Happy Halloween

One of my most favorite holidays is in a few days. I hope everyone has figured out their costumes and has a big bowl of candy ready. Booooo! Here are two out takes from a Halloween email promo.

First Camera... or should I say first 35mm camera

Going way back in the archives this week I found this photo I took of my first 35mm camera. I loved this thing. IT WAS BLUE. I was lucky enough to travel to New Zealand while in the 7th grade. I had previously had a disk camera and a 110mm but being in a foreign land I was obsessed with getting a real camera and then there it was.. in it's blue glory. Did I say I loved this thing? I went through 6 rolls of film before my dad made me process a roll to make sure it worked. I was not obsessed with the photos, I was obsessed with taking the photos. These days I have become a bit more obsessed with the photos... the computer can make you do that, but I am still obsessed with taking the photos and looking back on a lot of the images I have taken over the years I can get a little misty eyed. I love photos and the memories and emotions you can get while looking back.

e-mail promo

Here are the images from the email promo I sent last week... in case you didn't see it. I use myemma.com to send most email promos out. If you wish to sign up for my email list, you can do so here. Thanks.

Lesson of the day: Keep EVERYTHING up to date

Being a photographer does not mean I spend all my days out taking photos… wouldn’t that be nice! This past week I have been super busy with getting my bookkeeping to a more manageable space, marketing, meetings, and as always editing and organizing my image library. Lesson of the day: Keep EVERYTHING up to date. With these super nice days we have been having in Chicago it is very tempting to take time off of the ‘to do’ list, but it can get out of hand super fast if you’re not careful!!

Here is an image that I found while organizing my image library that I shot months ago….only now to make it to this blog.

Experimental Food Night

As you know, I am not a writer. I am a photographer who started as a photo assistant after college. While assisting in Chicago I learned a few things... more so, I learned what I did not want to to. I started at a large catalog house laying floor (they actually named a floor after me which meant TIME TO LEAVE!!!) So, I learned I did not want to work at a catalog house. Then I went on to assist several food photographers back in the day of 8x10 film and Polaroid and waiting all day for the food stylist to put a pickle on a hot dog, sending the 'test' sheet of film to the lab, getting it back sometime around 6 PM, then the hero hot dog would come out sometime around 11 PM then a 1/30 of a second later it would be almost over. I learned then that I did not want to be a food photographer.
But times have changed. I love food and I love photography and digital has changed the game so why not? Lesson here is never limit yourself and ALWAYS watch and learn... I am so thankful to those food photographers for the opportunity to assist and you never know I might end up at the catalog house!!!???

These shots above are some test food we cooked at our house. Working on getting the crust just right in our home oven. Hint - Italian flour and starting the cooking process on the grill! Octopus... not too much to say there. My friend Gar did most of the work so my hint would be have good friends!