It Might As Well Be Me

Sometimes, I complain about my job. I really don't know why. It's not like I'm working in the mines or something. I basically sit all day at a desk reading, writing, reconstructing sentences, fixing punctuation errors (which I loathe). It is relentless at times, I guess; the deadlines are always THERE. Taunting me. You'll never make it You'll never make it You'll never make it...

Sometimes it's a grind, and I'm like: "Haven't we already done this story before?" Things can start to meld together. But it's all relevant, right? Because somebody, somewhere will be at a point in their life when this information could be useful. Even after all of these years, it happens to me all the time.

Then once in a while, we will be presented with an opportunity to do a story on something fun and interesting. Jeff, our publisher wants a travel issue. Great! We have an upcoming trip to Sonora planned. I am sent invites to many places - Ojai? Michigan? Scottsdale? This could and should be fun.

But then... I get an invite for a press trip to French Polynesia. I ponder it for a moment, my finger hovering over the 'delete' button. How in the world am I going to just up and leave for Bora Bora? I've got kids and deadlines and work just piling up all around me. International travel at this moment is probably out of the question. I forward the message to Jeff anyway. I doubt it will get approved.

But then suddenly, things are set in motion. I am to renew my passport ASAP and make this story happen.

So now I'm working on our travel issue and so excited to be putting together the entire issue, featuring a trip to the incomparable South Seas. I've been places, but nowhere like this.

What would you call this color of blue?

Now, Sonora was fun too. But really, how can one compare?
(My travel companions for the Sonora trip)

So I'm working on these stories for our upcoming issue. Someone's gotta do it -- it might as well be me. Stay tuned.

People in Glass House[s]

I'm a little late  posting this (we shot this almost 4 weeks ago), but it's been crazy. And what can I say? I'm a slow blogger. 

If you've seen the latest issue-which just published-then you've seen the amazing fashion spread featuring some FABULOUS dresses designed by Mimi Tran. The photos of the dresses are pretty spectacular (especially as they are worn by Maria, model extraordinaire—the dresses look like they were made for her and nobody else-but don't worry because Mimi can customize her dresses), but in person, they look even more beautiful. I can't wait to see Mimi's new collection. And hopefully, we'll get a chance to photograph her designs for another shoot. I love to work with local designers.  

The dresses are actually sheer, but then beaded in the most crucial places so that they come off elegant and sophisticated and not too revealing. Very sexy. And they fit like a glove. I’m sure it doesn't hurt that Maria is tall and lithe and can probably wear a burlap bag and still look good. Plus, she is SO nice.

The jewelry was gorgeous, too. Thank you, Bonnie at One World Designs. Bonnie designs these oh-so-pretty sparkly baubles that look like they are worth million bucks, but in reality, the tags cause sticker shock because they aren't. They are surprisingly affordable and the quality is amazing! 

As always, Team Awesome, Lisa (photographer), Velia (hair), Steph (make-up), and Monina (hair, make-up and The Zen Who Makes Things Calm) were all there.

We did the shoot at the Glass House in downtown San Jose, which is a brand new venue where you can throw fabulous parties, weddings, etc. Thank you to everyone at the Glass House who were so nice to us while we took over their space. 

Incidentally, Maria made everyone’s day at the construction site across the street. It is the GLASS House, which means it’s basically all windows. It took us a minute to realize that the guys were getting quite the peep show before we put up the screens. Oops. Anyway, I think it made their day. 

Of course, we had to break for a quick lunch. We get pretty hungry, as you can see. Stephani is about to put a hurt on that bread.

Monina rocking her brushes.

Velia doing her thing.

 Maria and the Team

Mulberry Madness

Well, here's the first "official" blog entry - a behind-the-scenes look at a work day shooting food editorial! 

We've done many many photo shoots over the years and the team - I call them/us "Team Awesome" - always has a great time working together. I'll have to introduce these fabulous ladies in an upcoming blog entry.  

Usually, we shoot with a full crew, but this time it was just photographer, Lisa Whalen, and I styling and shooting the gorgeous food created by two talented local chefs: Nikki Baverso, the Executive Chef at Pampas Restaurant in Palo Alto and Melisa Root, the Executive Pastry Chef at Madera Restaurant at the Rosewood Resort in Menlo Park.  

This particular shoot was a food editorial featuring mulberries from the Lynch family's mulberry trees and recipes from Nikki and Melisa.

Mulberries from Kevin & Monica's Mulberry trees.

Kevin and Monica Lynch sell these incredibly tasty berries at the Palo Alto Farmers' Market on weekends. If you have never tried a mulberry, go to the Palo Alto Farmer's Market and get a basket or two of these delicious berries.

This food shoot was particularly fun because Kevin and Monica were amazing to work with. You might recognize Monica from the cover of the current issue of M Magazine. She appears on the August issue with their two sons (see my previous blog entry to see the beautiful cover!). 

 Also, we got to meet and work with Nikki and Melisa. These talented ladies prepared some truly beautiful food featuring these unique berries. You can the find recipes for these desserts as well as a refreshing Mulberry Cocktail from Nikki in the current issue of the magazine (of course). 

This is Kevin "The Mulberry Guy" with Chefs Nikki and Melisa. 

Mulberry Peach Cobbler from Nikki

Melisa's dessert under construction

Melisa and Monica

My custom pizza: garden fresh tomatoes and lots of basil

That oven is HOT! Custom built by Kevin himself.

Once we finished shooting, Kevin and Monica set us up with custom pizzas which Kevin fired up in the custom pizza oven he built in their backyard. Needless to say Lisa and I had a great day at "work." Thanks Kevin and Monica! 

Lisa enjoying pizza and a glass of wine.

A Blog is Born...

So, I've finally started a blog - THIS blog - for the magazine. I mostly wanted to get a blog going so the team and I could share what happens behind the scenes during photo shoots and other projects and productions. 

I'm not gonna lie: I'm not the most technical person, so "birthing" this blog was kind of a challenge - especially trying to figure out how to make the pictures fit... I'm not sure I know what I'm doing, but I'll learn as I go. 

Who knows if anyone will find any of this interesting. But at least I've got a place to post all of those behind-the-scenes moments. Stay tuned!