What's for desert?

I have now another batch of desert images, just baked (well some baked!) Food and Wine commissioned me again to style there last page called "Last Bite" We usually shoot 4 in one go, but this time, one was dropped for content reasons. Con Poulos, www.conpoulos.com, shot the first 3 with Food Stylist Anne Disrude and myself, We decided with this series to largely use wallpapered backgrounds, they are out of focus on purpose but add a feeling and texture to the background, It is a challenge to make popcorn look luxe but we did by recreating a night club/ bar feel. The Pannacotta with pineapple was fun because we could go a little "cheesy", almost like a 70's resort in Hawaii, At least that's my reference!

The last image was swapped out, because the latest issue of Food and Wine was the travel issue, This was shot by Photographer Stephanie Foley, www.stephaniefoleyphoto.com, Food Styled by Heidi Johannsen, This image was the most delicious "Sticky Oat and Pine Nut Bars" that actually had pepper in them to give them some kick when eating them, Needless to say I tried a few on the day! We used vintage maps and colored twine to evoke the feeling one might wrap and take them on your travels.

These images are from the last 4 issues, Hope you enjoy this batch, stay tuned for the next "Last Bite" installment in the coming months.

It's in the Stars!

In the latest April issue of Food and Wine Magazine, I was asked to style a dinner party for wine pro Tom Harrow, Astrologer Shelley von Struncknel and chef Jimmy Bradley. The theme was to be an Astrology Wine Party with the star sign Aries taking center stage. Of course I was very happy to be shooting with Photographer John Kernick, www.johnkernick.com, I have shot with John many times and it is always a great experience. We did have some challenges though, the apartment was quite dark in the room we wanted to shoot and when we arrived the owner of the apartment promptly told us he did not want us to use the dining table! Yikes!..Of course the whole party centered around the dining table so you can imagine my horror. The scheme I had devised did not include an ugly ill fitting table cloth, I had in fact had a denim runner infused with silver thread custom made especially for the shoot, We worked out that his concerns revolved around scratching the very expensive table and after some persuasion we were able to put soft padding under all the plates and trivets so nothing physically touched the table, but for the first half an hour I was sweating, I had no idea how to create a dinner party with no table!

We spent a whole day on the location with my usual truckload of props, the apartment was very sparse on purpose so to create an inviting environment required me to bring lots of options to work with. To enhance the Aries theme I turned to Jonathan Adler of whom I knew had some great Ram's heads in his ceramic range. Of course when the issue hit the new stands it was me that saw stars when realized how small the story ran, maybe I will be asking John for some larger prints! : ) It's always the gamble you take, Not all stories can be big and beautiful, It's how a magazine is able to pace the flow with smaller and larger articles and I fully understand this having worked on staff for many years.

I did shoot some close up shots behind the scenes, hope you enjoy some of the details.

Behind the scenes, Food and Wine Feb cover

Often I will get asked to do a cover try, sometimes it is a series of cover tries that can be done throughout the duration of a day, This can mean creating different approaches to the same subject matter and sometimes totally different options all together. It is an interesting process and one that only really became familiar to me when I moved to the U.S.

In Australia we often shot something on a shoot if we thought it would look good as a cover but more often than not, a suitable image is chosen from the array of images available from that particular issue being shot that sings as a cover from rest. In the U.S, that chance is not really taken that often, some magazines do work like this and but most will devote a day or two even to get the image they feel is right, This can be based on a whole lot of things, Market research, focus groups or simply what the Editor or higher management like the best. Some argue that it means the image is more labored, not as fresh and spontaneous, but I feel, whatever works for the magazine, The sales on a cover in the U.S magazines cover can make or break it, so there is more riding on getting the perfect formula working for that product than elsewhere, the culture is also different.

For this Food and Wine cover, we actually tacked it onto the end of another shoot, I knew well in advance though so I was able to collect many options for propping and I treated it like a totally separate shoot. I knew we had to shoot chili in a bowl, For non American readers, Chili is a bowl of Chili Con Carne, which literally means "chili with meat" It is a spicy stew that has a long history in the States, Chili Con Carne is the official dish of the U.S state, Texas. It was first introduced in the 1600's and it's exact origins are a bit of a mystery, but seems to be a variation of a Spanish or Mexican dish.

I set up various options that you can see from the behind the scenes shots, My main brief was to use unexpected combinations of color, so I mixed various clashes of color on purpose, treating the palette in almost a painterly way. It is a February issue so in the U.S, It is still Winter, so it had to be evocative of the season as Chili is the perfect dish for this time of the year.

