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.

Shrooms

Far West Fungi at the Ferry Building often has these mushroom terrariums. I'm not sure that's the right name but it's descriptive. One of these days I am going to buy one just to shoot because they look so great. Very Alice in Wonderland.

Tomato Basil Eggs

I have been wanting to shoot a baked egg dish for a while now. It's basically a really flavorful tomato, coarsely chopped and sauteed with dried herbs, garlic and Meyer lemon juice. Then I add a lot of chopped basil, create a place for the eggs in the middle and bake at 350 until the egg whites are cooked.

At first I thought one of these pans I found at the Flea Market would work but once I tested them I decided a more rustic neutral gray set would work better so prop hunting time again.

I am now at a very interesting shop in the city. I love the old French Crepe pan so I buy it and start on my background tests

Here is a test dish I did first. In the final I mixed the basil into the tomatoes before adding the egg, rather than spreading it on top.

and now the final image.

As part of propping this shot I picked up these cool camp fire looking utensils at our local Alameda antique store and loved them so.....

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.