You need to eat this!

The inspiration for this blog comes from a few places...

The Minimalist Baker is a food blogger I follow for healthy recipes.  Dana, the brains behind it,  is an extraordinary food photographer and her daily photos on instagram literally stop me in my tracks and make me want to do all I can to become an expert photographer.   Her photos are creative, bright, mouth watering, and always perfectly sharp-as-a-tack with the right amount of bokeh. 

I wanted to give food photography a shot, just for fun, and no better subject than Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread.  The second component that inspired me to set this all up and "pose" my food.  I looooove fall and pumpkin recipes, but don't often devote time to it.  Marrying a chance to practice photography and eat pumpkin bread is a win-win.

Here we go. 

This recipe came from Taste of Home Magazine online.  It. Is. Dynamite.

What you'll need:

3 Cups Flour
2 tsps Cinnamon
1 tsp Baking Soda
4 Eggs
2 Cups Sugar
2 Cups Canned Pumpkin
1.5 Cups Oil
1 Bag Chocolate Chips

Mix your dry ingredients.  Mix your wet ingredients.  Mix them together.  Grease then flour your bread pan - this is key!  Otherwise the bread will stick when you try to remove.  This is a gigantic recipe and it makes two loaves.  350 degree oven for 60-70 minutes, or until a fork comes out of the center nice and clean.

Your house is going to smell AMAZING!!!! 
It smells so good you almost want to leave it in a little longer....until you peak and see THIS.  Mouth watering yet?

Let it cool.  With a butter knife loosen the sides. Place your hand over the loaf and turn it upside down, pound on it with the nice and it'll pop out perfectly.  Promise. 

Time to style up our food!  The Minimalist Baker always has extra "stuff" surrounding her finished product.  Whether it's sprinkles of some of the raw ingredients, napkins, an accompanying cup of coffee, the extras really make the photo. 

Not bad for a first timer!  I also gotta say - food photography is no joke.  It's just as much work as anything else and the people who are good at it are not just taking pictures of their dinner.  They are artists.  It takes every bit of care and skill as photographing live subjects.  You have to think about each composed shot and adjust accordingly.

In the close up of the bread I should have adjusted my aperture.  I was shooting wide open but for the close up I should've moved it.  Not enough of the bread was in focus for you to see every yummy scrummy flaky glistening chocolate bite.  But....still great....and I learned something!

Try this recipe!  I hope I made you hungry!!!

It's that time of year.....get excited to get all dolled up, drag your husbands and kids out to a park, and pretend like it's perfectly normal to sit together posed next to a bunch of bushes and trees while you're secretly hoping your outfit doesn't get dirty. 

In all seriousness...after the pain of getting everyone dressed family sessions are really fun! And these days the look most people want is a healthy mix of posed and candids so it's easier on the kiddos because we can get playful. 

Seated and Standing Portraits
We'll start here.  Traditional "everyone look and say cheese" style.  After this we can play around.  The closer everyone is to one another the better.  Space between looks awkward.  I'll be telling you to squish in!   And as I snap away there's a good chance I'll be singing songs and making faces to try to get those little ones to smile. 

Loosen up!
  Crouch down to your kids level, hold hands, get on dad's shoulders, toss those babies in the air, etc.

Happy outfit planning everyone!!
My only suggestion is to coordinate but not match like twins and stick to colors that are easy on the eyes.  If you notice the outfits shown here that is exactly what they did and it looks fab. 

To book a Fall Family Mini Session use the link below!
Fall 2017 Dates, Times, and Locations:

Saturday morning and evening time-slots October 7, Mueller Lake Park
Saturday morning and evening time-slots October 21, Mueller Lake Park
Sunday Morning & Evening time-slots November 12, Butler Park
Sunday Morning only November 19, Mueller Lake Park

Select your date, time, and location using the drop-down menu
Click the "details" link for more info
 https://instant-scheduling.com/sch.php?kn=2730993