Apples

Growing up in Upstate New York was a treat. I loved the four distinct seasons, which is something I miss very much  living in Israel ( hot pretty much all year round). Each season had its special charm; that something that makes you remember it with a smile. 

Summer was boating time for us and I loved every minute of it.

Winter was snow, snow, snow and with it came skiing on weekends. In those days ( when life was simpler and safer!) my parents used to put us on the bus early Saturday morning for one of the local ski resorts, loaded with our ski equipment and enough money for lunch and a hot chocolate. My brother and I had to be all of maybe 9 or 10 years old.

Spring was , well, springtime.... finally relief from the cold, hard ( but fun) winter .

And then there was fall. I love the autumn with the changing colors of the trees, raking up the falling leaves and that slight chill in the air.

One of my favorite memories is that of going apple-picking; driving out to the countryside to one of the local apple orchards. You paid for what you picked , which wasn't that much for a little kid. The "store" was a roadside stand where they also sold fresh apple cider , pies and other apple products.

With this memory in mind, I decided to choose them as the basis for my "series" photo shoot in the photography course. Here are the results.

apples,

 apples and ......

more apples

apple cider caramels from Smitten Kitchen

crunchy caramel apple pie

Today was the last session of the course and I can say that I enjoyed every minute- even with the frustrating moments I had.

I look forward to continuing to "play" with my camera and improving my skills. I've learned so much yet have so much more to learn. Thanks to Danya and Deanna for the wonderful learning experience, the non-ending support and the chance to get to know such talented and creative women. You're the best!

Food Styling and Photography Course

I am not as consistent with this blog as I would like to be. I'm a professional procrastinator. From time to time I get on a roll and write every few weeks or even once a week, but those instances are few and far between.

One thing that bothers me is the quality of the pictures I take, so I decided to take a photography class. Originally I was looking at general photography classes, but then came across this amazing blog and noticed that the two very talented writers of the blog, Deanna and Danya, were offering a course in food styling and photography. Just what I was looking for!

We are into our  4th session (of 6) now. I have learned so much in such a short time- mainly, how much more I have to learn and practice!  I am amazed at how much time, adjusting and readjusting, it takes to achieve the final shot.

Our first assignment was to copy a photograph of our choice. I knew my first choice would be something from the incredible Tartlette. ( I just ordered her book Plate to Pixel, and am anxiously awaiting its arrival!)

Since cookies are one of the things I make the most, I decided to look for a photo that was do-able for me, both from the standpoint of the cookies themselves and the photo. I wanted to start out with something that ( at least on first glance) seemed like something I could recreate. Below, left, is the photo I chose- the original from Tartlette and on the right, my recreated version. I used a different recipe than the one Tartlette posted and my cookies came out much darker than hers.

my version

Original picture by Tartlette

                                        

 The second assignment was , believe it or not- cookies! This time I decided to try and photograph some of my decorated cookies, since that is something I do a lot of on the blog. It's quite a different type of medium than what the rest of the girls in the course did, but I went with it anyways. Here is the result. The baby cookies are in honor of the birth of my second grandchild- a boy, who joined us this past week. How exciting!

 Our next assignment is to create a photo of something that reminds us of fall- of course having to do with food. I have a few ideas in mind. We'll see the results next week.