February

My goal for the month really was to get my frock done. It had been more than 5 years since I last made an SCA frock, so I was a bit on the nervous side when cutting out fabric. Living too, by myself, there wasn't anyone around to help me with fittings (not that I have ever really managed to figure out how to fit this dress before it is made!). But I made it, and am unreasonably proud of it.

It was great fun but surprisingly tiring work. It was somewhat of a challenge too: this particular recipe book is of, I guess, ayurvedic weekday evening meals. The recipes had a lot in common visually, and it was hard work finding new and interesting ways to present yellow-tinted vegetable dishes. And how do you photograph naan in an exciting fashion?

But we did it, and I thought that Ed and I worked really well together. We did achieve a lot, photographing 21 dishes in two sessions (I read in some articles later that it would be typical to get only between 1-3 dishes designed and photographed in a day!). The space we were using to photograph was tiny, and with snow piling up outside the window the light perhaps not at its best, so I am extra proud of how much we achieved. As well as the food itself, I had some ideas for photos of spices and ingredients, which worked out to be really rather gorgeous in Ed's talented hands, and I believe one of them is going to be the cover shot for the recipe book.

So here are some "behind the scenes" shots of a food photography session:

I promise the photos that Ed took were just fantastic, as opposed to my amateur snaps from bad angles.