Metamorphosis Gala

Recently I had the opportunity to go to the Butterfly House to photograph a special Chrysalis.  The small chrysalis was about an inch long and had a metallic appearance.  One of the Entomologists walked around with me and found the perfect places to hang the little guy (or gal).  I ended up with about half a dozen images I was happy with.  

I had one chosen to be the poster image for the Metamorphosis Gala at the Butterfly House this June.  I went today and photographed the poster hanging in the House.  

Solar Eclipse

I have unfortunately gotten sidetracked since graduation.  In April we sold our house to have a new house build.  This began our summer adventure of 5 people living in an apartment for 5 months.  I worked hard and finished up college in the smallest dining room you could image shooting in.  I am happy to say I received my MFA in Art for Commerce Photography in May.  Then the rest of the summer was just waiting for our new house to be ready.

The kids (and hubby) returned to school two weeks before we close and move into the new house.  The solar eclipse will always be known for marking this time in our lives.  I was not very excited about a solar event that was giving my kids the day off school but was only going to take up 15 minutes max of their time for the day.  I guess I should include we were in the path of totality.  Friends from all over the United States wanted photos and asked that I try to get some.

So here is my attempt.  I have seen better...but I have definitely seen worse too.  Since I was not very excited about the whole thing I did not properly research like many others and just decided to wing it.  

Tomatillos, flu and a new house

What is the logical decision when you are trying to finish up an MFA?  Sell your house and have a new one built of course.  I am almost a week behind on writing this post.  Last weekend was crazy and I don't see an end in sight until after graduation.  Last Thursday we finally got an offer on our house after having it on the market since last September.  Friday decided to pile on then as well and show up with the flu for my oldest and me.  We stayed home on the couch Friday.  Hubby and friends went on their traditional Trout Opening Weekend that day as well.  So I spend the better part of the weekend negotiating a house price, shuttling kids, and trying to settle my stomach.  It was not the most enjoyable weekend.  

Saturday morning it was freezing and I had to go to the farmer's market for my shoot.  My daughter and I rushed down the aisles in the hopes of finding my inspiration.  And we did, tomatillos.  Sunday I finally got my stomach to agree to a truce and was able to get my exact vision in an image.  For the first time in a couple of weeks I am extremely excited to show my newest image.  Thanks to my mommy for her old iron skillet.

Seems that the crazy will find me...

This week seemed that photography was going to be the one thing that would would go smoothly, but as usual, I was wrong.  For those of you that do not know, we are in the process of selling our house.  I am also working at a new job teaching middle school art (yes, MIDDLE school art).  AND I am trying to finish strong on this whole MFA thing.  So this last week was simply a blur.  On top of everything, we had two weeks to clean out our house to relist it for sale.  In working mom terms, that is two weekends not 14 days.  

So this weekend I needed to finish cleaning out 1 1/2 floors and shoot for my assignment.  After cleaning all day Saturday that left Sunday for photography.  This weekend marked the beginning of Mardi Gras celebrations in St. Louis.  It has been reported that St. Louis rates right behind New Orleans for this celebration. This means Soulard neighborhood becomes a ridiculous drunken mess and for me means Soulard Market was off limits this past weekend.  So Jake and I got up on Sunday and headed to the next best thing...Fresh Thyme Farmers Market.  Fresh Thyme is a small grocery store chain that has really just started up in the area, but seems to always have great produce.  Unfortunately, I chose to go to a new store for the first time and it was much smaller than the others in the area.  The only thing I found interesting was avocados.  We bought two different sizes and headed to the hardware store to buy some stone tiles.

Now this is where the "crazy" found us.  Wanting to get the perfect grey tiles for the avocados Jake brought in one with us.  We get to the check out with our two tiles to find a much older cashier.  She was very sweet, but quite hard of hearing.  I realize I left my wallet in the car and send Jake to get it. He hands me the avocado.  She looks kind of strangely at it then at me.  In a very sweet voice she says "He must love his avocados."  She had that tone of "that boy must be 'special'."  I just smiled and explained that I am a food photographer and I am shooting avocados for an assignment.  She just looked at me slightly confused.  When he runs up with my wallet she asks him if avocados tastes good.  He tells her they are great and she should try them.  I still don't think she caught on to what I had told her about photographing them. 

So this week I am presenting you with the avocados that Jake loves on grey ceramic tile.

The beginning to the end

This is the last semester for my MFA and my thesis.  It is bitter sweet, but mostly sweet.  I am ready to move on in my career and leave behind school for a while.  

