surfaces

Any food photographer knows that the search for interesting surfaces is an ongoing quest. I scour thrift stores, antique shops, salvage yards, and etsy constantly. However, some of my favorite surfaces have been found on the beach or in someone's heap of recycling. You just never know when you are going to come across the perfect piece of chippy painted wood or scratched up metal.

I came across this amazing place online called SurfaceArchive, which rents out all types of surfaces to photographers. Brilliant!! And yet they are located in New York. :(
Unfortunately, we don't have anywhere like that in Seattle, but it gave me an idea. My friend, Nik, is an incredible artist and metal sculptor and is constantly creating interesting textures in his own work. I reached out to him and asked if he could create some custom surfaces for me-- some in plaster, some with weathered wood, and some with various types of metal.

Nik recently came by the studio to drop off the first ones he'd made-- his "test" bunch, as he called them. I am SO thrilled-- the plaster samples he made are beautiful!! He took 3 light-weight panels and created different surfaces on each side, so they are all double-sided. You can see the results below.
Most of these are combinations of plaster, concrete and dye.

I can't wait to see what he does for me next!

photo of the day- 2.14.13

memories from the seattle 3-day food photography workshop

Well, the 3-day photography workshop that I co-taught with Helene and Becky on August 10, 11, and 12 was fabulous. The students were lovely and generous, and working with my 2 co-instructors was awesome, as usual. I love and adore those ladies. Our good friend, Marc, also assisted in the kitchen and was an enormous help....and a constant source of entertainment. :)

The bulk of the workshop took place in my studio in the Bemis Building of Seattle.




We also did some location shoots.
The first was a picnic shoot at Volunteer Park.




The second was at Poppy Restaurant. Such beautiful and delicious food there!






Beautiful Becky


On the last night, after a long critique, the group was treated to a Thai and Vietnamese dinner made by Becky. It was AMAZING.

We set up tables in my studio and decorated with mismatched plates, glassware and linens, as well as lots of white flowers and tea lights.






It was a great workshop, and I can't wait until the next one!

welcome to my studio

(Note: the studio is available for daily rentals. Please email me for rates if you are interested in using it for a shoot, meeting, etc.)

I have posted photos of the studio here before, but I keep getting requests to see more so I thought I'd give you a little tour.

The studio is located in Seattle, Washington, in the SoDo neighborhood. The space is 1600 square feet and North-facing. With the white walls and high ceiling, there is consistent, bounced light all day.

This area is where I do my shooting:

And here's the kitchen:

And the lounge-area:

C-stands:

I know you were dying to see a photo of the bathroom:

That blue table is one of my recent purchases from an antique shop on Whidbey Island:

Wall of props:

Prop details. You may notice I have a particular love for transferware.

Linen drawers:

Some of my surfaces:

a month

Where do I start? A lot has happened in the last month....

Joe and I took a spontaneous mini-road trip to Whidbey Island, and visited the FABULOUS Double Bluff Beach with Nina. Unlike the city of Seattle, this awesome beach allows dogs! OFF LEASH!

I don't know about other dogs out there but, for Nina, this is her idea of heaven.

Second, there are some changes happening in my studio.

My lovely studio mate, Lara, has recently re-located to Portland, OR. Consequently, there are a lot of moving boxes going in and out of the space. Lara had originally supplied all of the cookware for the kitchen, so I have been frantically replacing everything in there, as well as adding more props, surfaces, silverware and linens.

But Lara's move is not the only change around my studio.

Have you heard about the recent viaduct construction? Um, yeah. If you have been anywhere near it, (like me) you have heard nothing BUT the noise of the thing. It's been insane.

As loud as it's been, it's been pretty cool having a front row seat to the viaduct destruction and watching the Seattle skyline transform. I have watched the view from my studio completely change over the course of a week. See the before & after below.

And here is my new view of the skyline:

Speaking of the studio, do you know that it's available for rent on a daily basis? If you are looking for a natural light photo studio for a shoot, or if you need a space (complete with kitchen) to teach a class, drop me an email. The studio is also perfect for dinner or cocktail parties up to 20 (or so) people. Plus, there is a pretty sweet view of the city at night. :)

On another note, the styling workshop that Becky and I taught on October 9th was so much fun! We are teaching another one in February-- check out the "workshops" tab on my website to find out the details.

And since I am on the topic of workshops, I might as well tell you that Joe, Nina, and I will be hitting the road in April-May of 2012 for my Cross-Country-Workshop-Extravaganza!!!!!! Woo hoo!!

The (very rough) plan at this point is to leave sometime in mid-April and spend about a month on the road, (with the dog. Did I mention that? Any travel tips with dogs would be greatly appreciated.)

The cities are still being finalized but I can tell you that there will most likely be workshops held in the SoCal area, the Denver area (finally!), a little town in Ohio, and a charming town in the Southeast. And maybe more! In fact, if you want me to come to your town, let me know.

And finally, this past month has been filled with some great shoots. I shot a fun cupcake cookbook by Megan Seling to be published by Andrews McMeel in fall of 2012, a sweet story for Edible Seattle, and a 6-page spread for the fab new magazine, Sip Northwest.

Life is good.

UPDATE #3 11/10/11: Oops! I forgot to update several days ago when my new site launched! Have you seen it? I am pretty happy. :)

UPDATE #2 11/3/11: Figured out the problem with my website and, unfortunately, I have to build a whole new site. I am frantically working at this and hope to have it up in the next couple of days.

UPDATE 11/3/11: For the past 24 hours my website has been down. I am working with my hosting company to get it back up as quickly as possible. I apologize for the inconvenience!