Thursday, May 24, 2012

Hibiscus Tea

Hibiscus Iced Tea. One of my favorite images.

Maggie made this tea using whole dried Hibiscus Flowers from a Mexican market in Oakland. I've since found out that Berkeley Bowl has them. A little more expensive but still around $3.50 for enough to make several batches.

I am not sure if she liked the idea at first but I was pretty adamant about shooting it in some sort of Mason Jar like container.

Here are some of the glassware scouting pics. I chose one of the Weck jars from the middle photograph. I purchased the glasses in the other two shots and used them in another shot.




Now the background, lighting and composition tests. The upper left shot has some merit but the drink will go too dark from that angle and with that background. I went with the image on the bottom right because, with a few adjustments, I knew it would make the drinks look good and at the same time have a kind of overall moodiness I like. Not sure if "moodiness" is a real word but...???
























Monday, May 14, 2012

Deviled Eggs

Deviled Eggs in Beet Juice,

Getting started on what turned out to be Maggie's favorite pic so far.
The hunt for dishes, backgrounds and props for the shot. I like the plates in the upper right and lower left from Anthropologie and bought several sizes of both. I love taking time to go look for this stuff. I get a lot of inspiration from it, like the way the plate on the bottom left looks against that wood. That ended up being the basic look for the styling of the final shot.






















Now it's Maggie's turn. I don't know what all ended up in it but it sure tasted good. Maggie's also a little secretive about recipes and if I did know all the ingredients she would probably shoot me for publishing them.






















And the final image.


Sunday, May 13, 2012

Painting of Charlie

Nice surprise from the neighbor!

If you've looked through this blog then you know I have a parrot named Charlie who hangs out in the window and occasionally does his best to mess up one of my photo sets. My artist neighbor, Lisa Haderlie Baker, surprised me the other day with this guoache painting she did of Charlie. There are some really nice people around here.



Thursday, May 10, 2012

Interior Test

Fanciful interior and food shot from the same set.

This is a slightly different post in that it combines food and interior shooting and is about my work with my very talented friend and prop stylist Shannon Thompson. We have worked together on many assignments from small clients like Heart to Heart gifts to large ones like Jacuzzi Bathtubs. This is from a test shoot we did together at her house.

Shannon and I are working on several shots based around her small dining room, vintage mid century furniture, beautiful patterned fabric and a flowerless chocolate cake from Whole Foods. The theme/inspiration for me is "Scandinavian winter chic".

Here is an early set up shot.


















Now Shannon has two of the chairs covered, the lamp is hung and the white washed pine flooring I created is in place. We still have to work out the final propping, get the last curtain hung and the third chair covered.


















Almost there.....


















Here's the final interior set shot.

And here's the final food shot. This cake is really tasty and Whole Foods almost always has them.

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Orange and Beat Salad

Orange and Beat salad. Prep work on our first variation of the shot.
















I shot the image above first but Maggie disappeared into the kitchen afterwords because she was really into the purple beat juice and infused oil dressing and how it was looking. "I've got an idea....". 1960's psychedelic looking  food. Kinda makes me miss my black light Jimi Hendrix posters and that old bean bag chair!