I know I always keep blabbing to you about photoshoots and how that works but I thought for a change to give you a small behind the scenes look at one of the shoots we did this week. In a lot of cases I cannot share the photos with you as it’s for a publication or a customer who doesn’t want the photos to be strewn all over the internet, but this time the photos were for stock and therefore I can share with you whatever I want….

Cupcakes all over

The idea for the shoot was to give the feeling of a girly (kids) birthday party with lots of pink, lots of cupcakes and lots of other sweet treats. We had planned the shoot for a while now and we is Femke (and Eddy in the morning) from sfeercatering Heeerlijk. As guest helpers we had Pauline from Uit eigen streek en Vivian Hulsebosch so it was full house. I think Eddy escaped the girly atmosphere after making us lunch…

I’ve met both Femke and Pauline on twitter and when Femke and I had the first photoshoot together, we got on really well so I’m sure there will be lots more joined ventures in the future. Now a photo shoot like this requires some planning as we wanted to have lots of treats, so I made caramel apples (recipe below), Pauline baked some cake layers and made butter cream and Femke provided the cupcakes, most of the accessories and the other treats.

Table top view of party table!

Styling a large table and making it look fairly natural is not really simple and without a stylist present it posed some challenges. I think we did a lot of different takes before we arrived at the final shot which is above. I’m sure there could be some improvements to this but hey, I like it….!

The table from a different angle

With these kinds of setups I like to work with daylight. Even though I have all the lights in the studio I might ever need, I still strongly prefer natural light. And I have a corner in the studio that is perfect as it has side light and backlight and no direct sunlight so in most cases that corner is my perfect spot for shoots like this. From the right I need a fill still to lift some of the shadows as this shoot was all about light and fun and almost summery feeling.

Table setup with reflector

We usually start with one element and add pieces to it. Because I was shooting from above I had to climb on the ladder everytime to check the setting. Obviously you can also work on the floor and in a lot of cases that is easier except that you have to have a background you want on the floor and since we wanted to use the table that was not an option in this case. I have to collect some larger backgrounds that I can use on the floor. Your light will change if you do that so you have to be aware of the direction of the light.

The team ready to dive in!

Because we had so much stuff we did table settings but also closeups and details on some of the cakes, cupcakes with both the table, another older and darker wooden board and my little white garden table (which is the first shot you see)

Caramel apples

Overall I think we were all pretty happy with the end results of the shoot and we’re already planning the next one! (which is gonna be outdoors and awesome, I’m sure!) Now for the recipe of the caramel apples; there are a lot of different recipes out there and this one is the more simpler one. The trick is to get the caramel right as I found out myself, since the first time went very wrong and the second one could definitely have been better too. I might try a couple more caramel recipes which I will share too.

And I was there too!

Caramel apples

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Serves	6-8
Cook time	15 minutes
Meal type	Dessert, Snack
Misc	Child Friendly, Pre-preparable

Ingredients

• 500g sugar
• 4 tablespoons water

Directions

I guess the recipe is so simple that you can hardly call it a recipe but with caramel it's all in the execution and not so much in the ingredients. Now when making a large batch such as this it becomes critical that you keep a close eye on your saucepan with the sugar in it. What will happen if you have a lot of sugar is the bottom will caramelize and the top will still be solid sugar. In order to avoid this you will need to stir a tiny bit. Stirring too much will results in crystallized and hard sugar (as I found out in try number one) and not stirring will result in half burned and half raw caramel.

Put the sugar on a very low heat giving it the change to start the process slowly. Make sure you use heat proof tools as the sugar becomes very very hot. Make sure you have a bowl of cold water nearby to cool of the caramel once done as it will otherwise keep on cooking and get too far. As soon as the sugar starts to caramelize, very slowly move it a bit around with a spatula (heatresistant one!) and make sure it browns evenly. You can choose to add the water or not. I added water in the first try and did not add it for the second. I think without works maybe a little better but I have yet to give it another go.

As soon as all the sugar is lovely and brown and you can smell that it is the right color. (you can really smell if it is done or not!) cool the pan quickly in your waterbath and then dip your apples in the caramel one by one. Put them on a sheet of baking paper and make sure you do not get in touch with the caramel yourself!

