Salt Lake Roasting Company

These pics were taken for Utah Business Magazine because Salt Lake Roasting Company won a People’s Choice Award.  It was a really, really, really fun shoot.  I could have stayed there for hours photographing all the beautiful pastries, made by their in-house pastry chef.  The owner, John, was even kind enough to let me taste some of the yummy things I photographed… OH. MY. SCRUMPTIOUS-NESS.

I’m not a coffee-drinker, but these drinks looked gorgeous!  The foam was so funny to photograph, though.  I’d photograph it for a bit & it would shrink smaller & smaller until we’d have to replace it with a fresh, foamy top.  It was particularly difficult to get a good shot of the tall glass, as my camera had a really difficult time focusing on the glass as it was so smooth, there wasn’t a lot to focus on.  However, it was worth the effort.  I really love that first pic with the fruit tart in the blurred background.

I fell in love with all the beautiful textures & variances in the pastries.  There was so much detail to capture.  The star-shaped pastries were really unique & I loved capturing the pastry layers & sugar crystals.  My favorite pastry to taste, though, was the pear filled one (botton left).  Yummy pastry wrapped around half of a sweet pear.

Red Iguana

Recently I went to the Red Iguana to shoot some pics for Utah Business Magazine.  Red Iguana had won a people’s choice award.

They had scheduled the shoot for around 8am, on location.  I was a little nervous because I generally have a slightly nauseated tummy in the mornings (no, I’m not pregnant, LOL).  Seemed like smelling mexican food first thing in the morning would have the possibility of making my tummy SUPER nauseated.  I was worried about being able to capture how delicious the food looks if I was nauseated looking at it.  However, Lucy, the director of operations and her manager were super sweet to me.  They mixed me up an herbal mint tea to soothe my tummy which really helped.

The food was really beautiful (& delicious, I’m sure) & Red Iguana is such a fun restaurant to go to.  In hindsight, I wish I would have taken the food outside for much better natural lighting.  We were shooting near a big window, but that early in the morning it just wasn’t warm enough for what I usually like.  Regardless, the pics turned out pretty decent, I think.

What kind of food makes you a little queasy in the morning?

Backyard Grilling

These are some really fun pics I shot for Wasatch Woman Magazine’s July/August issue.  The issue has gone to print so I can FINALLY share them!!!  Yay!!!

The gist of the article was that you could cook your whole meal on the grill…

…and then finish up with some homemade ice cream sandwiches… FINGER-LICKIN’ SCRUM-DIDDLY-UMPTIOUS!!!

I took these pics of the chef’s daughter eating her ice cream sandwich.  I am in love with the contrast of her bright coral/red dress & dark hair against her fair skin.  It was so lovely to shoot.

All in all, this was THE MOST DIFFICULT lighting I’ve ever experienced on a shoot.  Truly, it was madness.  We did it outside in the afternoon (not the best time for an outdoor food shoot anyways, but had to make it work).  When we started, it was overcast so I was using my gold reflector to warm things up a bit.  Then, it quickly turned to full sun, so we turned the direction of the grill & moved the picnic table to the shade & I had to pull out the diffuser to try to soften the lighting.  Then, it got overcast again & started raining so we moved everything under the patio.  Then, it cleared up and was full sun, but rained again in the full sun.  All of this transpired over an hour or two of shooting.  I was ready to pull out my hair, LOL.  Luckily, we still got some fun shots from the shoot.  I’ve requested that next time’s shoot must be in morning or twilight to at least help with one lighting problem.

Glassware

Martini Shoot

Tuesday I had the privilege of shooting these martini shots for Utah Business Magazine.  It was a really exciting shoot for me, largely in part because it was pretty technical to get things just right. Because it was in a bar, it was a very low-light situation.  I loved getting creative & getting to use some geometry to really make the light fold over the martinis how I wanted it to.  I think we got some really beautiful effects from directing my flash at my silver reflector & bouncing the light onto the martinis.

I was really glad that the Art Director, Spencer Henderson, was right there with me at the shoot.  We were able to pinpoint exactly what they wanted for the magazine & execute it immediately.  These three were the favorites & I’m not sure what ones they’ll use, or if they’ll use all three.  What’s your favorite shot?