My Meat and Photography story.

I met my passion for photography as well as my husband shooting raw slabs of meat in the 90's.   I had a fanatic friend who was addicted and fascinated by meat.  I loved his enthusiastic energy which I found it a perfect opportunity to collaborate with him on a meat photo project.  

We conjured up a calendar based on Hollywood movies using meat and him as the main characters.   We recreated the psycho shower scene where we had ground up meat coming out of the shower head, it was hilarity.

I am convinced that that photo shoot is what sparked my true love for photography.   It was one of the first memories I have felt like photography was a vice to pull friends together, to collaborate, to be goofy, crazy and just let my creative self go nuts.  We were in a bubble where time stopped and we were all in a creative vortex. 

This love has never faded, and recently, I was giddy with joy when I got hired to shoot the campaign for the NRA show (not guns but food).  I couldn't help but smile profusely during the entire shoot, and I had a secret wish that every shoot could be like this. 

I am also pretty positive that my meat calendar shoot in the 90s was what made my boyfriend at the time later be my husband.  I think that him seeing me enthusiastically hurl meat across rooms and people was validating that I wasn't just a regular boring girl. 

Thank you Erika Dufour for inspiring me to tell my meat story and huge thank you to Gar for starting the Gar Calendar and letting me be a part of it! 

Above a shot for the National Restaurant Association.
Below: shots from the Gar Calendar shot in 1998?? 

Follow me on Instagram

Been loving Instagram lately.  It is a super fun way for me to think about photography at different times.  Being a pro photographer I sometimes get caught in the "I'm not at work" mode when I am home or with friends or family and I want nothing to do with a camera or computer.  With instagram, it has re-sparked my love for taking photos all the time and I can shoot with my phone! So, now when I wake up my son for school and he is dressed in some crazy pajama outfit, I think "can this make a cool shot?" or when I am just floating in the lake I think "what can I do take make a cool shot".  Thanks Instagram ... but please let me keep my rights as a photographer. 

BLT TIME!!

We have a garden in our backyard.  It is mostly flowers, plants, bushes and trees (my husband, Steve, is a horticulturist) but we also have a few veggies, herbs, etc.. The tomatoes are about to turn red and that means BLT time at our house.  I have ruined a few diets this time of year with 2 birthdays in the beginning of August and the mass amounts of bacon we go through on the BLTs.  Oh well.  Maybe I will start going back to the gym once school starts for the kids. 
Do you have your bacon ready?

Watermelon

Watermelon usually makes my kids happy.  I thought one afternoon it would make for a perfect test shot.  The watermelon would make the kids happy and keep them sitting long enough so I could snap a few shots (my recent obsession is people eating).  After a few shots the older boy (not shown for a reason) was done!!??!!  He usually eats half a watermelon himself and of course the day I get the camera and lights out, he is "full" of watermelon with one piece.  At least the one and half year old had no idea what was going on. ; )

Fun on set in Baltimore

Here is to a great crew, clients and subjects in Baltimore.  What a fun time we had!  Now evidently, I need to watch The Wire. 

National Restaurant Association

Here is another National Restaurant Association image that was up last month.  What a fun project!  

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