hi i'm mandy pryor and welcome to spotlight on pittsburgh spotlight on pittsburgh as a program about pittsburgh most fascinating people and what they do to make our city an amazing place to live and work when we return i will introduce you to our first guest chris blaine of steel city photo excursions later i'll be introducing you to susan castor yoda who will tell us all about her fabulous kitchen accessories when we return to little is a lot easier when you have a script to follow i learned that first hand the day my son had a life threatening allergic reaction or anaphylaxis anaphylaxis can happen when someone comes into contact with their object triggers it could happen anywhere any time dedicated to helping people learn more about photography become more creative in their shooting to whether they want to elevate their travel photos get more lice on facebook from their stuff or on instagram and how long they've been doing we've been doing this for about two years now we've been taken pittsburghers all over we go to north sure we get a mexican war streets teaching them photography wonderful and so what can some of these photographers expect when they come out ok well we take average people like yourself who want to learn like you exactly maybe you want to learn more about photography our tours there are a blast we get at least ten people to go with us and you have a group of like minded individuals together and we go around and we photograph pittsburgh we teach in the see how more come along with us and you might think oh well you know there's nothing really i can do the cell phone well that's wrong they make new apps nowadays they'll let you adjust exposure let you just composition so we take that we build on it we teach people how to shoot more creatively how to become just better photographers throughout the day so they can get great photos they can elevate their travel pictures instead of getting ten likes on facebook they're going to get one hundred fifty likes just by little different things that we show them so that's pretty that's pretty impressive there  shoot and we see we see a lot of this and we see you know everyone filters and different things like that we're more like hey let's get a better shot let's shoot a little more creatively let's learn these little techniques to help you become better and most people they love it they have a blast and it was we're doing these tours everyone's kind of learning off each other and they're going hey look at this hey look at this is awesome you know and we have a great time doing it and so how long are the toys typically last they take about two and a half hours total now let's not set in stone because we get out there shoot and we get out there talk and we're having a good time with everybody we keep the class sizes small so that we can go back and forth usually all take five an aerial take five and we just work one on one with the student in the class and be aaron mcgregor photography i do corporate were charity events weddings portrait as well as air and he does you know pretty much same thing he does magazine covers weddings we actually work together a lot of times on stuff we've both traveled extensively all over the world i've been to europe aaron studied there in germany for years and that's what we bring to the table we bring all of our knowledge everything we have any questions you may answer me and erin met at a secondary school while we're both teaching photography so you know it's a great combination and this is what we pass on to our students all of our knowledge all of our techniques just how to make an average photo look great not so much by editing but just by shooting by shooting it better so that's something that  primary and when you're out there yes how to see more creatively most people are just happy gone click oh that's great that's great we're not like that that's what we death with these teaches people ok that's a great shot don't get me wrong but look what if you do this way what if you shoot worms out of your what if you tilt the camera but if you do bird's eye view of the same images look at the perspective look at how much different it looks it looks so much better and so what is one wind slice of advice that you would give to an amateur photographer one slice of advice the best thing to do is get out there and enjoy what you're doing ok we have this great beautiful city here and i'm pretty sure you like me have been downtown many a times photographer and i love to do it yeah that's part of it but it's an experience and i always see something new every time i go out and that's what we like to bring to our tours or as we call them treks because we're all over the place you can go the same place one hundred times and i guarantee you you can take one hundred different photos that are totally different of maybe the same thing or something different that you notice this is what we want people to do we want them to come along have fun and learn how to see the world in pittsburgh in a different way that's why we so you were teachers you said you know you've taught students individual and group setting yes exactly yes we myself an era both educators for over ten years and we've taught many different types of students all the way from high school kids coming into college to older you know adults wanting to go back to school so we have a big variety of people we have worked with and it's great because you don't get just stuck in the same thing which is high school kid you don't get stuck that mentality or an older person everybody mixes together and that's what makes it better we get a better interaction with group and everybody has different angles on stuff and everything and is it just for