ABT (Always Be Testing)

Web DesignCookbook PhotographyLifestyle Photography

Apr 3

A brunch scene with millennials enjoying dishes made with Born Free Eggs. Arms are reaching in to serve food over a rustic wood table. Huevos rancheros, scrambled eggs, guacamole and steak are on the menu.

It’s so easy to put your head down, get to work, then look up to find the first quarter of the year is gone. Just…poof! It’s so disorienting, like when your favorite show gets cancelled out of nowhere (I’d resurrect Trial & Error in a heartbeat), or how your knees just decide pack it in one day for no apparent reason. No? Is that just me? But now that April’s here, I hope winter was kind to you and you’re looking forward to the end of allergy season as much as I am.

I like to give my site a refresh with the start of every quarter, and thought I’d try something new this time around: A/B testing those changes. Squarespace removed some much-loved functionality from their galleries, so I’ve been trying to find the best way to display my Motion gallery and started testing two layouts a couple of weeks ago. So far, there’s no clear winner, so it seems no one is quite as annoyed by Squarespace’s lack of display options as I am, which is…great?

Undaunted by your indifference to my Motion gallery changes, I’m testing a new home page design as well, so if you come back to my site for repeat visits, you may notice things are looking a little different up front. Let’s see if this change is the start of a new approach for me or if the tried and true reigns supreme.

Al Roker plates salad onto his daughter Courtney's plate in this behind the scenes image from their upcoming cookbook.

I spent Saturday upstate, photographing lifestyle images for an upcoming cookbook by Al Roker and his daughter Courtney Roker-Laga! It’s a passion project for them, and Courtney has poured her whole heart into it — gathering family recipes, writing new ones, and styling the 100 plated dish photos we shot late last year! It was a lot of fun to meet the family and to work with someone who’s so thoroughly comfortable in front of the camera. Al couldn’t have been more patient during this long shoot, and he made my job very easy — I don’t envy the publisher having to choose the final images.

I’ll keep you posted with more details on the book as I get them! I’m excited to see the final product later this year, but for now, enjoy these behind-the-scenes photos. (Thanks so much to Christina Nuzzo for assisting, snapping these images, and lending a hand with the styling.)