I just returned from a beautiful Indian wedding in Locust Valley, New York. A huge affair spread over three amazing days! This week I’m busy developing film and editing images. The colors, the outfits, the emotions are all still very fresh and inspiring to me.
Meanwhile 2 of my New York weddings from last year are being featured on Style Me Pretty this week!
Here are pictures of Dana and Stuart’s gorgeous Jewish Fall wedding at Angel Orensanz in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. James Abel Events designed and planned this beautiful wedding.
When Dana and Stu were beginning to plan their wedding, there were several things that were important to them. Creating a fun, relaxed yet interesting environment for their guests was top on their list. With Stu’s love of Steve McQueen and Dana’s of Audrey Hepburn, these elements were definitely going to be incorporated. Overall, this wedding was one of the most unique, that totally embraced the couple and their interests.
A while back I posted about a cookbook project I was a part of last year. The final product turned out so well, I decided to share more images from this delicious shoot. The recipes and images in the Ultimate Nachos cookbook are full of fresh ingredients–perfect for preparing and sharing this spring and summer.
This cookbook has been described as a “Brooklyn-hipster-centric” project, and as a Brooklyn resident who likes to eat–I love that title. It was a pleasure to work with Lee Frank and Rachel Anderson, of Nachos NY, on this project.
Just a heads up–you will probably be hungry for nachos after looking at these photos!
More of my food photography can be seen on my Food Photography website Food and Art.
Food Styling by Sophia Loch / Cover Prop Styling by Kira Corbin
Karen has photographed two other cookbooks–a four-seasons project on location documenting the visually sumptuous culinary, farming and vineyard cultures of the Hamptons for the cookbook “Savoring the Hamptons: Discovering the Food & Wine of Long Island’s East End”, written by Silvia Lehrer and published by Running Press and “The Way We Cook”, written and styled by two Boston Globe food writers, Julie Riven and Sheryl Julian published by Houghton Mifflin.
With winter in full swing, I’ve been enjoying looking through the photos from Hanna and Jimm’s Catskills wedding at The Kaaterskill in Upstate New York. There was a crisp chill in the air that November day, and the sumptuously muted, autumnal colors of the surroundings were augmented by Saipua‘s gorgeous floral design. Hanna and Jimm’s wedding was a pleasure to shoot and the warmth in their photographs are a nice reminder of the beauty of this cozy season.
You may see more from their wedding on my website gallery page!
Last August, I had the awesome and unique experience of photographing for 3 full days in and around Santa Barbara, California, in organic tomato and corn farms, in dahlia-filled fields, farmers' markets and in a private lemon orchard.
Organized by Kelly Oshiro of Santa Barbara Chic, we decided to collaborate on this farm to table shoot from long distance. I was in New York, having never visited SB before. But with phone calls and scout pics, we were able to produce something great from afar. Before I headed out west, I just knew it would be a stunning and busy weekend of shooting.
From the moment I got there, we captured Santa Barbara's natural beauty. I shot the fresh fruits and vegetables at Santa Barbara's Saturday market, while our friend Ashley of Duo Eventswho was guiding us, chose the ripest produce cook. The following day he concocted a beautiful and delicious meal for Kelly's friends just north of SB. The friends had gotten together to celebrate Samantha + Todd's engagement, in Todd's family's garden just north of SB. The dining table was set up outside, decorated with the local dahlias Kelly and I picked from a nearby farm.
Only in California can one plan this kind of party, without the fear or rain, cold or hurricane coming through! Instead we were guaranteed a beautiful and lengthy sunset, and a sky filled with stars while candle light enhanced the mood.
All of the above images were photographed on Fuji film. Wine provided by Cambria Estate Winery.
My film was developed, scanned and printed by the awesome Richard Photo Labin LA.
It's been a couple of weeks of "down time" after my Food Photography & Styling Workshop to finally gather images together and write a recap of that awesome day.
In the interim I have been delivering many weddings to happy brides and grooms who got married in September and October. I photographed my last wedding of the year in the beautiful Catskills and then traveled to Kentucky for Thanksgiving with Chandler's relatives.
While I was away I received tons of praise and got sent images from my workshop attendees, thanking me for the fun time they had at my Food Photography workshop. I'm so flattered that Christina traveled from Wisconsin to attend! The other attendees came from NYC or Westchester and had varied backgrounds – some were wedding shooters, while others were bloggers or chefs-turned-photographers.
The Food Photography & Styling Workshop with special guest wedding planner and stylist Xochitl Gonzalez from A.a.B.Creates was at iCi restaurant. Ici is situated in Fort Greene, a beautiful historic neighborhood of Brooklyn, in an old house on Dekalb Avenue. The workshop took place on the parlor level which is infused with natural south-western light, ideal for photography.
I started off with a lesson on exposure using an all white still life styled by Xochitl:
I went on to explain the differences of using film and digital for still life photography. I showed a slideshow and then did a demo showing the precision of Polaroid + film shooting vs the ease and immediacy of digital.
(My awesome assistant that day, fellow photographer and friend Karen Cline shot these images of me :)
Blueberry pie I shot on film.
Xochitl's table-scape featured a unique tablecloth using the illustrations of Katie Fischer Design. Katie modelled her illustration of an elegant bowl of fruit from a still life painting her grandfather had done.
After the initial demos and slideshows, the rest of the day was devoted to hands on time, where the attendees could set up their own still lifes from the food and props provided by Xochitl and I, using some of the techniques they had just learned.
The attendees were busy shooting at the various tables on different surfaces and textured linens:
Some unique wooden surfaces I had purchased from Peg Leg Furniture made an appearance in many of the still lifes. So grateful to Tony Minnick for shipping them to me in time for my workshop!
The above image I shot on film using a cutting board from an antique store in Kentucky, and with ingredients Xochitl purchased from the Green Grape Market.
Then once Xochitl was ready, there was a big reveal of the stunning table scape she had created all morning!
"Ok, who wants to learn to do a food action shot?" Everyone gathered around one the of the tables for our last demo. There were many oohs and aahs from the crowd as the egg yolk was caught in mid air:
Some Polaroids of the blueberry pie before we devoured it ;)
Hope you will stay tuned for my next workshop which I will host in February. Please also feel free to send suggestions for future workshops! (Either email me or leave a comment here) I'm curious to know if you prefer group or private workshops, and if you have a preference for food/still life workshops, or portrait/wedding workshops.
To learn about my photography workshops and for periodic updates sign up HERE!
