Good morning and happy Monday! I hope most of you are enjoying a relaxing MLK Day and getting to sleep in and relax. For those of you who had to go to work today, I hope your day goes quickly and painlessly!
I am one of the fortunate group who has today off so I’m planning to do some work (personal), maybe a bit of yoga, and then I’ll be off to Lindsay’s for another day of food photography. Saturday’s session was an absolute blast!
After an awesome 9+ mile run with Lindsey, I headed to HH Lindsay’s place for the afternoon. I knew it was going to be fun before I’d even walked in the door because I could smell these lovely muffins from down the hall.
To start, we set the white balance on our cameras. Here’s the difference a custom setting makes. Before:
After
Here’s the setup with Lindsay’s camera.
And the image feeds straight from her camera to her laptop so we could make small adjustments for picture after picture without having to look at the small screen on the camera.
We also photographed lettuce wraps and cornbread, but my favorite model of the day was a stack of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. Pre-wrapping:
With my bow! I’ll be honest, it makes me so excited to know that I’m getting to contribute to what will be an awesome cookbook. (And if one of the cookie photos ends up in the book, I might make my big break into professional bow tying….hehe)
As a ‘thank you’ for my assistance (though I should have been thanking HER), Lindsay sent me home with cookies, muffins, chocolate zucchini bread and vegan chorizo. We’d also enjoyed the lettuce wraps while shooting so I had a very happy, vegan-food filled belly. The only thing that made me happier than my awesome afternoon and tasty treats was the other gift Lindsay gave me. First, some history. In 2005, as I was completing my master’s degree (full time) and working at a publishing house (full time), I had to have my wisdom teeth removed. Still in nursing school at the time, my darling sister came to Boston for a long weekend to care for me. One of the highlights of my recovery was frosty, tasty peanut butter smoothies made with this bad boy.
As you can see, it was made for some mean ice crushing!
After I’d healed, the CrushMaster went back into the cabinet and reemerged this summer when I fell in love with Green Monsters. Sadly, Bodhi decided he was tired of the Crush Master disturbing his morning slumber and he went to town on the lid.
And just a few days ago, I was making a smoothie and noticed liquid beginning to pool under the blades. Not good. Well, I must have done something right in my life so far because as I headed out from Lindsay’s on Saturday, she gave me one last gift. Please say hello to Bradley the Breville!!!!
I was so excited that I rang the doorbell when I got home and then spun around when The Huz opened the door proclaiming “It’s a boy! Isn’t he beautiful??” (Note, I was also afraid The Huz would disown me as he is fairly convinced I have some kind of kitchen appliance addiction so I figured laughter might help). Now, Bradley Breville is sitting handsomely on my counter. He has just made my very first perfectly blended smoothie (today is Day 1 of the Spark! detox, which I’ll write more about tomorrow) and you can be sure you’ll read about many more blended wonders in the future š
Do you name your gadgets/appliances/electronics?
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: other blogs, running, SparkWellness |
A Runner Wife's Life 
EXCITING!!! I can’t wait to see your photos in the book. Congratulations on your new blender too. If Huz gets up in your grill (no pun intended) about your appliance issues, I got your back. Ain’t no harm in kitchen toys. I can think of far worse toys to be addicted to (coughFastCarscough).
Thinking good thoughts for your grandpa…
Those cookies and muffins look perfect!
That sounds like a fun afternoon. I have tried a few of her recipes and they’ve been great. And your pictures definitely illustrate that I need to set the white balance on my camera. I just never know what setting to put it on or how to do the custom setting. Any pointers?
Hi Lee,
To set white balance, there should be a mode on your camera. It’ll ask you to take a picture of a white piece of paper (filling the entire field of view) and then you’ll accept the setting and be ready to go. Sorry I can’t be more descriptive, but every camera really is different!
yeah for the breville! i wont let my insane jealousy overshadow my excitement for you…
gorgeous photos. cant wait for the cookbook!
The pictures are lovely. Can’t wait to see them in the book.
