High Five's all around

As if Jon hasn't been on the road enough in the past few months, we got a call to do a location shoot up in the very pretty town of Santa Rosa. After a seriously crazy day in the studio, we hoped in the car, loaded with all the gear that we could think we might use, and headed north. Only one U-turn and a sack of McDonald's later, we finally made it to the hotel, weary but excited because the next day we were going over to famous chef, Guy Fieri's house! Driving over there, we past the oddly located, Charles Schultz museum. I wanted to stop and say hello to Snoopy, but we had work to do. In a very unassuming neighborhood, we met our clients at Guy's house and hauled our gear in to set up our shoot. But, little did we know, Guy was in the middle of filming a TV segment in his own kitchen, and there was a huge production crew swarming over his grounds, prepping and setting up lighting for a new show that he's going to be filming in his backyard!

Because still photography is considered the ugly stepchild of the entertainment/advertising industry, we were stuck in the corner, and took over the use of his "game room". Filled with posters of his face, an entire case filled with Oakley sunglasses, and all the junk one has but doesn't have a place for it in the real house, we set up our computers on his pool table and our set on the floor (the shots we were doing were straight overhead, so that made the most sense). Just as we finished getting our set perfect and ready for the food stylist to bring in the first food, one of the wardrobe stylists from the production crew came marching in and stomped all through our set, ruining the paper that we had just put down as our shooting surface. Nice. Luckily we have had to deal with worse, and rolled out some more paper.

After that, the day went pretty well! Guy's dog only tried to steal the steak we were shooting once, we stole some lunch (they apparently forgot that we were going to be there that day too along with the production crew) and got to work (although briefly) with Guy Fieri himself. Because we were shooting steaks for his brand, and we only had so many of them to cook and get looking right, instead of cutting through more steaks, I took a moment and retouched his meat to get it to the perfect pink hue (wait that sounds wrong) earning me a high five from the man himself! That was almost as cool as getting my picture taken with him! (Which I hope will happen the next time we get up there...). Despite being wedged in between his mini-basketball hoop and the foosball table, we got the shots that he wanted and earned an invitation to come back and continue working on these projects at his house. Cool, man. Hopefully there won't be so much going on next time, and we might get to spend some time chatting with the chef who made crazy hair popular...

~Heather

Jon, Cindie and Heather's Awesomeness.

our first attempt...

Go Ahead

We love when it's ice cream day...

Our newest Promo to wet your taste buds! Not only is he a famous rock star and tequila mogul, but Sammy Hagar is working hard to share his Rum with us. It's called Beach Bar Rum and the bottle it's in is just as cool as the Red Rocker himself. I know what you're thinking, "What gorgeous tropical island did we fly to on Sammy's private plane to shoot these drinks and rum?". Ya, we wish. It's all the magic of studio photography and having someone's vacation picture to hang in the background. I know. I know. It's like seeing behind the wizard's curtain. We just told you how we did it so you wouldn't be jealous.

Come and have a mai tai with us!

Talk Radio, Big Mac's and a few Snap Shots

This last month, Jon has been test driving rental cars and checking out several of our great states of America. He's probably eaten way too much fast food, and can tell you which highways have the most potholes, but Jon has also see some really great countryside. (If we were with him, we'd be counting the number of U-turns, out loud.) The project that he's doing is for a nation wide college, shooting their campuses, but there are way more fascinating things to see while speeding along the interstate. Thanks for showing us what we're missing!

Beef. It's what's for dinner... and lunch, and snack time...

Sometimes breakfast doesn't always keep the hunger pains at bay, especially when there are gourmet hamburgers being created in our kitchen. All of these are theme type hamburgers with delicious ingredients piled high onto thick, juicy beef patties. Yum. From the mind of the brilliant chef Michael (who we loved working with!), these burgers are part of a genius marketing project to remind all of us that it's summer time and those grills are calling us! Hamburgers are an american icon, not to mention tasty, and can feed all of our friends easily for a back yard bbq. But don't think you have to do the same old cheeseburger. Try it with chili on top. Or maybe get super creative and top mini-sliders with guacamole and salsa! Your friends will think you're a culinary virtuoso! So forget that dry ole' chicken, never-mind those messy ribs, and stay away from what ever those veggies burgers are made out of. Beef. It's oh so tasty.

