Packing up My Camera Gear

I'm moving. At Christmas time. I think I'm insane.

I've started to pack up my office and my camera gear and realized that I couldn't fill a large Rubbermaid container with all my gear. Time to get more gear.
So here is my Christmas wish list. Santa are you listening? I hope you have deep pockets!!


MACRO LENS. A must for food photographers in my opinion.

TELEPHOTO ZOOM.. Just coz you can ;)

And last but never least....
*drools* the TILT SHIFT. Great for food shots and making everything look like model toys.

Keep Calm, Bake On

I think this is becoming one of my favorite images of mine. So serene.




Must get into baking again. And my poor alphabet project. I think the last one I did was F for Food coloring. And I skipped E. I'm thinking pear tart for my next baking adventure. I found a great William Sonoma cook book that had fallen into my office black hole. Pies and Tarts. There has to be something amazing in there to try.

Where are you Christmas?

Is it too early to talk about Christmas? I promise not to get all sentimental but Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year. Snow, decorations, friends and family, Irish coffee and some baking with my mom. All one needs for an amazing season. Photography is in there some where! I feel like I have fallen off the photography band wagon lately. Looking back on my course over the past few months, I feel like I haven't really learned anything new that I couldn't have learned on my own. Practice when it comes to food photography is the most important thing. If I can strive to challenge myself daily, do I really NEED the courses? And I find that if I'm not interested in the shoot itself, say the one I did below for the Assignment on transparent/reflective objects, am I really learning or just going through the motions?

The goal in life is to end up on the cover of Food & Wine or Martha Stewart. I suppose how one gets there is a moot point. Just get there!!

Here is the last assignment I did. I like it. My motivation for it could have been improved.


Next and final assignment is to photograph a portfolio. I'm thinking of doing something very similar to the rainbow cake images. Those went over great with everyone and I've like to improve and practice my skills with shooting food - from start to finish. It's a LOOONG process but one I greatly enjoy.

Dear Blog,
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry I've neglected you yet again. I promise to love you dearly from now on.

I've been seeing other sites you see... and that's unfair to you.

Please accept this photo as a token of my promise to love you more.

XOXO
Ashley

Results

Well my second part of shooting went much better. Sigh of relief!! I didn't get as many shots as I wanted but I still have some to sort through and adjust. Going to be a busy photo weekend with some light painting tonight and Nuit Blanche on Saturday night. So it'll be a race to get these printed and ready for the critique class on Wednesday.

I gotta start shooting something other than apples haha. But they still look cute!

Feeling Frustrated

I started my classes at Ryerson again last week. Commercial Photography should be really fun and exciting and creative..and yet I just feel frustrated from the results of the first class. Do a simple still life photo. Should be easy right? I think maybe I was over thinking it. Or maybe I didn't have the right props. Or maybe the fact that it took me like 5 minutes to figure out how to get the cap off the strobe light(thanks to the guy next to me who looked at me like I was an idiot when I asked how to do it)

This was my first night working with true studio strobes. From set up to tear down it was all on me. I decided to keep it simple with some apples and little mini squash but I didn't like the outcomes and after 2 hours of shooting I wasn't impressed with myself. Here is the shot I like best.




Wednesday is the second half of the shooting time allotted for this assignment and I think I'll just have to go in relaxed and with lots of ideas. Will post my final shots and maybe the critique that I get as well. All constructive criticism is allowed!!

Our Family in Photography

Have been putting together a little family tree in the last month or so. My Dad was nice enough to pass along an old photo album of his side of the family. Thought this photo of my dad at age 7 months was cute. The camera is my great grandfathers, John, who was an artist. Guess the artsy family history starts way before me. :)
Also funny is that the couch in the photo is also being handed down to me... and reupholstered of course. Sorry Nana, the brown and white has got to go!

Happy Birthday Laura!

If you haven't heard of Laura Dekker, I suggest you visit her site here and take a look at what this amazing young girl is attempting to do. She is currently on a mission to sail around the world solo. Monday is her birthday and I thought I would give her a little shout out and cheer her on, along with her boat Guppy!!

Wishing you all the best in your voyage!!
Wensend u alle beste in uw reis!!

Gelukkige Verjaardag!!!!

Dearest Mother

I got quite the note from my mom today. She loves the blog but was greatly opposed to some questionable language used in an early post. Apparently using the word "arse" is not an accepatble word in the Day family.

From now on I promise to say "photographing my cinnamon buns off" instead of arse.

Happy now? :o)

Skipping ahead a letter

I found this recipe for a Rainbow Cake and could not resist making it. Does food coloring count as 'food'?? Well when it looks this good, I say yes it does!!

Gel coloring can be found at any baking stores, I got mine at Bulk Barn <3
I was affraid this would stain my new countertops. Corian can't be stained?? this stuff looks toxic in its cute little jars..but low and behold..did NOT stain my counter tops. Horray!





PS.. I thought I had beaten Martha Stewart to this one.. but that woman knows everything and had already done this one in April. I'd like to bad mouth her for that but,.. I <3 Martha. Her recipe is here.

Grocery Stores Close Too..