It’s amazing how different those two pictures are! So exciting about the new blender…I tend to get excited over kitchen appliances, too š
No naming of the appliances, but I do feed my wife’s addiction! I bought her a Bosch about a year ago and all we eat now is homemade bread. Whole wheat with flaxseed added, man that is good stuff…
You’re a good man, Mike!
WOW those pictures are amazing! I need a new camera so badly!!!
These pics are not that good. They lack originality, creativeness or, for that matter, any balance in composition.
I can only imagine that a real food photographer was not hired and only the “roadies” here that are interested kissing a@@ are complimenting you. Also, the publications publishing these are looking for someone to exploit, and it appears that you volunteered.
In any case, good luck.
way to be a buzz kill, Celtic carnelian.
The photos she is sharing are not the final products (obviously). That said, no one is exploiting her. I’m not — nor is my publisher.
Since you have made such outlandish and slanderous remarks, I will set the record straight. I agreed to supply all the photos for my work — many cookbook authors take their own photos; hell look at VeganYumYum’s cookbook, her photos are gorgeous and all of them were taken by the author herself.
That said, the author of this blog, & I are good friends. We also happen to love spending time together and taking photos together… We’d be doing this even if it wasn’t for my cookbook because that’s our mutual hobby.
The time she spent with me, just talking, sharing ideas, making suggestions, offering her opinion has meant the world to me. To suggest I would use her is disgusting and offensive. You obviously don’t understand the realm of friendship.
Lastly, as for food photos, you’ll be hard pressed to find anything totally new and innovative. There are only so many ways you can snap a photo of a muffin or a cookie and lets face it, people want them to look a certain way — so forgive us, if we stick to classic style photos. Sure we could have turned a muffin on its head and hung it from a tree — that might have been innovative, but a muffin on a wire wrack is classic and beautiful, end of story.
There was absolutely no need to attack me, my publisher, this blogger or the others who left nice comments.
Thanks so much, Lindsay! I’ll second your comments. Since I have never purported to be a professional food photographer, I don’t see any reason for such a nasty, unprovoked remark. We had a blast photographing Lindsay’s wonderful cookbook creations today and I hope those who buy her cookbook find the food to be as appetizing in print as it is in the kitchen.
I wish I had a good camera. Your afternoon of food photography must’ve been a lot of fun!
yay! mean comments mean you are popular š
haha thanks caitlin – that’s a much better way to look at it! i can’t imagine how much feedback you get every day, both positive and challenging the information you provide in your posts. i suppose it just serves to give you a tougher skin, right?
I don’t know anything about classic or innovative food photography, but I know if something looks yummy as do the cookies and muffin.
Thanks so much, Heather! We really had a blast photography Lindsay’s amazing recipes and I honestly believe that’s what it’s all about it!
Love your blog as always! š Interested in this 10 day detox…let me know what you think of it!
Nice camera set up.
Which level of detox are you doing? I am doing level 3 with Gena. I had a great first day… looking forward to the remaining 9. Looking forward to reading your review of day 1
Oh my gosh those pictures are GORGEOUS!
That’s so nice of Lindsay to send you home with goodies and a Breville!
I suspect Bradley will be a nice aide in the detox š
GREAT POST!!!
I named my Vita the Beast. It pretty much is!
And the Cleanse….can’t wait to hear more about this and then after that you can make the protein PB Choc chip bars i posted that u commented on š
Bradley is gorgeous! I love adopting appliances š And I looove the food pics.
Everything in my house gets a name: the camera is Ixy, the washing machine is Petunia, the car is the Smurf; plants are Gladys, Ophelia, King George, Tipsy…. Ok, now embarassing myself! Because the huz names things too, we’ve actually drawn up a naming moratorium because we just can’t remember what’s what anymore.
Lady, I could tell you something about mean comments. Did you know I only write about athletes because I want to sleep with them and obviously know nothing about the individual sports, accomplishments, or fan bases? And the sports network I write for only hired me because I’m blond? You learn so much from the internet. š
Nice job on the rocking run! The food photography session looks like a blast too. I need to get a new camera and start focusing on taking better pictures!