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- I was shopping at a local farmers’ market and picked up a few heads of garlic. While waiting to purchase the garlic, I placed them on a black shelf near the cash register. The sunlight from behind the cashier spilled over to the garlic, highlighting their thin translucent layers. And, of course, I immediately wondered if I could duplicate that look on black glass. Would the reflective glass give the garlic layers an iridescent quality? Inspired by that thought, I made three trips to stores to purchase black glass. After never finding it in stock, I gave up. To get the shot before the garlic died, I used black foam core and a clear piece of Plexiglass and accomplished the same look.
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- It’s wilted spinach and a poached egg on toast. My typical go-to power breakfast because it is healthy and easy to make. The first time I saw the bright yellow yolk against the dark green spinach, I knew I had to photograph it. Before breakfast could be served.
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- This image was created for a client’s website and the direction was very specific. All of the ingredients had to be photographed in one pot because the dish is all cooked together at one time. We photographed this dish before, during and after cooking. Although the client originally wanted to include water in the image because that is part of the ingredient list, the addition of water did not make the image stronger. In fact, the water created reflections, floating ingredients and other oddities. This became the main image for the website. On a side note, I can actually cook this!
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- This image was created for a website and the idea was to create a very rustic, country appeal. I tend to use large vintage cutting boards or bread boards as backdrops for this sort of look. I had recently purchased a galvanized tin platter and was eager to try it. I was a little concerned with the white balance of the cool platter against the warm tone of the wood board. I did make a small adjustment in post to balance those tones. Overall, the textures of the platter, wood and linens combined with coloring of the Honeycrisp apples created a nice rustic look that worked nicely.
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- I was almost finished with my Thanksgiving meal shopping at the local supermarket when I walked past the floral department. They had a display of Indian corn intended to be used as decor. I saw photo opportunities with the rich colors and textured husks. Of course, it took twenty extra minutes to select three ears suitable for a photograph. And only a photographer can justify spending more time in a supermarket on the day before Thanksgiving.
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- At 7:00pm one evening, my daughter told me we had to take treats to the holiday class party the next morning. After recovering from my immediate meltdown, I found a recipe on-line that listed ingredients we actually had in the pantry. And, bonus, no cooking involved! They turned out nice but she was a little late that morning because I had to photograph the “No Bake Cake Balls” before she left for school.
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- This was one of those absentminded moments in the kitchen when I sliced a pear vertically and saw that the seed was actually split perfectly in half too. I took one look at it in my hand and ran over to the shoot table to grab a quick shot.
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- I used a light painting technique to create an image of these little pumpkins. After arranging them on my shooting table, I composed and focused the shot with my camera mounted on a tripod. I turned off vibration reduction, turned on manual focus and then turned off the overhead lights. Using an exposure of about one second, I experimented with small flashlight and quickly “painting” the pumpkins with the light. After several attempts, I captured this one.
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- There is always one that has to be different. But that’s a good thing. It really makes everything a lot more interesting. I love wooden utensils and jumped at a chance to add these to my collection. I also love prints of utensils in my kitchen. I shot this one for myself, intending to use it as a color print. However, when I was working on this image in Lightroom, I did a quick black and white conversion and experienced a kismet moment. There was a talk show playing on the television that I was only partially listening to. But as I converted the image to black and white, the person on the show said, “What we have in common easily trumps our differences.” These are all spoons, the only difference is their color; each one is different. It’s a much stronger image in black and white.
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- This is my hometown in south Alabama. It’s a small town of 2000 people located along a highway that is mostly known for being the route to Destin, Florida. It was around 10:00pm on a Friday night. To create this look, I used a wide angle lens, a diffuser filter and a long exposure. The slow moving car was a bonus. I was standing in the middle of the street on the opposite side of an intersection. Clearly there was no traffic so there was no real risk.
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- I was playing with a lens, photographing the moon from my front porch. I was a little startled when the plane appeared, but I leaned in and kept shooting. That is a habit I picked up from photographing dancers and sports which is, when something unexpected happens in front of the camera, keep your eye to the camera, stay with the motion, keep shooting. That habit paid off as I got three exposures when the plane flew in front of the moon. In the first one, only the nose of the plane is visible. In the third one, only the tail of the plane is in front of the moon. The second shot was this one. Thankfully.
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- This image was created for a client’s website to showcase the eyewear. The inspiration was to convey a “traditional man of the world” image. We chose a fabric suitcase with hard lines as a backdrop for the rectangular shaped eyewear. To make the tortoise color pop a little more, we used a backlight to show the translucence quality of the eyeglasses.
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- This image was created for a client’s website during the holiday season. The selling points of the eyewear are that it folds compactly, is inexpensive and is available in several colors. The eyewear was posed on top of a colorful Christmas stocking to suggest it is a perfect stocking stuffer idea.