beginners or can people with some experience come anybody can come we invite everybody around for a cellphone user to approach take people from pittsburgh travel all over the country we're sitting our web site up now so people will actually be able to sell their images through our website ok what's in the works right now it's not ready yet but it's getting there you don't get ahead of the day but some day yes in a near future we want people to come take our classes great these great images get them on to their wall get them on facebook you know and just enjoy life and it's an experience you know the experience is what it's all about just going out there being with like minded of a now do you do you look typically for you know people places things or is it a combination it's a combination of everything we kind of know certain areas are obviously better to photograph and others especially in pittsburgh you know mexican worser it's just awesome i mean you have rained down there you have all these great architecture and buildings ton of fine art possibilities you know the strip there's possibly another one where there's just so much history and so much it's great in you know there's just so much going on so much to photograph and it's not just about photography it's about that experience their experience and it's a gift need to bring a camera in themselves that's all they need care of themselves tripod you know when they contact down towards heinz field so you get a big variety down there there's great views all sorts of things to photograph different ways to look at high water so there's everything there is just all sorts of  statues and all these things down there that are just great to photograph great stuff to hang on your wall to make your house your own you know your own photographer why decorate your house of somebody else's work or someone you bought it target or walmart who  it's a beautiful state park you ever get the chance if you love nature you love taking photos come up with a blast or get a little exercise will take some great images get some waterfall shots there's all sorts of things to photograph up there as well well it's been a pleasure and we'll mobile cameras or bring your professional camera set to you to get signed up for a steel city excursion please visit city x dot com that correct that's correct ok when we return from break learn how to microwave the easy way and how you can protect yourself with these clever microwave friendly products get checkups doctor and dentist visits hospital care prescriptions and more your child's may qualify based on your family size and it's one less thing to worry about color go online to enroll now why w pittsburgh now we have susan on and i'm so excited to talk about your product thank you so much for joining us it's a very funny story actually how she's on the show today so  about six weeks ago she had contacted me and told me a little bit about herself and her product and you know i've been watching the shark tank like nonstop if i just i think it's great so i was like oh inventor tell me more so she started scribing her products here and i was like wait a minute wait hold on just a second do you have the product that i use every single day i actually won this product at that observer reporter that it was an opening for one of their magazines and i got this i was like eight months pregnant and i got this things are going to have her touch her describe it to you but amazing it was so nice to hear from you and i love you products so tell them a little bit more about what you did ok well i am a breast cancer survivor and when i was diagnosed with breast cancer i started researching the dangers of the b p a s the plastics and how they leach quickly into your food when you heat in the microwave so i thought ok i'm getting rid of all my plastic you know it's gone so but i had a little problem what i found was i would go to the store and i would get the glass bottoms but they all had the plastic top just like those so i said ok what am i going to do well i'm a designer i'm going to invent my own lid so i went around drawing things and making different samples and i came up with a universal glass lid it's called the and it fits on many size bowls of pots and pans if you're going to steam something on the stove top you can put this on there and then i made it vented so you can steam which is healthier you know that cooking so you know not only do you cook healthy but you can also eat healthier so so i started with the one live that's the one i think that's the one this one right yes i have a one year old so i always steam his food and have done so much research on plastics and stuff myself where we're like bonded since joining up here that this is amazing i mean not only number one because it seems everything in the team comes out but number two the microwave is clean after right it's  it's amazing it's also that it's multi purpose and then when i started working with q b c which now i'm going to be working with a to send they said they wanted a larger size to sell as a set so that's why i invented the eleven inch lid so those are sold as a set so then as things started to progress i started getting feedback from people and they say they wanted a plate cover of course because i original pirates formula i did my homework i know all about glass right now so this is the original pyro x and it's so it's a real sturdy glass thermal shock resistance so you can take it out of the refrigerator put it into an  enough steam to you know help to the folks the food then if you turn it over it's a two court baking dish oh it's so you can do pies you can do quiche but you can also do in the microwave you can steam your food using and so what