Try not to stare.

Yes. Our job is hard. We know it.

The New Guy in Town

We had the opportunity to meet the new chef at Blue Fire Grill at La Costa Resort in Carlsbad. Chef Gregory creates some, not only tasty dishes, but art inspiring as well! With amazing colors and textures, these dishes are summer on a plate. If you have a day where you find yourself without something interesting to do, take a ride down the coast and treat yourself to a delectable meal and maybe a glass of local wine. It's Summer time, live it Up!

One Cool Dude.

Don't shoot us, but we are now big fans of NY Giants football. Ok, maybe not the entire team, but at least one cool member, Steve Smith. We were fortunate to have the opportunity to shoot him and one of our best clients, House Foods for a promotional campaign they are doing. He was willing to be silly and play around with different ideas for Football meets Tofu! We always appreciate a celebrity that is willing to laugh at themselves and have some fun along with us. Steve actually grew up around here, although now calls New Jersey home, and went to USC! One of our hometown boys makes good!

Nice to know you Steve, and thanks for the laughs!

Anyone got some limes?

Still, after this many years in the business, it's exciting to see our work in ads and in print. Most of the time, we shoot these images with a vague notion of how our client will use them in their final product, and never see the end result. Yet as we were perusing the morning newspaper this weekend, Ta-Da! There was a full color ad displaying proudly, our tempting images of tacos for our client Baja Fresh! And not only did they use the original shot as per concept, but also our "beauty" shots that we like to do to keep our creativity flowing. How fantastic!

Now someone pass the salsa, we're having Tacos!!

Fun and Fabulous!

It's that time of year again and the crew was back up in Seattle to shoot the massive Tulalip Resort & Casino. This year the powers that be decided to go in a new direction with their advertising look, which we were excited to be a part of. More movement, use of selective focus and less cheesy thumbs up in the camera. Thus, we ended up with over 5000 really amazing casino shots! The models were gorgeous as well as professional and personable. It's so nice to be able to work with that caliber of people. We did several outdoor shots where the models were in their "cocktail" attire in around 50 degree, wind-blowing, weather. It's not the first time we were happy to be the photographer, comfy in our jeans and jackets and not forced to look "sexy" in our slacks and mini-skirts!!

We had several delightful dinners, a few choice bottles of wine with friends, and only had one catastrophe with our equipment. And it's amazing the silly things we see, when staying in a place for a week straight. There was an entire contingent of Red Hat Ladies, two little old people riding double on a scooter, and the big boss pushing a production cart! It's the little amusements that keep the day moving along...

Cheers!

We've Done It!

As promised, our very own self-directed, self published cookbook has been born! The recipes are scrumptious and the pictures (if we do say so ourselves) are stunning. We couldn't be more pleased with the result of our excited efforts on this project. It took several days of shooting, creating all of these images from our own imaginations, changing a few recipes out and adding others, and one or two typos, and we are pleased to present "In Season; Winter Recipes".

Here are a few of the recipes that we thought you'd like, just to tease you into wanting a copy of your very own! Please let us know what you think!

p.s. In an earlier post we included several more images from this book. If you have a minute, check those out too!

We love stew but wanted a lighter alternative to traditional beef recipes. Our chicken stew is a crowd-pleaser that’s just as good the day after. Serve with our heavenly Sage Biscuits.

Chicken Stew

Makes 6 servings

Easy

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

8 ounces button mushrooms, cut in half

2 stalks celery, sliced

2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced

1 medium yellow onion, sliced

3 cups low sodium chicken broth

4 chicken breasts, boneless and skinless, cut into 2-inch pieces

1/2 cup heavy cream

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley or 2 teaspoons parsley flakes

Salt and ground black pepper to taste

1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage (optional)

Heat 2 tablespoons of the butter in a large saucepan over high heat. Add mushrooms, carrots, celery and onions and cook, stirring constantly, for 5 minutes. Stir in chicken broth. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 20 minutes. Stir in chicken, reduce heat, and simmer until cooked through, about 15 minutes. Stir in cream and parsley and cook just until hot. Remove from heat and stir in remaining butter. Add salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with sage and serve hot.