Related Posts:

• Apple and caramel dumplings, I think
• Pavlova with pomegranate and cranberry sauce
• Orange and poppyseed bundt cake
• Raspberries with mascarpone cream…
• Apple sauce

salad ingredients

The indecisiveness is driving me completely insane… While I thought I had made the final decision to get rid of my studio, every time I go there for work or something else, I get sad… really sad.. So now I am starting to question my own decision. Maybe there is another way to make it work and where on earth to I keep all the things I collected over the years that fit fine into a 120 square meter space, but not so fine into a 10 square meter space that will be all that I have left… *Big sigh and pulling my hair out*

What I did do today is go to my landlord and just tell him my problem. That I don’t WANT to leave but that is has become too expensive for the amount of time I am there and well, basically I asked him if he would rent it for a little less.

So healthy!

He didn’t say no right away so that is the good news. He will need to discuss it with his brother and business partner, so the story continues. I don’t even know what I’m doing anymore it feels like. My mind jumps from decision to decision; one minute I think ‘Yeah it makes sense to give it up.” and the other minute I get all desperate and wonder where on earth would I be able to do my job?? Ofcourse there are pro’s and cons that I can think about all rationally but in the end it is my heart that is the biggest problem. I love that space; it is so me. I’ve been there for almost 4 years, we decorated it ourselves and build it up from scratch.

As if it had to be I was contacted today by someone who wants to rent the studio every now and then. That would help although the problem with things like that is that there is no certainty. But if the rent would go down a bit plus this man would rent the studio every now and then, I could maybe, just maybe, keep the studio… We’ll see… time will tell! I have till the end of March to make the final and definitive decision, so I have some more time to drive myself insane.. Yeah!

Still some poppyseed left!

Now on to this lovely salad; I’ve been really good these last few weeks. Tom and I have taken on the habit of going for a walk together every day after work, we’ve been eating very healthy, no snacking in between and no wine other then in the weekends… (a girl’s gotta have some fun!) For a lot of our grocery shopping we now walk to the store instead of taking the car (saves on gas too) so all in all, we’re doing good. The result is that I lost 8 pounds so far (as you can see from the little badge on the right) and while still a long way to go, the beginning is there!

I made this delicious and very quick salad while I was in the studio this morning and I had it for lunch. It’s a bit too light with only 138 kcal so I did have some bread later. No need to starve myself, but this is delicious and adding a bit of bacon maybe would make it a bit more filling too.

This salad is also very fitting for Mona’s Living Leaner as this is literally made from leftovers we had in the fridge and cupboard! So cost for extra was 0 and I prevented wastage!

Lettuce, chicory and apple salad

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Serves	6
Prep time	15 minutes
Dietary	Vegetarian
Meal type	Salad, Side Dish
Misc	Serve Cold
Website	BBC Good Food

Ingredients

• 100g mixed salad leaves
• 1 head white chicory (trimmed and separated into leaves)
• 1 piece apple (cored and sliced)
• 25 g toasted pistachio
• 25g sunflower seeds
• 75g cherry tomatoes (halved)

Dressing

• 2,5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 2,5 tablespoons Honey
• 2,5 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1/2 tablespoon whole grain mustard
• 1 teaspoon poppy seed

Directions

Arrange the salad ingredients on a large plate or big salad bowl. Put all the ingredients for the dressing together in a jar or bowl and shake or stir until well combined. When ready to serve sprinkle some of the dressing over the salad and toss together.

Note

Quantities and ingredients are adapted from the original recipe to what I had on hand. Obviously you can change nuts and other ingredients to your liking

Related Posts:

• Quinoa, feta and walnut salad
• Tarly salad with orange hazelnut dressing – living leaner
• Lamb’s lettuce salad with feta and tomatoes
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• Quinoa, herb and pomegranate salad and the digital age

Orange and poppyseed bundt cake

As soon as I open our stock pantry I feel like closing the door right back again. There is so much junk in there that it scares me to start organizing. Going through the contents however I do find a large jar of poppy seed…

Remember I told you I would probably have to give up the studio? Well, the decision has been made that it has to go and now that the decision is made, I’m fine with that. It just makes sense financially and also logistically. We’ve decided that one of the rooms upstairs will be converted in a mini studio. It will be big enough to store all my props and do food shoots. Anything else would either have to be on location or it will have to be in a rented studio, which will still be many more times cheaper then the 12.000 euro I pay now every year.