So the next few months I will be focused on finishing up my Unprocessed thesis series.  I plan on getting a few new food shots (like this week) and recreating some of my older ones with my new found experience.  

Every major step in my life over the past 15  years have come with added difficultly and graduating with my MFA is not going to be any different.  Right before Nathan and I got married we bought and remodeled our first house just months before the ceremony.  As I was finishing up my undergrad, Jake decided to make his appearance the week of finals.  Belle decided to show up three months into my first year of teaching.  And now, we have decided to purchase a new house during my final semester.  

This week was the perfect example of my crazy life.  We are working to empty out our house into storage to free it up for sale.  So between packing and trips to the storage unit I had to fit in a sick kid, a visit from out of town relatives, and a mango photo shoot.  

I am holding my tea up high and giving a cheer to the next four months.  May the craziness bring me creativity too.

Legend of the Kiwi

This week Belle and I returned to Soulard Market for my last images for this semester.  The market has decreased by half due to the end of the season here in St. Louis.  A few of the remaining vendors have also replaced their stock with candies for the holidays.  I think I got three good picks though.  First, I came across some beautiful artichokes and I decided it was time to battle them again.  The first time I had no idea how to work with something that changed colors so quickly.  During my internship at the studio this quarter though I got a lot of advice from the food stylists.  I was also lucky that one of the three I bought had such a beautiful violet heart. Belle of course found some of her favorite homegrown sweet peppers too.  The peppers are probably my favorite shot of the week.  Last was the kiwi.  

The kiwi is where the story comes into play this post.  We had seen kiwi at a couple of stands, but it was the last food I decided on.  We passed one stand who had kiwis that were a little larger.  When we stopped to buy, the man working the stand wanted to tell Belle the "Legend of the Kiwi".  According to him, there was an island where the kiwis grew.  A family of beautiful birds guarded the kiwis and wouldn't let the other birds eat them.  The other birds got together and used their magic to turn the beautiful birds to look like their beloved fruit. What an interesting story.  So I decided to research an image of the kiwi bird and find the full legend to post for all of you...I found the bird image, but the legend I keep finding is very different from the Market salesman.  The legend I found said that the god of the forest was worried that his trees were dying.  He asked each of the bird families to help him tend his trees and they all refused for different reasons.  Only the kiwi agreed, even though he told them they would have to get stronger feet, thicker feathers, and lose their beauty.  In return the god gave him a longer beak to grab food easier.  Now, I don't know for sure which is right, but I am guessing the second one is closer to the actual legend.  

The Asian Market

I am late getting around to posting images from the visit to the Asian Market.  I am teaching at a new university this semester and have two students from very culturally different backgrounds from my own.  One student's family is Asian and the other student is an exchange student from Mexico.  They have both taught me more than I ever could have expected in a semester.  Curtis told me about some interesting foods that I had to photograph.  He directed me to two stores in the area; Olive Supermarket and Seafood City.  The Olive Supermarket is the first store images.  It felt very much like a small town supermarket inside.  The only bad part was that their coolers were being replaced and the whole store smelled from it.  Here is where I found the beautiful banana flower.  This is the actual plant that bananas grow from.  The second image is the flower with the first layer of petals peeled away revealing the baby bananas.  The next images are Longans and Chayotas.  The second store I visited was Seafood City.  It was a fresh seafood market with tanks of turtles, tables of crabs, and fish of all sizes stacked on ice.  The other side of the store was like any other small supermarket.  As I was leaving there was a cart of sugar cane.  It was one of the most interesting hunts that I have had so far.

Papayas and Redone Carrots

This week I learned to read my assignments.  With all of the things going on daily in my life, sometimes I just assume I understand the project without reading all the way through.  In this semester's class we have to create new images on weeks 4, 8, 11, & 14.  In my other classes it was always the same assignment for "Progress Images".  Well, guess what, not in this class.  This week was more.  Usually I need 1-2 images.  This week was 3-5.  So after realizing I did not do it right I was given permission to make it up.  With teaching, subbing, and a massive interview, the time available got pushed to Friday, then Saturday.  Then we find out that we have a house showing (our house if for sale if anyone is interested) on Saturday afternoon.  This caused the kids and I to take the easy way on Friday and visit Fresh Thyme market instead of a farmer's market.  I have been wanting to shoot a papaya and they had a couple.  Also, a few months ago a student showed me that there is such a thing as purple carrots.  I decided to go with those and shoot early on Saturday before we had to leave the house.  The carrot shot is a redo to one of the very first carrot shots I created.   

