on food "styling"

I love food photography,--not that I'm so great at it myself, just that I think it's really interesting to see how the same recipe can look so different when made by different people and for different purposes.  There was once a fascinating article in Cooking Light (not in their archives, unfortunately, but this fun post shares a lot of the same info) about what food endures before it can be photographed for publication.  I'm not so much talking about that as I am about how we present food for eating at home.

All that is a leadup to this: Do you choose which dishes to use based on the food you're serving?

Maybe I'm the only one who does this.  It kind of hit me today when I was cutting up some cantaloupe ('loupe around here) for lunch.  I pulled out the bowl on top of the stack and it was--gasp!--orange.  And when I put the cantaloupe in there, it looked kind of pallid and odd.  Which made me realize that I often choose serving pieces especially (but dishes for eating too) based on what the food looks like.  Is this weird?

 

The middle one should probably actually be my favorite considering where we went to school, but the last one turned out to be most appetizing to me.  Yes, I did dirty three bowls do do this "experiment"--but it's OK since I'm the one who does the dishes.

Further proof that this concept is somehow very important to me is this shot, which I took weeks ago for no other reason than that the sight made me smile:

More food display weirdness that I now realize I'm carrying around with me:  I really don't like most patterned serving pieces and most of my collection is plain, I really like food to fill up the plate or bowl (and consequently end up spilling a lot when I over-estimate the size of the piece), and I don't like using two foods of the same color in the same dish (like red tomatoes and red peppers in a salad--one of 'em has to be yellow).

Thank you for letting me get this off my chest.

camera woes

I'm beginning to see the weaknesses in either 1) my camera, or 2) my command of my camera.  It's a pretty new camera, much nicer than our old one, but a point-and-shoot nonetheless.  Having started to care more about getting quality pictures of a particular subject at a particular time (I used to look at a great picture as great luck), I've started to remember more about what I'm reading about photography: no flash, white balance, bokeh.  And I'll admit that I don't really know how to turn off my flash, and I'm still trying to understand the concept of the white balance, and the bokeh--love it, but still great luck when I achieve it.

My (our?) shortcomings have been highlighted twice in the past couple of days.

Case 1: The Moon.

Here, note that I was trying some sort of "night" setting, which apparently required me to hold myself still until the moon had set (does the moon set?).

Then, I tried (I think?) turning off the flash.  I actually really love this one, because the sky is not quite black...the cherry tree's shadow is just discernible.

Next up, gelatinous moon-like blob.  Not sure how I did that, but the colors of the sky & trees are just about right.

And the best one.  The moon has a halo, which it didn't at all--it was so crisp in the sky--but the scale is good, and it's a start.

Case 2: The Quilt.

Remember the cutting?  Well, now, I've sewn all the blocks, like them all, love a few, and am ready to sew the top.  In The Modern Quilt Workshop, which is the best academic craft reading of all time, the authors talk a lot about design intention and having a Big Idea (their term), which has both interested me and sort of put me in a tizzy.  I'll talk about the tizzy in another post, but for now, I share with you the three possible layouts for the top, in all their point-and-shoot glory:

The middle layout was originally my favorite, now, not so much.  Not sure if that's because of the horrible picture quality, which I originally edited but have now decided to leave as is to demonstrate my point.  That one was taken at night, by the glow of a single living room lamp, flash on.  Uck.  The other two I took in natural morning light.  My question?  What do I do if I have to take a picture at night?  Like if I'm taking a picture of dinner and don't want to try this?

Something to think about while I finish my quilt top.