was you know what made you decide to go forward with it i guess what was your inspiration just healthier eating and living yeah i mean i just i just wanted to eat healthier cook healthier live healthier you know i wanted to get some of the t out of my life with you know being a cancer survivor and you can't get rid of everything so i am a microwave user so that was kind of my new number one's focus was how do i you know get the toxins out of the microwave which would be plastics heated plastics boil bad vegetables those are the worst now those are the worst so now this one actually was launched on amazon in the beginning of the year and a i think about a month into it it was named the number one then people being moving around they don't have time to necessarily cook as much they're using a microwave a little bit more and a lot of things are prepared but if you just you know have appeared to be a little bit healthier oh yeah you know and i do have recipes i am putting together healthy recipes well some of them not so i thought you know i do cakes in the microwave so i have recipes on my website for chocolate cake lemon cake and that would be using the smaller lid and just you know like a glass i mean i do my cakes in this take the plastic off of course and then i you can see my you know you tube recipes and then now i'm doing i'm having a lot of fun i'm doing recipes with rice online platform for new product launches so they do a video and then they have a following so right now we're working with them so the launch will be sometime in july they don't they didn't give me a date yet and then free shipping it's there in two days so then i'm also working on some new product to a wonderful idea i was about well i have a one point seven five cooking kind of like a bowl but it's  this design on it so it's really if you want to turn it over and do something small in the microwave as a plate cover you could actually use it for that but there's going to be a nine inch lid that is going to fit on top of that through break we're going to have eventually a whole like little actually that's right and then i kind of want them to work together so they're going to be compatible and then i have a great little mini mitt because you know people are always saying and i do want to say anything glass is going to be hot and anything really in the microwave that you're cooking you really should have you know oven mitts or something so i've invented some many minutes and they might be up for christmas i'm not sure i have to get those i mean in addition to my plate cover i also use glass bottles with my babies so those come out i mean the milk isn't hot but the outside the glass is hot it's very very right so i just tell people kind of act like you're you know like you're taking something out of a conventional oven you know  and so you have these available on amazon you're going to be on the age of seven network grommet are you on facebook as well you know either i do have a facebook page and i do post my recipes and then i'm just new just started a use it every single day it's because it's the best product i can find out there for my microwave again to order these products go to amazon and look for the cover and cook products correct while the driver is cook or the  will share a link on spotlight on pittsburgh or get recipe ideas on her you tube under the handle caster yada when we come back we'll have another spotlight challenge which we will see all of these guys in their picture picture perfect of the bunch during reintegration you go through the honeymoon stage you come home and everything is great at first when i came back  great and all the sudden a life was a work kids go to school all by myself all in the us thinking about my fortress only the room could be filled with people that i loved and cared about and i'd be over thinking about what happened in iraq three months ago you're almost like a stranger when you come  everything is different your head discombobulated people were asking me how it was but i got this sound stage couldn't relate to what i had been through so i just stopped talking about it it made a tremendous difference in my life and i chose to get help in hindsight it probably saved my life saved my marriage i personally believe that i'm also a better soldier sometimes when you come home you can see negative distressing concern you can all be out soon will be got you're not going to be the same person afterwards and welcome back all right so now we have chris and susan here and we're going to be doing their talent in a moment i wonder see if if chris or susan had any questions about each other's you know photography or their products and you know know we live in such a beautiful city why not get out there and enjoy the most of it and all that but this this is really cool i love your product how did you come up with like the idea of this again well i mean i was just you know trying to think of a lid that would go on a right so i guess it's time for our challenge well chris since you are a photographer i thought the best type of challenge adapting to a selfie challenge because everybody is taking a selfie i'm not sure i mean at least once you challenges a selfie challenge i'm going to give you accuse someone to give you a topic or a subject and you're going to look into the camera i'm going to give you this phone do you guys feel like you need a phone to look into or think the way you never know some people you know need th all right so for the second one for the second that's too happy summer selfie i mean that's that's the generality for that happy summer some are happy thank you so much for going with me on is this fun selfie challenge you can blame him the photographer