**On a side note, Jake was very interested in being an assistant this time.  His payment...he researched the use of papaya seeds and wanted to keep them.  You can ground them and use them like pepper.  

Pumpkins

We headed to Eckert's again this week.  The pick you own pumpkins is amazing there every year.  So Nathan, the kids and I all headed out on the tractor with the hopes of finding 3 amazing pumpkins I could photograph.  We came home with 5 big ones and 4 little ones.  Ooops.  They all have their own personality and I just could not decide which to shoot.  I tried photographing all of them in one scene and it was just too much.  I narrowed it down to two (leaving out one of my favorites) and it still wasn't working for me.  So I borrowed my neighbor's orange pumpkin.  Mine just wasn't "pumpkin-y" enough.  Needed more round fatness.  The background is slate tile.  I like how the final image turned out though.

Brussel Sprouts

This image started off a little different than normal for me. I was upset last week over being denied a job and was feeling frustrated. I asked one of the photographers at my internship to give me a real, honest critique of my work. We went through my web portfolio one by one. We discussed my lighting. He challenged me to do something very specific on my next image: use only one light and reflectors. So I decided instead of searching for an inspirational image to base my lighting off of, I would take his challenge.

I went to the farmers market over the weekend and found two beautiful papayas. My plan was to shoot them. Plans changed on Monday night though. My husband ran to the local grocery store to pick up a couple of things and found an item I have been waiting almost a year for...brussel sprouts. Once a year the grocery store near us sells brussel sprouts still on the stalk. They only carry them for a week or two and only right around this time of year (actually it is usually a little closer to Thanksgiving usually). He called me and grabbed two.

The first image is on an old red painted board. The culinary item is a small grill grid.

The second image is on an old door with barely any red paint remaining. The culinary item is a wire bowl.

Watermelon

Last week at Soulard Market I came across a yellow watermelon.  I had to have it.  But I wanted to shoot it with a traditional seeded watermelon.  The only melons with seeds at the market were the size of a house, so it had to be purchased through a store.  I held onto the yellow and Nathan was nice enough to find me a seeded melon at the store that was close to the same size.  

What did I learn this week about watermelon?  Well, I know how it got its name.  Slicing the melons in different sizes and shapes for different setups, well, it flooded my counter.  I had to keep wiping off the plate I used for another shot.  I even had to sop up liquid off the bench I was shooting on.  The whole kitchen smelled of watermelon for quite a while.

So what is the difference between the two?  Well, Belle said they taste exactly the same.  Nathan said the yellow is more watered down in flavor.  I say I hate watermelon, but I did a taste test for my viewers anyway.  I think the yellow was sweeter.  If I had to eat watermelon again, I would pick the yellow.

Soulard & Refab

This weekend I got to do something I rarely get to do...go to Soulard Market all by myself.  No kids "helping", no husband "helping".  Just me and way to many things to choose from.  So many things that I started making a shoot list as I walked through the market.  I have my next dozen or so item ideas to shoot now.  Today I ended up shopping at multiple stands, not just the favorites.  

The first item I found was a crazy shaped eggplant.  I have shot eggplant twice already and this third time may have actually worked.  They are just so big and dark that they never seem to look the way I want.  I also grabbed some fennel this week.  I have never actually seen the plant, so was amazed at how fluffy it was.  The stems and leaves seemed almost like fuzz or hair.  

After the market, I met up with Nathan (hubby) and Belle (daughter) to make a long overdue visit to my favorite rehab shop, Refab.  If you live in St. Louis and are looking for reclaimed materials, it is the place to visit.  Of course, I spent so much time looking around that I forgot to snap photos.  It will be done on the next visit...I hope.  Ended up walking out with an old rusted shovel for future use.

Eckert's

I am running a little behind this week posting about my last shoot.  For a family day, we decided to take the Niehaus herd out to Eckert's Farm to do some pick-your-own.  Eckert's is a family own farm right outside St. Louis across the river in Illinois.  This is a place we visit a lot as a family to pick peaches, blackberries, apples and pumpkins.  This year though we decided to check out their pick-your-own veggies.  It was well worth the trip.  We started off by picking some peaches (Belle's favorite) then hopped back on the tractor ride to pick the blackberries (Henry's favorite).  The best part about this place is they let you "sample" as you pick...the actually encourage it.  The only problem with this is they almost have to weight the kids every time we go, because more makes it into their tummies than the baskets.  My favorite candid from this trip is of a bird's nest.  Jake (my oldest) found a bird's next in the blackberry vines that someone had put berries into.  