Oh Labour Day!!! How I love that I don't have to go to work, but loathe that the grocery store is closed. I always forget this simple fact. No "e" to photograph this weekend since it's now 9pm and the stores are closed tomorrow. I was going through some old Martha Stewart Living Mags since I've been hoarding them in my office for way too long. Found some really great recipes to try and found one for the letter E!!

Endives.

and I get to buy black sesame seeds... HORRAY!

D is for Dill

Dill. God I love this stuff. In moderation of course. You can have dill overload very easily in my opinion. Here is the shots from the Pasta Salad with Dill/shrimp/cucumber and shell pasta. Add in a little S&P, lemon juice and drop of mayo and you are set. Tried it warm first right when I made it but admit I do like it better cold. Doesn't make the cucumber seem to out of place. Plus, warm cucumber is just wrong!!




Find the recipe here My 2 cents is less dill... 1/2 roughly chopped was too much and too big for me. I'd say about 1/3 finely chopped. I think Martha would agree... oh yes..

C is for Cinnamon

C is for Cinnamon. Alot of things start with C and this was a long process in shooting hence why I'm behind this week. Been out and about shooting my buns off. See my flickr page for the results.

This week's recipe is for Mexican Hot Chocolate!! Never tried this before, but it was quite good. Simple to make and very yummy once you add the whip cream on. ;)
PS Thanks to Martha Stewart for the recipe!!





Photograph wise I am kicking myself for not shooting these with the Micro lens I rented. Ended up out all weekend shooting various things instead which was loads of fun. But had to return the lens before I could shoot the food... so epic fail there. But must admit...loved the mirco 105mm lens. Might have to save my pennies for that one!

Still thinking of C

How about Crack Pie?


OR Compost cookies.....YUM

I've been hooked on David Lebovitz's Blog - Living the Sweet Life in Paris. He always posts about the most yummy things and I can't help but getting side tracked in my daily quest for things to photograph. While Crack Pie and Compost Cookies both start with C I find this may be cheating slightly for the photo quest but doesn't mean I can't make them on the side.

Check out the restaurant they come from Momofuku... ha I love saying that.. MOMOFUKU!

B is for Brie

Hard to think of something for B that wasn't generic.. so Brie it is. Plus, its really REALLY good. After shooting this, we devoured the left overs. Bring on the fatness. MMmmmm

The Ingredients!
Rainforest crackers. These are a little $ but worth it.



Then the Serrano Ham :)


AND the BRIE! This was hard to shoot since it's so white. Finally got the exposure down better but should have maybe thought about a lighter background.


Once the ingredients were shot I got some basil and olives and a little pepper and shot the crostini's I made with the yummie toppings.





Had fun shooting this but think I will try a different len next time. I'm shooting with a 35mm right now and it has not left my camera since I bought it BUT for food i think I need to be able to get in closer.

It's on to the letter C next. Should be interesting. Still haven't picked an ingredient yet.

Any suggestions??

A is for Apricot

Well, made if through the first letter of the alphabet. Apricots are yummy. I hate to say I'd never bought them fresh before. I was missing out. What I was not missing out on however was turning on the oven in July. Maybe this is a Fall recipe. Or just when its not 30+ degrees outside.
The recipe is Apricot & Almond Bread Pudding. I added raisins..and vanilla sauce... both necessities.

Link to the recipe from Cooks.com <-------- LINK I also ordered an umbrella/stand to get goin with lighting. Here I'm only using 2 cameron continuous lights and a small diffuser. And the light from the cloudy day outside.

Back in the saddle - with a new project

Wow, haven't posted since Feb 2010! What have I been up to - just a little TV show. Got a new kitchen!! woot woot. Show will air in December 2010 on the W network. Which means that I now have no excuse to not be photographing my arse off.

New project - since I don't yet feel up to the grueling 365 projects. How about a 26 project? Go through the alphabet and photograph 2 things for every letter.

Each letter must have a photo of the item (lets say A is for Apple) One photo of the apple and 1 photo of the item in a receipe.. ie apple pie YUM!

Goal is to finish this in 52 weeks. And of course build up my portfolio.
Start date July 17th.

This means off to the market tomorrow.
I'm thinking apricots to start. Apples are too easy.

NO EASY FOODS!!!

Apple Curls

Line and Flow = Apple curls.
I finally came up with something that fits for my assignment for school. Tried to peel an apple in one (which is hard to do by the way when you are impatient like me) and then light it and photo it. I'm semi pleased but not 100%. I think for the assignment it will do but I may revisit it again later to perfect it :)



I also like this one, not sure which one to print out yet

Line and What?

On assignment for my Ryserson class... take a picture of Line and Flow... I get the concept but feel like I have some form of photographers block. I find that expecially when photographing still life I like to have an idea in my head first then shoot. And I just can't seem to find something that fits. I even tried a set with this glass ball and a light behind it and was not impressed with my efforts. Back to the drawing board.
Will post the final picture when I get there :)

To hold me over I'll just look at some cookies from xmas... YUM!

Physalis

Since learning about composition lately I've been experimenting with different things from the grocery store. It's always fun to try to find the weirdest thing and then bring it home and photograph it. I must say my shots are more artistic than commercial? Not sure about my developing style. Maybe Martha will like?
PS these things are STICKY - bring a wet and dry towel while photographing or you will end up with a sticky camera.