Tip: This recipe can be doubled or tripled if made in a stockpot.

Tip: Make this recipe a day ahead of time. Refrigerate in an airtight container. Reheat over medium heat until heated through.

Tip: Replace the breasts with chicken shredded from a whole roasted chicken.

Tip: Spoon leftover stew into a casserole dish and cover with prepared puff pastry for a quick chicken pot pie. Place in a casserole dish on a baking sheet (to catch any spills) and bake in a 350 degree F oven until pastry is golden brown.

Paella originated in Valencia, Spain. The name comes from the wide, flat-bottomed pan traditionally used to cooked paella. They are inexpensive and well worth the investment but a very large skillet will do. Recipes vary from region to region, town to town, family to family but they all have three ingredients in common: rice, tomatoes and saffron.

Seafood Paella

Makes 6-8 servings

Healthy

5 cups low sodium broth

1/2 teaspoon saffron threads

1/4 cup olive oil

1 large yellow onion, chopped

1 red bell pepper, chopped

4 garlic cloves, minced

2 cups medium grain rice

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/2 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined

1 pound small clams

1 pound mussels, beards removed

1/2 pound halibut or other thick white fish, cut into 1-inch pieces

4 medium tomatoes, diced

1/2 cup chopped fresh flat leaf parsley

Lemon wedges for garnish

In a large saucepan, bring chicken broth and saffron to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat and keep at a simmer.

In a large paella pan or very large skillet, heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil over medium high heat. Add onions and peppers and sauté for 5 minutes. Reduce heat to medium low, add garlic and continue cooking until garlic turns golden. Remove onion mixture from pan and set aside.

Add remaining olive oil to pan. Increase heat to medium high. Add rice, salt and pepper and cook, stirring frequently, until slightly golden, about 5 minutes. Pour broth over rice and stir in onion mixture. Reduce heat to low, cover and cook until liquid is nearly absorbed, about 15 minutes.

Uncover pan and place shrimp, mussels, clams, monkfish, tomatoes, and parsley on top of rice. Cover and continue to cook an additional 10 minutes or until shrimp is cooked through. Garnish with lemon wedges before serving.

Tip: You can double this recipe if you make it in two paella pans or very large skillets.

Tip: In place of the clams and mussels use 1/2 pound of sliced pre-cooked spicy sausage.

Tip: In place of the halibut and shrimp use 1 pound of chicken breast cut into 2-inch pieces.

All kinds of flying things

With a slightly confusing shot list, a huge pile of product, and one "freegan jumper" (ask, and we'll tell ya later) we powered through the most shots we have EVER done in two days of shooting. 50 images folks. Count 'em. 50. For those of you out there that don't get into our studio as often as you'd like, we usually range about 6-9 shots in one day. I mean, you don't want your food stylist to go crazy and start talking nonsense... Do ducks really only swim in one direction? Are they all in a row? Oh, wait... oh, no... it may have happened already. What does it mean then, that we can still understand them? But I digress...

Nature's Best came in and we had some fun deciding the best way to make panna cota look good, actually making frozen pizzas look delicious and watching how far peas fly when a bowl full is knocked off the table. It's never boring around here!!

Sizzlin' Sandwiches!

Is your mouth watering? Are your taste buds standing at attention? Do you want to devour one of our new sandwiches? Of course you do! With some tender meat and those sinfully good little onion string things, our friends at Sizzler have come out with a few new items to delight you. We almost didn't get our work done... we were too excited to have these for lunch!

Johannes

One Click. Perfect.

The wizard behind the curtain!

Since most of you never get the opportunity to be on a photo shoot or see our magic in action, here are a few "behind the scenes" shots to give you a glimpse of how we do it. This day we were on location at the fun Panama Joes in Long Beach with the dynamic duo, Cindie and Denise (and Tiffany, the soda fountain queen). They gave us some space in the back of the restaurant to shoot their tasty new dishes. We had full access to the kitchen (ever been in a commercial kitchen before? We have!), they served us what ever we wanted from the menu for lunch and we spent the day pondering whether Elvis was mexican or not (his velvety portrait hung over our heads between day-of-the-dead masks and colorful depictions of brave bull fighters; go figure).

Don't you feel just like Dorothy??

All photos courtesy of Heather Winters