After taking the tractor ride one more time we made it to the veggie patches.  Tomatoes, peppers, beans, corn, sunflowers for as far as the eye could see.  The kids loved wandering through the rows and helping find the best candidates for my photos.  We ended up with a lot more opinions then I needed for my photos.  We love veggies and it was a hot, but fun day.  

This week did not end up as exciting as a trip to a Mennonite farm like last week.  This week has been crazy catching up after our week of vacation.  Saturday morning my husband, Nathan, and I decided to make a trip to Soulard Market.  I checked my usual stand and of course they had wonderful options, including the Jack Fruit which I am dying to re-shoot.  Only draw back were that the fruit was HUGE.  Way too big for what I needed, so I decided to wait and go for something new.  We wandered around and found a beautiful yellow Star Squash (which can bee seen on the right of the image).  That one veggie started the search for more squash.  We ended with an acorn, spaghetti, butternut, and two other squashes for me to use in the image.  Nathan absolutely loves the star squash and wants me to photograph it all by itself.  While searching for these we stumbled upon a crazy turnip-radish-root looking thing.  A kohlrabi is a veggie that is a weird kind of combination between cabbage and broccoli stems.  It can be cooked like a turnip, eaten like an apple, or diced and fried according to the man at the stand.  The greens can even be used like spinach.  To me it tastes kind of like a mellow radish.  I would never eat it like an apple.  Maybe cut up and in a salad. 

So for this week's images I used green reclaimed boards for the kohlrabi and old wood used to line the inside of our garage by a previous owner.  The slicer is vintage from a antique shop in Decatur, IL.  

Visiting Mennonite Community

This week's food adventure caught me while on vacation in Tennessee.  Our herd of 5 were staying with my cousin, Amanda's bunch of 6.  Amanda and her husband purchased a farm a little over a year ago in North Central Tennessee between Nashville and the Kentucky border.  Why is this important to my adventure this week, well we had to head to Mennonite Country to get feed for her animals.  We decided to take a van full of kids, a mixture of mine and hers, along for a ride while we stopped at their roadside markets for yummy foods for dinner and photographs.  We started at Habegger Family Farm.  I found some beautiful kale and celery at their organic farm.  Then by weird coincidence I found out that this family is starting a new farm in the St. Louis area.  They asked for my business card to help promote their new business.  We then moved on to another small farm that had the best fried pies.  After a couple more stops we head back to Amanda's farm.  

This week I created 3 different images, but only two made the final cut.  The eggs are from the Funk Family Farm (Amanda's farm).  It is amazing to see all the shapes and sizes they come in.  The one white egg is to represent the very few white eggs they actually get from the chickens.  A majority are the beautiful tans and peach colors you see in the image.  The second shot is the kale from Habegger Family Farm.  The green of the plant was so beautiful it could only work against a great red background.

Summer Semester

Its a new semester and my last summer session before graduation in the spring.  I am determined to get this blog up and going this semester.   So here we go...

It was suggested that I talk about experiences and process with each shoot.  This week is a little different than normal weeks, but let's be honest, none of them are normal.  This week I went to the Soulard Market on Thursday instead of a weekend.  Only two stands were open, but luckily my favorite one was.  Schweiger's Produce is the one stand that I have found the most interesting foods at including last semester's Jack fruit and this week's lychee and prickly pears.   Please check out their fb page.  https://www.facebook.com/SchweigersProduce/

Anyway, Belle and I went to the market with the plan to re-shoot corn on the cob.  Instead she found the prickly pears.  The fruit is beautiful with a green and purple skin.  I never would imagine what the inside would look like...bright red with the consistency of watermelon almost. Next to the pears were something that looked like a rough red and brown acorn.  The lady working the stand explained they were a lot like a peeled grape on the inside.  Really?  They are definitely more beautiful on the outside.  

New Images!!

Added 4 new images to my Thesis.  Horned Melon and Eggplants.

I am trying new angles and layouts to add interest to the series.  Let me know what you think.

Up and running!

I am excited to announce that the site is up and running.  I look forward to updating this whenever I am working on something new.

Getting started

I am just working today on getting this site up and going.  I will be posting updates on my work, especially my thesis, on here soon.  Please come back and take a look.