Behind the scenes, Beer and Asian

This post is quite exciting for me, It is the first time I can really bring you a "Behind the scenes" post of a commercial shoot. As most of you would know, magazines are produced at least 3 months ahead so as I started this blog only about 3 months ago, I had to wait until the magazine came out before I could publish these shots. Obviously the Magazine does not want the world to see what is in production before it comes out, that would be a real spoiler and land me in all sorts of trouble to boot!

In these shots I have illustrated the world of the Prop Stylist behind the scenes of a Photo Shoot, Folding tables are our friends as they help us edit through and display all that we need to see just to the side of the set. Jeanne Lurvey, my wonderful assistant on many Food and Wine shoots is seen here sorting through the various props. You can also see a stack of backgrounds waiting in the wings for their possible moment in the light, I like to have these displayed to really reinforce the color palette in evrybodies eyes. You can see a collection of blue and white plates also edited into their own category, ready to be considered for the right recipe.I also like to stage my combinations so the Photographer and Art Director can clearly see what I have in mind for the next shot. Lastly in these shots you can also see the treatment used as the background to many of the shots, the pinned up photocopies of a well known willow pattern from a Chinese platter, I think this is a great idea for a wall treatment even at home, note to oneself!

Hope you enjoy seeing a glimpse into my world, Look for future posts of this kind to come with future projects!

The Perfect Pairing....Beer and Asian Food

Who doesn't like a cold beer on a hot summers day?, Only thing is it's freezing here right now in NYC! Still the idea still sounds quite appealing, especially when you pair it with Asian food! : ) This story was an interesting one to style for Food and Wine Magazine, It features the recipe's and philosophy towards cooking by Chef Sang Yoon, whose L.A restaurant "Lukshon" is a place I will definetly want to visit next time I am there on the West Coast! With food and drink, Sang Yoon likes to blur borders, for example combining Indian with Chinese, throwing in some Belgium Ale! It was largley interesting to style based on the blurring, We decided to not do the cliqued combo of red and black and instead used rich blues combined with a hit of red. In my research, I noted that a lot of Chinese platters and plates do in fact come in the popular blue/ white combination, I managed to buy quite a lot on E-bay and was able to weave in vintage plates with new silhouettes.

Stephen Scoble, the magazines Creative Director had the idea of blowing up sections of platters to use as a background, so my trusty assistant Jeanne spent many hours chained to a photocopy machine producing just the right sized magnification. We then pinned these overlapping each other to create almost a wallpaper effect.

We shot the story with the very talented Tina Rupp, Check out more of her wonderful work at www.tinarupp.com, Food styling by the also very talented Alison Attenborough, www.alisonattenborough.com

"A Beer Geek's guide to Asian Flavors" appears in the Feb issue of Food and Wine Magazine.

Look for the behind the scenes on the post to follow.

Sweet Tooth..who me?

Who doesn't love a desert? It's often hard to fit one in I will admit but when you can and it's good, there's no better way to finish a meal except maybe a glass of sticky wine! It's this reason with my love of deserts that I wanted to share with you the series of the "Last Bite" pages for Food & Wine Magazine. As I mentioned in a previous post, It was so great to see one of these images used as the current January 2010 cover, but this was actually the last of a series, the last 4 months.

I was lucky to be asked to contribute to the next 4 months as of February, so look out for those. Of course on the shoots I get to try everything so after 4 deserts in a day, It can be a sugar high baby! No wonder I look forward to the next batch.

For these images we work to a very specific palette for each month, this is based on what is appropriate seasonally, what is in the rest of the issue color wise and we always try and give them a luxe aspirational look, a little sparkle here and there never goes astray!

These great pics were shot by Con Poulos.

Food and Wine January Cover, 2010

I was simply delighted when I opened my mailbox to find my subscription to "Food and Wine" magazine had a big butterscotch sticky bun staring me in the face, It wasn't only the bun that made me excited, It was the fact that it is my first ever "Food & Wine" cover! I styled it.

I think my surprise came mainly because I would have never expected it to be a cover, I had styled this with photographer Con Poulos months and months ago when we shot a whole series of "Last Bite" pages, The desert page that sits on the last page of the magazine. These pages are not shot with a cover in mind, so it's great when a magazine can pick up on a random image within the issue and make it a beautiful cover.

While the propping is minimal, I am glad that my very expensive ABC Carpet & Home glasses made it in, (especially since 2 broke in the bag on the way back to the store and I had to pay for them! :) We wanted to give the pages some New Year sparkle so I used the glasses with gold dots etched into them and a silver runner, The buns are sitting on a Rosenthal platter, This one I don't own, but I do love a Rosenthal!

Hope you are licking your lips, I did try one on the shoot and they are good! Food Stylist Heidi Johannsen knows how the cook a mean sticky bun!

The cover is the Jan. 2010 cover, It's on new stands now!