I am now on version 4 of Turners catalogue. This time they want to have the prices printed separately so this left a large gap in all the layouts. I reworked the catalogue on a three column grid. Which also meant I could tighten up the of photos and add a lot more!
Ben at Bishop's Green Grocers wanted an e-commerce website but without the time to update the site with products each day I suggested a cut-down version that could be upgraded to e-commerce later when staff and funds become available.
When I took the shots for the website I used the lovely old baskets that were hidden on the top shelf to display the fruit and veg. I cheated a little by re-staging the displays to give a lush, rustic look.
Ben is aiming to refit the shop soon. Replacing the shop sign with my new design, which matches the website.
Nature’s Best (the vitamin and food supplements company) asked me to take a series of photos for their January front cover, featuring of one of their range of winter-warming products – embedded in a giant ice cube!
I shot the ice cube on a sheet of frosted class, lit from below, with two other spots for back-lighting and a fill-in flash at the front.
The beauty of using frosted glass is that when the surface gets wet it turns nearly transparent – making the pool of water below the cube much more defined.
I had worried that the ice might melt too fast, but in fact we needed to use the client’s blowtorch to speed up the melting process!
I love rhubarb. Not only does it look fabulous, taste gorgeous, but costs next to nothing!
The £1.50 worth of rhubarb chunks shown here being washed were roasted in sugar, then sprinkled with ground ginger, topped with crumble and cooked until brown and crunchy. The pudding fed six hungry folk and second helpings all round. Mind you it was so delicious I could have eaten the whole lot myself!
Its something about the sweet – tart combination that really hits the spot. Next time I am going to try roasting in honey instead of all that sugar. Another thought was to make chutney of course! my favourite salad accompaniment.
I enjoyed shooting the Christmas biscuits so much, that I thought I would try shooting cup cakes next. By coincidence I found the little eggs in Julian Graves, hence the Easter theme. The recipe called for chilli powder in the cupcake mix, but I thought this might show as specks in the photograph. I put the chilli powder in the chocolate topping instead. I tried the combination of chilli and chocolate in Puebla, Mexico last year. It sounds a strange combination but works really well.
With only a few days left until Christmas, I can pack up all my home made biscuits and photograph them. The first batch of biscuits, looked and tasted ok – but didn’t fit the boxes properly! so the latest ones are smaller hearts and stars that fit better. Again very high-key with my f1.4 lens has given lovely soft foreground and background, with pin-sharp biscuits.
Three large biscuits didn’t fit the boxes, so these have turned into hanging stars and another photo to send to the Alamy photo library.
Capital Garden Products Carolyn Forster Chilstone Sebastian Gillies