Every couple of years, I update the computers in the studio. I shuffle them around to do different jobs. The slowest is for the email and office computer I think That one is about 6-7 years old. The next fastest is for file archiving and asset management,that ones only 5 years old. I hold on to computers for a long time. The studio computer, and the one that I edit images on, are 4 years old. I bought them used on eBay a couple of years ago. And the were two years old then. Now I’m looking at a couple of iMacs on eBay. These are last years models. The only reason that I’m even looking is because of the new Adobe softwear. The new Adobe Lightroom and photoshop CS 5 are such a leap forward in features and speed increase, that I would be a fool not add it in to my work flow. So over the next couple of weeks I will watch and wait to see what eBay will bring.
Joel

I was  surfing the web the other day. I look at other photographers site to gauge my work and to get inspired. I found a site that was simply designed and easy to look at. http://www.jannepeters.de/.  I thought to myself , hey I can do that.  So I set forth and updated the Minnesota Food Photographer site. With a plugin for Adobe Light room called LRB Portfolio. keeping all the text that was on the site. I adjusted the colors and some of the spacing.  I did have to re-crop some of the images so I could get them all to line up.  I redid the logo also.  It looks a 100% better. I now am looking to update the Minneapolis food site. but that will be another entry.

Great food photography is a collaboration between the chief, food stylist, and the Photographer.  Each person  needs to have the right tools  to do there part. I have a lot of lighting gear. But I wanted to make the job easier for the food stylist.  They never know how well the kitchen is stocked. So they bring a lot of stuff.  I asked one of my best stylist to create me a list of the kitchen items that I could have on hand  to make here job easier. This is what she wrote. Below is a a shot of the items.

Joel

set of mixing bowls (preferably microwave safe)

2-4 half sheet pans

(13×18″)
pie pan – pyrex

small pyrex prep bowls -

6-8
 1 and 2 cup pyrex measuring cups (liquid measures)

measuring cups (dry measure)

measuring spoons

cutting boards – 2-3

colander

medium and small wire mesh strainers

1 or 2 quart pitcher – plastic or polycarbonate

rolling pin
9×13″ cake pan

set of funnels

hot pads

electric hand mixer

rubber scrapers -

2
spatula – for teflon pans and one metal (small)

one
 tongs

whisk

can opener

vegetable peeler

corkscrew

pastry brushes – 2-3 asst’d sizes

wooden spoon
slotted/pierced

spoon
stock pot (lg – 8 quart)

sauce pans – 2 & 3 quart

non stick saute pans – two – 8 or 10″

aluminum foil

wax

paper
parchment paper

saran wrap

bamboo skewer

toothpicks

q-tips

Kitchen Bouquet

zip loc bags – asst’d sizes

“I’m creating some new wood surfaces. What kind of wood do you all like the best? I’m making a couple of destresed wood ones now. I’ve also started collecting cook books for photo inspiration. And what I came up with is a short list of wood types that seem to be a standard set. 1. Wains cote in white, some times aged. 2. A white washed oak or maple. 3. A pine( barn wood) with the paint chipping or pealing. 4. An old grey oak or pine some times rough cut for texture. 5. And some times a painted blue or green wood heavily distressed. Since I’m making these myself, I am building them on a 3.5×4 foot in size. This way they will be easily stored.

On vacation this year the family and I sent to the North shore area. Up past Duluth, around the town of Beaver Bay and Silver Bay Minnesota. We stopped at a road side flea market. I could not believe my eyes. Plates… Cups..bowls! Tables and tables. All a ranged by color.  This is a food photographers  paradise. they don’t have a website so I can’t link you to it.   I was so over whelmed. I need to go back.

There is a lot that goes into photography for cook book. There couple of pre-production meetings, called prepros. I have one this week. The author,stylist and I, will look at the list of recipes. And visualize each shot. There’s 40 to 50 shots. So this will be a long meeting.

We will determine the over all look. Then each surface, plate,and any additional props we will need.

This week end I was in Chicago for the Brick World weekend. What’s Brick World… it’s…. Well Lego! My son is really into Lego. He creates small seen from movies, and does some of his own movie making. All in Lego.

I also had the opportunity to also visit a Calumet camera store. I had always wanted to visit one. They all was had a Orra about them in my mind. There were THE camera store for anything photographic. I always look forward to there catalog in the mail. And they were the first place to go when I need to order something. So I drove an hour out of our way just so I could finally get to experience one. I was so disappointed. They did not stock much of any thing. It took 20 minutes before anyone even came up and asked if they could help. When I did have a question, the staff person looked at me like deer in the headlights. They had very little in the way of studio stuff. Not much in camera and lenses. I suppose this could have been one of there smaller stores. It was near a shopping mall. So I suppose it was geared towards the consumer market. But I was still disappointed. I guess the economy has hit them to. It’s just a shame.

I had the opportunity to work with a new food stylist Ann Jensen. This is the second time ann and I have collaborated on some shots. The first ones are here.

The second time we did some drink images. I’ ve shot some beer in the past, but I wanted to expand my skills.

I’ll be adding them to my food site Minnesota food photographer. And the BDI site

I have limited storage space. I like it that way. It forces me to make a desition. Keep it or not. Photographers can be pack rats sometimes… Well most of the time. That’s evident from the last studio sale I visited so much stuff…. So when I built my studio I kept the storage space small. In the past, you were expected to “have it on hand” now that is changing. Less photographers have studios, or the place to store all the stuff.
This week I spent two days going over all the boxes I had in storage and deciding what I really needed and what should keep. I thru out some old props and then made a list of the stuff I should add to the prop/surface selection. So this summer I’m going to add 10-20 new surfaces and a lot more basic items for shooting with. This also involved adding more shelves. And some organizing.

My next feat will be cataloging all the plates and glassware I have. That will be a challenge. below are just some of the boxes I went thru. Some do I really need 3 tubs of fake snow and a box of different kinds of rope?