Food!
If you’ve spent any time around me, you know that I love food. In fact, I love what I refer to as “ruinous foods”… Aka, any dish that ruins every future encounter with said food… It just sets the bar at a new level. Two off the top of my head are Ray’s Boathouse (in Seattle) has croutons that are so delicious, and so unique that you just have to experience them to know how all other croutons don’t measure up.
But this post isn’t specifically about Ray’s croutons. It’s a quick post to show off some images that I captured working with the great Venietia Santana of V’s Cellar Door.
V’s Nachos are ruinous. I can’t make “real” nachos at home without covering it in something like a slaw and including various other ingredients including different sauces. I can’t figure out how to replicate her dish at home, but rest assured, I’ll keep trying.
It was a fun day to capture these shots, and I got to eat them afterwards! Heather is a bit of a closet foodie too, and she was the perfect stylist to the day – these are really a great collaboration. Venietia handled the food, Heather brought the vision to life, and I captured it all (in camera and in belly!)
Foodie Photos?
Being multifaceted, I find myself presented with all kinds of new challenges. Recently, Venietia of V’s Cellar Door asked me if I could create an image that she could use for an advertisement board targeting passengers at the Juneau Visitor Center.
I should be clear: I don’t consider myself a food photographer. I like to eat food. I like good looking photos of food, but I’m not sure that I’ve ever taken a photo of plated food before, outside of some detail shots at a wedding buffet line!
Here’s the result. I had some help in determining angles, lighting, etc. from those who happened to be by the restaurant that day.
Also, these nachos are delicious!!!
3rd Annual Calendar
For the past couple of years, I have taken on the task of creating a photo calendar featuring some of my work from the past year. It’s a fun project for me to look back and find 12 of my favorite images, and of course my mom loves it because she can now brag about the artist, but still get’s her annual calendar from her son! 🙂
In reflection of my 2011 images, I didn’t think I had a strong enough collection in one particular vein to have strictly a Macro, Wildlife, Scenic, or other theme. But with Heather’s help, we were able to get it done. You can call this particular grouping, “photos that made the cut”! Ha!
For printing this year, I decided to go with one of our partners, Kodak Gallery. In the past I had used iPhoto, chosen for their fairly simple process to get a large, quality calendar. So many places offer calendars but at some minuscule size (like 8.5×11) which, to me, communicates mass-market cheapness. I’m a big fan of quality over price.
After receiving the calendars last week, I can say that I like the product. The size is more than adequate –14.25″x10.9″– (larger than the iPhoto calendar –13″x10.4″– that I’ve had previously), and the print quality gets a 7/10 ranking because while the quality of the print & paper was mostly amazing (9-10/10), the downside was that their printer obviously had some issues as there were color bands across many of the images (5/10). I haven’t decided if I’m going to chase down their quality control offices and demand a refund (reprinting is too late in the game for Christmas Gifting.) They may be expensive to make, but it’s fun to share, and most people can actually use it throughout the year!
If you don’t get one from me by new years and you REALLY, REALLY have to have one, let me know. I’m happy to order more, but you’ll cover the costs. 🙂
Here are the images (in order of how they appear in the calendar). Click for a larger view.