Cutting into the cake

But having said that; converting a room into a studio might sound easy in theory but in reality it means a whole lot of work. This room has been used as our “catroom” for 13 years. Remember we used to have 5 cats at the low point in our lives (way too many!!) but since there is only one left, having a catroom for just Gizmo is ridiculous. Besides her food and catlitterbox it also has a very large bookshelf stuffed with things we never looked at, a huge wardrobe and a little freezer. All that will have to go so we started planning on de-cluttering our entire house; not just the one room. And I cannot believe the amount of junk we gathered in the last 20 years since we’ve been together. All the stuff that we kept in the attic in boxes can basically all go (and has gone by now) We’ve brought cars full of stuff to the second hand store (books and things that might still be of use to other people) and an equal amount of car loads full went to the garbage.

It’s one of those things you start with, not realizing the enormous amount of work involved. It makes sense to do it now as Tom is at home, not having a job, so it keeps him occupied.. The attic is as good as ready, the soon-to-be-studio is empty apart from the wardrobe closet (need to sort out all the clothes first before we moved that one) Once it’s empty it will be painted and maybe a new floor too and then I can start moving things from the studio into the home studio. But let’s not get ahead of myself; that will probably be a few months from now.

In the meantime I also found a huge jar of poppy seed. 500 grams unopened to be exact. What on earth do you do with 500 grams of poppy seed? Sprinkling it on buns and stuff like that will not help much so when I saw this recipe for a poppy seed Bundt cake I could not resist and had to make it immediately! It uses a whopping amount of 120 grams so only 380 grams left. (Any ideas on what to do with the rest please let me know!)

Orange poppyseed Bundt cake

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Serves	10-12
Prep time	35 minutes
Cook time	1 hour, 5 minutes
Total time	1 hour, 40 minutes
Meal type	Dessert
From magazine	Delicious magazine

Ingredients

• 120g poppy seed
• 250ml milk
• 225g butter (soft at roomtemperature, plus a little extra for greasing the tin)
• 220g sugar
• 3 eggs
• 300g flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 vanilla bean (seeds scraped)
• 1 tablespoon orange zest
• 4 tablespoons orange juice

orange glaze

• 125ml golden syrup
• 1 orange (make very thin strips of the zest and juice the rest of the orange)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 180 C. Grease a bundt cake tin with a diameter of 20 cm and lightly dust with flour. Heat the poppyseed with the milk in a saucepan until almost boiling and then take the pan of the heat. Leave to cool while you work on your cake batter.

Whisk the butter and the sugar together on medium speed until you have a thick and pale mixture. Add the eggs one by one while you keep whisking. Put the flour and baking powder together through a sieve and ad a pinch of salt. Spoon a third of the flour mixture through the buttermix. Spoon half the poppyseed mix through the batter, then a third of the flour mixture again, the rest of the poppyseed mixture and then ending with the last third of the flour mixture. You should be left with a smooth but airy texture of the batter. Mix in the vanilla, orangezest and the orange juice. Pour the batter into the cake tin and put the cake one level below the middle in the oven. Bake for about 55-65 minutes or until a wooden skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin for about 5 minutes and then carefully turn out onto a cake rack where you should let it cool for another 3 hrs.

Heat the golden syrup with the orange strips and the orange juice in a small saucepan on low heat. Leave to boil softly for about 4-5 minutes while stirring occasionally. It should reduce to about 2/3 of the original volume. Pour the glaze with the orange over the bundt cake just shortly before serving.

Note

Golden syrup is not easy to find in the Netherlands. it's like stroop but a much lighter color. There are apparently a few supermarkets that sell it. I've heard people mentioning Vomar or even Xenos or Action. You should be able to find it online for sure. If not, you can use honey like I did. It worked fine for me, but ofcourse I do not know what the flavor will be with golden syrup. it was delicious with honey, so a good alternative I think.

