer to explain that last week, instead of dumping old coffee grounds into my compost pail, I accidentally put them in the blender with the rest of my morning smoothie ingredients. Whoops. Anyhow, what did it taste like...well, the smoothie is chocolate banana avocado and tastes like a chocolate shake, so it actually had slight mocha flavor to it, which was nice. And it wasn't gritty at all! Maybe my blender is really good? The coffee I use is also very fine ground so maybe that's it. Either way, it's possible I may have stumbled upon some sort of newfangled breakfast thing. For me, at least.

5. If you could pick one place to be published, what would it be? (submitted by Vanessa)

Liquid Salt. (Their website actually hasn't been updated in a few months as they are updating to their newer, better site but they're still active on Instagram and Facebook). I love portrait photography, but I so, so SO love the ocean and shooting surfing, the ocean and its surroundings, and especially my Surfboard Stories project. I could look at Liquid Salt for hours on end. And I have. Ha ha.

Thank you to all who submitted questions (even the ones I didn't get to answer). This was fun!