The Cover

Somewhere along the way, on this wild photography ride, I became adept at shooting food. Go figure. It's a very learnable talent (as proven in my case) but I think you can begin to excel if you love it, like I love food. So many foods are really pretty if you think about it, with unusual shapes and textures. Eggs are timeless perfection. Fruit is colorful and gorgeous. A great dessert is like fine art.

My friend and food photo mentor said "if you are taking a photograph of a delicious pie, make sure your image captures the pie-ness of it." I laughed out loud when he said it, but it's so dern true! You just try to capture what it is that makes it so delicious-looking. A killer lens or two helps. For those of you who know me and are snickering, I re-admit that I don't actually enjoy making food. The irony is classic.

I am writing this because of ALL the things I photograph and love to shoot, my food photography is what has earned me the coveted spot on the cover of Virginia Living. I could go on and on about how much this means to me. How I still have the e-mail I sent to the Editor 5 years ago asking if they'd be interested in looking at my work. Their response that it was not really what they were looking for (it was all kids' portraits and not all that great). No guts, no glory, right?

Bottom line, I have had a crush on that magazine ever since I first laid my hands on its super-sized, color-laden glossy pages. And it's positively mind-blowing that this opportunity has arrived. You'd have thought I won the lottery if you were anywhere near me when I got the call.

The yummy ice creams and sorbets were made by the amazing J Frank. Tyler and I co-styled the shoot, largely with bowls and linens from my favorite store, Anthropologie. My sweet friend Ivy let us shoot it at her farm and use her family (see earlier post 'A Day at the Farm' which is when I got the location idea) and ALL the kids had a blast, especially during the unscripted egg toss. Even the grown up ones! (p.s. brown egg shells are stronger than white ones and will often not crack even when chucked like a football 30+ yards...just sayin').

So here it is. My first cover of Virginia Living. Can you believe it?? Now go buy it!! (on newstands July 10ish) and get a subscription too! I shot another article in there about quirky-wonderful Colonial Beach, VA. I'll post those soon.


Here is the actual article. If one of the kids looks kind of familiar...well...what can I say....;-)