Images from two shoots for Jelly Belly Candy Company.
Styling by Shannon Tompson and Rosy Strazzeri-Fridman
Shot at Rosy's house in San Francisco and at my home in Alameda.

Scouting pics of the location for the last Jelly Belly Candy Company shoot. This is the home of stylist Rosy Fridman.

These are set tests I did for a series on breakfast foods that Randy Mon did the food styling on. I don't usually create backgrounds, preferring to find things with real patina, but I couldn't find anything with the right blue so I created this one and am pretty happy with the results.

Here are some of the final pics.

The shot on the left is one of a seeries for Jelly Belly. While I was shooting it I thought that the glasses in the back were worth shot of their own so the next day while doing some testing the stylist and I set up the other two shots based on the original image. Karrie Nitsche was the creative director on the shoot and Shannon Thompson styled it.

Just a few snaps of some of the props and backgrounds I had for the the Numi Teas packaging shoot. I sent these to the client before the shoot for approvals.

and some of the final pics......

On my latest trip to the flea market I found these wine barrel tops and wood fruit baskets that I liked so when I got home I started playing around with them to see what I could come up with.

After a little messing around I decided to go back to Berkeley Bowl and get Apricots and Spanish Garlic to create some final images with. I love the look of Spanish Garlic and have been wanting to do a shot of it for some time now. The colors will be perfect against the wine barrel and the Apricots will be perfect for the baskets.

Chinese Tofu

There is a recipe for Tofu in one of Yotam Ottolenghi's books that I have been wanting to try. The amazing thing is that it tastes very close to one of my favorite Chinese dishes that I used to order in San Diego, so now I can make it at home and not have to wait for my next trip to Southern California to have it!

I want this image to be very dark and moody so I start with some black enamel ware and a cast iron skillet. These are the test images with the two at the right being the direction I picked for composition and props. It's very "campfire" looking because of the props, which is an odd choice for Tofu but I think it works.

Next comes the cooking,

and the final image.

Unusual baking flour

I like these bowls from Sur La Tab and I think they will work well as containers for some various flours I have at home.

I do a series of composition tests. My favorite is actually the middle image with the brown bowls but the flour will stand out better in the gray bowls and background so that's what I go with. I try to remember that they are called props because they are supposed to prop up the main idea and not become the focus themselves.

After a little tweaking this is the final pic.

Frozen Shrimp Packaging

I just shot several frozen shrimp packaging shots for a company in San Diego. I picked up all the plates and bowls myself, which seemed like a simple enough task except that the images were going to be the same size on the packaging and you had to be able to tell the different size shrimp from the images. That meant I had to have exactly the perfect size plate or bowl for each image, so that the right amount of shrimp were used, and of course I wanted to have lots of choices for each shot so what seemed simple enough at first ended up taking a lot of time. My bad. Next time I hire a prop stylist like on most shoots!

This was my first time working with a food stylist in Southern California and she did a great job, Cindy Epstein.

Each image is going to end up against a dark color so I put them against this purple/blue just to get the retouching and exposure adjustments right before sending them the finals.

Mason Jars, again!

Carol Hacker has a few Mason jars that I like better than my own so I pick up a couple to shoot some jam in. I looked long and hard to decide on the jam I want to shoot and finally pick this Habanero Jelly form Berkeley Bowl. It tastes great but is crazy hot and not for the faint of heart!

The first shots are my testing lighting and backgrounds and figuring out how to get the muffin in the shot.

Tart Tartine

This is the first shot where I've been crazy enough to try and cook something myself. Scrambled eggs are about as fancy as I normally get for cooking.

These are my tests of the set. I want to work on this idea of the really dark set again. If anyone reading this has any ideas or wants to make something they think would work in a dark set please let me know!

This is how NOT to make caramel. Notice all the crystallization? Big no no. Took three attempts, and a different pan, to get it right.

This is the final image.

More Macaroons!

There is a shelf at Carol Hacker's prop house that I am always drawn to. It has all this old well worn pewter and tarnished silver. I always thought I would do a very classic still life with some of these and I think I have pulled it off.

First here are some tests of different possible setups. I like the one in the middle best.

Now tests to refine the lighting and figure out what color Macaroons I want to use. And once again my trusty assistant helping himself to the stand ins.

And the final image....

Feel Good Bakery

There is a great bakery in Alameda called Feel Good Bakery. I love their macaron's and have wanted to shoot some of their pastries for some time. I finally got around to it. I ended up shooting images of all three of the things you see here. Loved the Russian Tea Cookies on the right!

Exotic Fruit

Every time I pass the exotic fruit section at Berkeley Bowl I want to try something so today I picked up a bunch of New Zealand Kiwano's. Expensive and a bit of a pain to eat but well worth it. They have a delicate flavor that tastes great chilled. Just cut them in half like the one I photographed and spoon out the fruit. They're a perfect refreshing summer dessert.