I have a thing for bundt cakes, so if you want a few more ideas have a look at;

Pineapple and toasted coconut Bundt cake

Apple and nuts Bundt cake

Donna Hay’s lemon sour bundt cake

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• Spicy cake with persimmon
• Quince with spices and Eden pans
• Behind the scenes at a sweet photoshoot
• Pavlova with pomegranate and cranberry sauce
• Arretje nof – the simplest chocolate cake

Ofcourse having watched Remco at work the week before it was  a great opportunity to try out some newly learned tricks when Ollie came for the second time to the studio last week. The idea was to make something with “stacking” which is a pretty broad area anyway, but I kind of left it to his skills to make something nice and he certainly did!
We did two dishes; the above one is my favorite of the day. It’s zeekraal (I’m sorry but I have no idea how to translate that into english) and rice with seaspaghetti and smoked monkfish on top. The tiny bit of orange in the middle is caviar.
I used one bowens gemini 500 from the left shooting through tracing paper and fill in on the right with foamboard. I used a small mirror to light the caviar in the middle as that would otherwise be too dark.
The first dish we did was spaghetti with bloodsausage.

Can you still remember when we used to get that on a regular basis at home? Red cabbage with apple and bloodsausage? I never used to realize that it was actually made from real blood…. anyway, we had the same thing for lunch and it was really tasty. I know I still find it a bit… well, weird that I am eating blood… kind of vampiric I guess..:) but nevertheless it tasted good with the red onion on top. Delicious!!
We had a great day and I think some good photos that came out of it, so I am quite happy. It’s funny how I had more photos of the setup then of the actual dish.
While Ollie was preparing the food I was busy trying out various lighting things and styling, only to end up with a minimal amount of styling. I am just not too good in styling the table and I like the focus to be on the food, so closeup works best for me anyway.
Happy with the results!

I’ve been so busy lately with other stuff that I haven’t had much time to do any proper cooking myself, so I hope that one of these weeks I will get to try some new recipes. Lots of exciting new cookbooks to try!

Related Posts:

• Foodstyling attempt no. 1
• Food photography class
• Working with a foodstylist
• Aperture and DOF – foodphotography exercise I
• Artichoke and feta tarts – DHSP challenge #7

After reading something on Lara Ferroni’s blog Stillife with…. I had to check out something she posted on a foodphotography class that was going to be online. Now you have to know that it is extremely hard to find anything to do with either foodstyling or foodphotography in Holland. The UK you can probably find some, but most of the stuff is originating from the US.
I have been thinking about going to the US to do either a foodstyling workshop or a one on one workshop with a foodphotographer, but that costs – obviously – a small fortune, since I would have to fly to the US, stay there for some time and then ofcourse also pay for the workshop itself. Which is simply not cheap.
Anyway, so I read all about the online course given by The Perfect Picture School and I figured I give it a go, so I enrolled for the four week course in foodphotography, It’s all online, so each week we receive a lesson as well as an assignment.

The first lesson is all about learning how to control the light from different sources; starting with daylight and then we’re moving to artificial light with it’s various options and attachments etc. I have been practicing a bit this afternoon with a bunch of grapes and a cookie..
I’ll show you here the differences and the lighting I used. Keep in mind though that none of these files have been edited, so they are straight from the raw file. The idea was also to try and shoot the same scene in daylight and with artificial light but trying to get the same lighting more or less.

Daylight from the right, no reflection

Artificial light (studioflash Bowens Gemini 500) no reflection

Daylight from the right with reflector on the left

Studioflash from the right with reflector on the left

Daylight from behind no reflection used

Daylight from behind with reflection

Studioflash from behind with no reflection

Studioflash from behind with reflection on the front

Angled studioflash from 45 degrees behind left with grid and barndoors

Angled studioflash with grid and barndoors and reflection from the right
As you can see the various angles and reflection used make a huge difference on the final result!! It wasn’t exactly new material but it is always good to go and have a good look at how the light behaves anyway.

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• Foodphotography;shooting at night or in low light
• Working with foodstylist
• Winterfood
• First shoot in new studio
• Aperture and DOF – foodphotography exercise I