Sorry for the general lack of posts lately… you probably know I’ve been traveling a bunch (in fact, I’m about to head out again) and have been swamped for the short time I’ve been home (all good!). With that in mind, I’m resurrecting a post I wrote sometime earlier this year for the Orbitz travel blog about taking photos when you travel. For some reason, it never actually got pushed live there, so I thought I’d go ahead and share it with you here.

Most people come back from their trips with handfuls of snapshots of friends and family, strategically posed in front of some monument or view of significance. My family, on the other hand, look through the photos that I take on our trips and wonder, how come there are never any pictures of us? My daughter, who jumps at any chance to model, looks at me in dismay when flipping through the shots, all she finds are pictures of slices of pie, signs of restaurants and, if she’s lucky, her hands offering up some local seasonal fruit. My work tends to bleed over into my personal life more than a little.

I find that I just want to bring home all the little details of the places that visit. I want a memento to remind me of the silky smoothness of the goat cheese ice cream we had in the century old farmhouse in the Loire Valley or of the bright crisp redness of the sweetheart

I do love a good double meaning. So, for this month’s challenge, the theme is Reflection. Initially, I wanted this to encourage you to think back over the past year and think about what you’ve learned, and show it in your photos. But, as I started typing the title, it occurred to me that reflections in photography are a wonderfully challenging topic on their own. So, take your pick & reflect!

The usual rules and are up on the Flickr group… the things like be constructive, take the photos during the month if possible, 3 photos per person and the last day will be around December 30th give or take a few days.

When my friends threw out the idea for the progressive party we had a few weeks ago, I immediately thought that it would be a fun event to photograph and post about. Now, event photos aren’t really my thing normally. People move around and get self-concious when you point a camera at them. Food, well, it just sits there. But I decided to give it a shot with that party. I was pleased with the post and photos but I have to say, I’ve been stunned by the response I’ve recieved.

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Today being Thanksgiving or “turkey day” in the United States I wanted to take an opportunity to remind photographers to always over-do the main thing. If you are hired to photograph a wedding…don’t forget to get LOTS of pictures of just the bride and groom alone. I’ve heard from people who’ve told me that their photographer didn’t get enough (or, perish the thought, ANY!) formal pictures of the bride and groom alone. I realize that a lot of emphasis has been placed on purely photojournalistic photography at weddings these days…but that doesn’t mean your clients want JUST candid pictures! In all likelihood there are going to be parents and grandparents who want, expect, and deserve good quality posed pictures — at the very least, a wide assortment of candids that show them just the main subjects of the day!

So remember to “keep the main thing the main thing!” It’s better to have too much than not enough when it comes to pictures of life events like weddings!

As the holiday season approaches, food styling needs start to kick into higher gear. Food is such a critical part of the holidays, and making food look good, even more so. It’s all turkeys, stuffing, cookies, cakes and pies. Especially pies. I recently shot a pecan pie for a regional magazine. The pie was baked in a local bakery, and I had the whole pie to work with to get a shot of a single slice, on a white plate, on a white background to allow lots of room for text to be placed all around. Styling pie is not particularly easy, and this particular pie, while mind-blowingly delicious, didn’t make it easier. When styling pie, you really want something that can hold it’s height fairly easily, with a nice thick bottom crust. This pie loved to sink and while the outer crust was incredibly thick, the bottom was almost nonexistent. Still, I thought it might be nice to show you a little walkthrough of the shot.
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If you’ve been using a digital SLR for a while, you know how frustrating it can be to pick up a point and shoot camera and get good shots. For that matter, if you use a point and shoot, you might be just as frustrated. A point and shoot, for all its ease of size and automation, makes all kinds of decisions for you in what makes a good photo, and while often it is right, it is just a piece of hardware and can’t read your mind about exactly what you want. When you photograph food, this becomes particularly clear.
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