Brownie Covers 2014

The best way to start a new year is with lots of brownies! We’ve been working with Fairytale Brownies for just about seven years and the covers are always a fun part of the project. Here are of couple of the covers that will grace this years mail boxes.

One Camera One Lens

I was in Italy this past September. I’ve never been out of the country before other than a trip to Vancouver Canada or Nogales Mexico, which is not saying much! My work takes place in a dark 2000 square foot studio shooting things that don’t talk back…still life, food and product. I saw this European trip as an opportunity to shed the constrains I place on myself in my daily photographic routine. I decided to take one camera and one lens. My choice was the 50mm lens which best resembles our own visual view of the wold as seen through our eyes. I wanted to shoot the people, places and tables-scapes that I immediately responded to without any preconceived notions.

My approach to shooting people was to shoot mostly from the hip (literally) I didn’t want anyone knowing they were being photographed. This was very exciting because I never really knew what I was going to get, and that didn’t matter.  I let my intuition and understanding of the field of view of my lens guide me. After each day of shooting I would go back to the hotel and look at my files and enjoy the surprises.

I let everything I shot be quick, spontaneous and completely composed in the full frame of the viewfinder. I kept a promise to myself that I wouldn’t crop my way into a better picture…it must all be there in frame or forget it.

So here are some of the results…Enjoy!

Tacos And Tequilla!

I think it’s great that Phoenix keeps adding unique restaurant venues with fresh menu ideas and ingredients. The Taco Guild is a perfect example of this movement towards the creation of the overall experience of dinning out.

We were contacted by the creative folks at the James Agency to do the food photography for the website. The restaurant is in a refurbished old church with a mid-century modern feel so it made perfect sense to style and shoot the food in a rustic and believable way. So lick your chops and enjoy some of the images and the way they were used on their site.

This how they fit into the template:

Holiday Recipes

It’s getting to be holiday time and Sprouts Farmers Market is ready with some new and unique recipes to spice up the season. The studio was asked to create a series of recipe shots with a “Bon Appetite Magazine” feel where things are styled more loosely and have a believable feel. The creative director built the surface we shot on and the stylist choose a rustic approach to the propping.

A special thanks goes out to Tim, Maggie and Dina as well as the food-stylists Kim and Jill and my assistant Rob!

The Military Changed The Way We Eat

The University of Phoenix puts out a quarterly publication called Patriot. The magazine is geared to the school’s population of  students who have military service.

PS Studios contacted me to produce images for the cover as well as an inside spread. The concept was fun to execute…we needed to produce a 1950’s “Leave It To Beaver” feel. With help from the talented make-up artist Allison Pynn and prop/wardrobe stylist Abby Ripes we pulled it off making the client very happy.

The story is very cool dating back to the time of Napoleon. It chronicles how  the military created food items that could withstand the conditions of the battlefield and at the same time be appetizing, healthy and fresh. I was surprised to find that many of these food items became household staples that we use today.

Cheesey Recipes

Bar-S Foods recently merged with Sygma Alimentos one of Mexico’s leading industrial companies. The studio had an opportunity to shoot both recipe and packaging images for Sygma’s line of packaged cheese products. A big thank you to my crew and the creative services department at Bar-S Foods Phoenix!

Arizona Department of Health Services

I recently had the pleasure of working with the good folks from Moses Advertising on a project for their client A.D.H.S.  Arizona is implementing a plan for healthy meal preparation so folks can make better choices about the meals they make for their families. Our job was to create images for posters used to help with the initial educational process. Healthy recipes were created with cost effectiveness in mind that tasted great and were easy and quick to prepare.

Thanks to all who participated in the project!

Here are a couple of the posters…

Tin Can Alley

What can I do when it’s hotter than hell outside and all my projects have wrapped  and I have some time on my hands…I know, create a challenge. Go to the store and buy a bunch of canned fruit and canned veggies and have a studio play date. It’s always a good exercise to try to find  beauty in the most banal things that are always around us on a daily basis.

So here are the results of a day of play!

Sprouts…

I recently had the opportunity to work with the good folks at Sprouts Farmers Market shooting people on location and yummy baked goods in the studio. We had a ton of  bread, muffins and cookies at the studio… we could have fed a platoon of carb loving people…in the end all the goodies were donated to local food banks…of course less the stuff the crew inhaled!

Who Wants A Stack of Turkey Burgers?

There’s nothing like a turkey burger. Then add turkey bacon and guacamole and you have magic…make them sliders and you have three times the fun.

We’ve done work for La Victoria Salsa along with Riester Advertising of Phoenix for a few years. We all enjoy the projects as well as the creative team work on the shoots. This latest project featured Jennie-O Turkey Bacon. The shot is being used in FSI pubs in major newspapers.

A big thank you goes out to the crew that made this balancing act a reality.