New Dog, New Cookbook
When the world’s on literal and metaphorical fire, jumping back into regular posting to a newsletter seems futile. And on top of that, there’s so much to catch up on, so where do I start?
I’ll start with the good stuff.
Our Birdy-girl
After losing Benny, I decided we needed to adopt a different breed of dog— smaller, easier for me to lift, and less prone to osteosarcoma than greyhounds. When Gil and I boarded the plane for our return flight from Louisiana at Christmas, I took a quick look at Petfinder and saw two adorable Aussiedoodle sisters who seemed like a good fit for us — laid back and submissive, though a bit younger than we were looking for at 11 months old. I fired off an email to the agency immediately, heard back from them within a few minutes and started the adoption process. By the time we landed, she said they had over 20 applications for the sisters, but we were first in line, so we settled on Nova, now Birdy. She joined our family December 30th, giving Gil a baked-in excuse to avoid NYE festivities with friends.
She’s been an education, to say the least. We knew about, but didn’t understand an aussiedoodle’s intelligence; greyhounds have a smarts-ceiling we’d gotten used to over the years. Birdy blazes her way through puzzle toys, loves watching videos of birds, and exploits loopholes like a seasoned lawyer. We started obedience training a few weeks ago, and it’s going well, even with her headstrong ways. She’s been an expensive lesson too, necessitating new shoelaces, AirPods and reading glasses almost immediately.
Follow along at https://www.instagram.com/ourbirdygirl
Photography happenings
With commercial photography, there’s usually a big lag between the photo shoot and when the images are able to be shared. With cookbooks, it’s the better part of a year before I can post images, going down to only weeks with most social media or website jobs. Packaging falls somewhere in the middle.
Last fall, the team at Smith Design hired me to photograph vegan mushroom steaks from Meati to be featured on their packaging. We also photographed plated dishes incorporating the steaks for the back of the packaging to give the consumer serving ideas. While you might look at these images and think they’re fairly straightforward, they were the culmination of detailed, strategic planning, mockups and rounds of approvals before we even stepped foot into the studio. The talented food stylist at Smith Design brought those plans to life, and I highlighted color, texture and a general sense of yummyness through careful lighting and attention to detail.
I couldn’t be happier with the way the images and packaging turned out!
A winter scene from my office window taken during early days/nights with Birdy when we weren’t getting much sleep and wondered just what we’d done to upend our lives.
December and early January were spent photographing a new cookbook — The Secret Life of Chocolate Chip Cookies by Marissa Rothkopf! It’s an extension of her Substack (which you really should subscribe to — I’ve already bookmarked her latest recipe for sticky toffee pudding). Though I’m not a cookie person and am rarely persuaded by chocolate, I happily sampled everything that crossed my lens, and let me tell you — this is one cookbook you won’t want to miss! Marissa’s recipes are inspired, and go far beyond the starting point of Toll House Cookies. Keep an eye out for her white chocolate-macadamia nut-lemon zest cookie; it’s an outstanding recipe.
Last week, I had my first big studio shoot of the year, where I photographed packaged scones for social media and website use. I had a ball and came home with a big box of delicious goodies. Can’t wait for them to hit stores here in the northeast! Maybe this’ll be the year of baked goods photography?
A midwinter sale
Because this winter is grinding on me, and we all need to stretch our dollars further, I’ve discounted the prints in my shop for a limited time. I just printed several of them for an upcoming art show and love the vibrant colors my printer is able to put on paper.
Here’s a small collection of my favorites.
