Live Well Photoshoots Week #8
Say hello to our sweet, sweet cooking finale! We finished the recipe photoshoots with the second half of the desserts. We still have a few additional photoshoots scheduled, but they involve more smiles and dresses than veggies, maple and salt.
We noticed how our behind-the-scenes documenting process slowed down along the way; it might be due to feeling tired, to the extra time it takes to edit and publish this footage or to the rush of finishing the photoshoots to move onto the assembly stage. Whatever the reason for the lack of images is not important, what matters is that we still have the memories, and we can preserve them in writing.
On our last day, Shauna prepared her pistachio tart, cashew cakes and a version of my go-to blueberry lavender donuts. No book is complete without donuts! Plus, we had visited Blueberry Hills Farm the week before, so it seemed fitting to include a blueberry dessert too!
Unfortunately, we had a few hiccups during our desserts day. The pistachio tart didn't exactly look like I envisioned; instead of a bright green colour resembling a smooth key lime pie, it looked more like a chunky, brownish filling. Also, there was no specific plan for the toppings aside from sprinkling some chocolate chunks on top, so I had to improvise to make it look picture-perfect. I grabbed a few kiwis, coconut and chocolate and tested my poor knife skills while making kiwi "flowers." Some old-school decorations still work in the modern days! I think so, but you can be the judge of it!
Our second hiccup was with the cashew cakes. Again, different from what I've planned for, instead of a large 8-inch cheesecake, we had mini cakes made in a muffin mould. Similar to the pistachio tart, there was no clear path for the decoration. Shauna tends to leave things very "naked," let's say she's a minimalist. Since we're photographing these items, I had to transform the all-white cup into a mouth-watering, decadent and inviting treat, plus improvise a new prop styling concept. Shauna ran to the store to get some fresh raspberries, but it was all staged and ready to be photographed by the time she got back. I melted chocolate, swirled it over the top, sprinkled frozen raspberries, and decorated them with purple edible flowers to match the new set! For a photo that started in chaos, I can say that I’m pretty happy with the improvised result!
The third hit was trying to make blueberry lavender donuts without lavender and lacking the proper donut mould! We tried keeping this book as healthy as possible without having too many restrictions. So we figured the best way to make healthy donuts was to bake them instead of frying them; the only issue was that the mould I had was far from ideal. However, we went through with it, and the donuts turned out pretty cute. Finding lavender in September proved to be a little challenging. We walked around Shauna's neighbourhood searching for fresh buds but could only find one last fresh purple sprig from Shauna's neighbour across the street. It saved the day!
To plan or not to plan?
I am a planner by nature! My 5 or so years working as a production coordinator for films made me almost annoyingly organized! I like showing up with clear ideas of what needs to be done, and I usually take the time the week before to create concepts for each image. However, for our last day, none of my drafted ideas ended up being usable, so I had to improvise on the spot.
Every person has their ways to work, and I have nothing against improvisers. However, I like a mix of both. Having a plan of what to do before stepping foot on the door takes some of the mental work away, allowing me to focus on lighting, staging and food styling. Once I've captured my original vision and got into a "roll," I spend some time "free-diving" and take a few additional images.
Being instantly put on the spot demands enormous energy to conceptualize an idea in mere minutes. Which often turns into less creative work as the ideas are not given enough space to breathe and develop. Improvising might work for other types of photography, including lifestyle, events or travel. However, when it comes to commercial and editorial work, planning is the way to go! At least in my opinion.
Regardless of the minor obstacles, our last day was a short one. We tried to maintain a strict schedule and finished at 5 pm most days to spend time with our loved ones before dinner. We went over the time a few days, but to our surprise, we finished around 3 pm on our last day and felt a little confused about what to do with the extra time. After all, we were both exhausted, so we called it a day! Coming up next is our very last photoshoot, the lifestyle photoshoot!
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