Cheers! It's the holidays!

Well it’s that time of year already and for me the Christmas balls never got dusted off, they remained in action all year. I first started shooting the holidays in March this year, firstly with Delia’s book, featured on this blog already and then a story with celebrity chef, Ted Allen following closely after. I have to say Ted was a pleasure to work with, We all know him initially from “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” He now has his own show on Food Network, called “Chopped” Check out www.tedallen.net. The story is featured in the current December issue of “Food Network Magazine”

We had the task, my team and I of creating an instant cocktail party, the party was to take place in the home of Linda Lea, Ted’s Producer, who kindly allowed us to take over her whole apartment and we did! There was stuff everywhere! What many people don’t realize is that when a shoot takes place in someone’s home, you need a big team of people and props there to make it happen. It’s all the behind the scenes stuff that you never really see when the story comes out, Photographers dangling off ladders to get the right angle, Assistants running around with light meters and reflective card. Food Stylists cooking up a storm in the kitchen, Styling Assistants ironing wardrobe, constructing Christmas trees, tying bows.

There is a crazy energy that prevails and really does not stop until the last shot is taken. Then when everyone leaves, it is the Styling teams job to pack it all up and clean afterwards and this can take hours! Its never a pleasant part of the job and often you are left feeling like everybody else got to walk out the door and left you the mess and aftermath to deal with, but it is part of the job and alas someone has to do it.

I borrowed many items for this shoot from various retailers, I also have a stash of my own decorations that I have collected over the years, all color coded in boxes so that if that particular client wants pink and green for instance, those decorations come for the ride. I also used silver wallpaper as a table runner, which is a favorite idea I often weave into shoots as most people have remnants of this lying in the back of the cupboard, well of course I do! : ) Hope you enjoy the party, It was a lot of fun to produce!