All in a Week

I have been so busy these days that I have been neglecting my blog!

Since I have no current projects to talk about I have decided to post photos that I have taken recently.

These photos are ones that I took on my latest work week in St Helena, California.  One of the gems of Sonoma.  We had a fun week working and playing.

Enjoy!

candy at Dean & Deluca

Martini at French Blue

Friends showing some color

Seasonal fruit salad... yum!

Morning Ritual

As I sit down to write this post I am sipping a delicious cup of coffee.  People who drink tea or coffee have their particular ways of blending their brew.  I am sitting at the table in my living room looking out the window... enjoying my cup with cream and honey.

These photos are the other part of the two part food shoot with Michael and Martha.  Although, we intended them to all go together this seems more like a separate story.

Here is our vision of a morning ritual.

this is the first photo... "before breakfast"

Martha made these delicious lemon curd pastries

now isn't this how you want to start your day?

There are a couple of people I want to thank that contributed to this shoot... Mario De Palma for giving me the beautiful drop leaf table and Peggy Hickey for loaning me her perfect dining chairs.  It's these little gestures that can make pulling a project together much easier.

Good Food

Yet another collaboration with two good friends. 

Our first food shoot. 

Food styling by Martha Arriola photos by Michael Bennett and propping by me.  

For a few months Martha, Michael and I had been talking about doing a food shoot.  It was time, after years of working on PB shoots, for us to pull our ideas together.  Martha wants to build up on her food styling experience, I want to do more table top and Michael well, he is up for any new photo project.

I asked Martha to pick the menu and I would choose the propping around her choices.  She wanted brunch... I appreciate a good breakfast so, I said "YES".  Besides my living room is perfect for morning light.  

The process was fun for me because I enjoy shopping and finding unique items.  I hit a lot of thrift stores and scored on many pieces of dish ware and table top items.  


I also, have been sewing so even though its not evident by the photos I did make the table cloth.  Which has fine little detailing around the edges.  

We started with a story about four friends enjoying breakfast together.  Bloody Mary's, fruit salad, savory potatoes with eggs and toast (of course).  We did also do a dessert and coffee course but now after editing and cropping we have decided that these could be two different stories.  I will be writing a separate post with the other photos.

I have chosen these for this post but there are more that each of us can use.  


After the whole process we have found that the three of us can't use all of the photos for what we are trying to achieve for our independent portfolios.  Still this was a successful merging of our talents.

Eat up!

cocktails first

getting ready to eat

a few close-ups before digging in

it was Marthas' idea to leave the potatoes and eggs in the skillet

yum!

I liked the partially eaten food shots... because I got to bite the toast

We showed these to a couple of our colleagues and our over all feed back was positive.  We did learn some "art direction" that hadn't occurred to either of us.  But we (three) are happy with the results of our joint effort. 

Michael made this card for Martha... sweet!

Thank you both for the fun two days and good food.  Let's do it again!