Showing posts with label food photography. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food photography. Show all posts

Thursday, June 2, 2011

The Trouble with Burrata


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Twice a month, I freelance for Di Bruno Bros., the largest cheese counter in Philadelphia -- I choose a cheese to write about, and the store posts my write-up on its blog. This week, I picked Burrata -- a delicious, hand-pulled mozzarella purse with a plush cream center. I chose it because Burrata is a wonderful summer cheese, and most people don't know it exists.

Once you try it, though, you'll never forget it. It's like discovering poached eggs.

You can read about serving ideas in the post, but I thought I'd show you a few outtakes from Burrata's photo shoot. I snapped these photos in my kitchen a few days after taking a food photography workshop with Julie Basello-Holt of Creative Genius. No matter what I did, it was tough to make this cheese look appealing. I wanted my Burrata to look sensual, not like a disemboweled gourd. That was a tough one. Burrata gets messy once you slip off its leek straps.

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Below, you'll see what I came up with. Any input on how to make this look more delicious? In the meantime, I encourage you to seek out this little devil. It's glorious, a cooling centerpiece for dinner during a heat wave.

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To read the full post about Burrata, please visit the Di Bruno Blog.

Monday, December 20, 2010

The Holidays: Through a Macro Lens

Confession: while you have been hanging stockings and stirring fudge, I have been wandering around the house on a picture-taking rampage. You see, I got a new lens. I had to show you.

I know, I know, it’s really geeky, but I can’t help myself. I just took about 50 pictures of the plants on our sill, and then I started in on the teapot – approaching it from every angle. It’s amazing how a nice lens can make even a wanged up teapot look mystical.


I keep telling myself: you’re a writer. All you’ve ever needed was a pencil. You’ve never salivated over a gadget before. But then, I got blog envy. I started peering into the lives of people like Bea over at La Tartine Gourmande and Cenk at Cafe Fernando, and my voyeuristic side started speaking up and begging for things… like DSLR cameras and table-top tripods.

Then my cranky Hemingway-esque side said, You don’t need a bunch of gear. I thought you liked typewriters. And my Sensible side said, If you want a new camera, you better save your schekels, sister.


And so I saved. The change jar on our radiator had to overflow a few times before I could really splurge. But I’m glad I did.

I’m lucky that I have a few friends who are super bloggers – they invited me over for a camera potluck several weeks ago. They brought the gear, and I supplied the cheese. Then we sat around snapping photos for about two hours.


When I left, I knew I was going to need some Canon magic. A new DSLR and 60 millimeter macro lens. And so this is my Christmas: it’s going to be very close-up and very clear.

I can’t wait to show you how good cheese can look. For now, you'll just have to stare at cookies. Thanks for indulging me. And many smooches to Messy & Picky and Foodinjars for letting me handle their cameras with my cheesy fingers.