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......

I was getting in to my car at Berkeley Bowl with the micro greens to garnish this picture when I looked in the seat and saw this cool light happening to my test image print.

Whenever possible I like to do quick test shots of the backgrounds and props to test composition and lighting before having the food prepped. On assignments we don't usually have time to pull prints, we just look on screen,  but for myself I like to have prints to look at while working on the final images.

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.