Nougat

I found these nougat bars at Sur La Table and thought they would be nice in a kind of summer camp looking set, which I already had the wood for. They are not as refined looking as nougat can be but that's what I liked about them.

 

Here are my the two final pics. I wasn't happy with them at first, thought they were too simple or something but they've grown on me and they definitely capture the feel I was going for. They also made for some nice after dinner snacking.

Persimmons

The Gardner, a great store on Fourth Avenue in Berkeley, had several of these Persimmon branches. They made for some great compositions just hanging in the store and so I puchased one and went to work.

I planned to do several Persimmon shots but I wanted the first one to be of the fruit still on the branch.

I did several tests and then hit on the idea of making it black and white and more of a still life than a food shot. The three persimmons in the other shot are from Berkeley Bowl. They are a really beautiful fruit and I wanted to just highlight they're color and texture.

Now for the prepared shots. The recipe is from Martha Stewart. It's just the fruit cut and half, broiled and topped with Mascarpone and honey.

First, as usual, comes the background, lighting and composition tests. I wanted this shot to be high key/white and fairly backlit.

My trusty assistant and now taste tester. He drove me nuts trying to get at this set so I figured what the heck. I think he's starting to become a gourmet parrot.

and the final images

Mason Jars

I've been intrigued by these mason jars they have at the Flea Market for a while now.  I purchased a few and then rented a few from Carol Hacker. I also like these old fruit crates. I think the texture is beautiful, if used right, so I bought two and then hammered them apart to get just the wood boards to make a set with.

Now I'm playing with the jars. I know I'll never be able to use them this way once there's food in them but they just look too cool backlit to resist. I may have to do a still life shot of them at another time.

With food in the jars I'm now playing with backgrounds. I decided to use the wood from the crates for the foreground and the background. A little shallow depth of field and that wood feels right to me for this series.

Once again my trusty assistant keeping an eye on things,

And now some final images from the series.

Thai Salad

Thai noodle salad. This is the final image. Below are the process shots.

This is one of the few shots that I hadn't figured out before we started. Maggie liked this table I kept in my office so we started there. I didn't have a good foreground surface until I realized I could take the table apart and use the top.

That worked so now my stand in for the dish, bubble wrap. I had about ten different plate options for this shot but ended up using this plate, which was the first plate I had foud.

Maggie went out for flowers and the bamboo leaves. It's starting to come together so now the food.

This feels close. A few adjustments, change the drink out, shallower depth of field and I'm there.

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...???

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.

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.