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!

Aubergine Haze

This has been a long process... mine and Michaels' color story.  Mostly because we both have been busy and it's hard to get together.  We finally finished!

I have been inspired by the decorating stories that Elle Decor UK does in every issue and wanted to duplicate the same process.  I've been planning this shoot for months and we actually shot some of it before the holidays.

Aubergine is a good neutral.  I imagine it more like brown or grey.  I have been in a purple daze for over a year and as might be expected the color has been incorporated into my wardrobe.

This first picture was the kick-off to our first day on the project.  I had the vision when walking down the street one morning and so Michael and I carried it out.

This is the final layout of the shots from the two days.  We feel that this is a solid "color story" and will be a good promo card for us both.

The rest of these are shots that we decided to not use for the promo.  Although, they will still be useful for our portfolios and websites.

this is my favorite but of course just for fun.

The process of composing a shoot can be arduous.  I have learned a lot this past year about prepping and pulling together ideas. Interestingly, not all of the photos turn out the way I envision but somehow it all works in the end.  

I always say that doing these independent shoots is what I like best about being a stylist.  

There are no rules.

Thanks again Mr Bennett.  More to come...

Mellow Yellow

I have a memory of my dad, when I was a little girl.  I thought it was funny that his favorite color was "banana".  I remember asking him over and over again, "daddy what's your favorite color"?  I would giggle at his answer and say, "that's not a color"!

I'm inspired by the brightness of yellow.  I am aware of the color more these days and see it in magazines as well as on the street.

I have a photo shoot coming up with my two friends Martha and Michael.  Our recurring theme will be... yellow.  Martha has pulled together a menu and I am choosing my props from her food choices.  Michael and I have also been discussing our inspiration on lighting and propping that we are gathering from magazines and on-line.  This is going to be a fun collaboration for the three of us.

Michael and I, just today, finished our "color story" shoot.  We are both excited with the results which I will be posting here soon.

In the meantime these are some recent visions of my current favorite hue.

Apparently "banana" is a color...