Food Styling Challenge | June | Fish Two Ways

I was excited about this month's The Inspired Plate Food Styling Challenge theme:  Fish two ways.  We love fish here in our household, but we don't have it as often as we'd like due to the high cost.  This was a perfect opportunity to prepare some delicious aquatic fare.

I also happen to loooooooove lemongrass, and thai food, so I googled.  Lemongrass Fish recipe.  Somehow I happened upon this one.  Mahi-Mahi with Lemongrass Slaw and Rice Fritters.  Sounded amazing.  The link I actually found was different, on Yummly, and didn't include a photo.  I'm sure if I'd seen the one posted on Epicurious I would have been influenced by their styling.  And of course, I like theirs better.  No surprise.  But there were no reviews on the Yummly site. I wonder if I would have made this dish if I'd read the reviews first.  Because, let me tell you, they are right.

This recipe was a TON of work.  And I mean a TON.  The day I embarked upon this adventure was not my best mommy day.  I was nearing the patience breaking point.  We'd gone to several places to try to find Mahi-Mahi, which we finally did.  We'd been out all day.  Finally get home to start on all this, and it was an exhausting amount of labor!

But I had hope.  It was going to be soooo delicious.  Right?

I was so mentally, emotionally, and physically drained by the point of completing the dish that I completely bombed the photographing it part.  I was just pooped and plum out of any creativity.  I just wanted the whole thing over with!  Not really how I like to approach my personal creative projects... And of course, as soon as I was done, I thought of 10 things I should have done differently.  Oh well.  Can't go back.  I've learned with this whole food styling situation that for ME, I need to plan it all out well in advance.  Well before I even make the first slice in an ingredient.  I'm not talking about planning out the recipe.  I'm talking about planning out the photo.  How I want my end product to look needs to be ready to go before I begin to cook.  That wasn't what I did for this.  I knew I wanted two overhead images, but this was very fly by the seat of my pants.

which is how everything in my life seems to be going these days...  which reminds me.  So I realized 10 minutes before it was time to begin cooking that my lemongrass in my herb garden is nowhere NEAR being ready for harvest.  Ooops.  Just another chink in the "bombed this" status.  I don't think these are terrible... but I know in my heart that I should have and could have done so much better, with a little more energy. : )




The marinade for the fish was a very dark reddish color.  As I was photographing the final product, I was frustrated that it was just all brown blah.  (oh, did I mention how I shot the whole thing without any garnish.  Then I had to go BACK out and shoot it again WITH garnish?  See, I was totally not on my A-game that day).  I had the idea to use my fork to flake some of the fish off, like a ready bite.  That would have looked really cool if I'd remembered to do it, since the fish inside was very white.  Then, as I was eating my rice fritter for dinner, I realized I probably would have been good to break one open so you could see the yummy white inside of one of those suckers, instead of pile of brown.  Lastly, should have put some minced serrano pepper on the vietnamese sauce bowl to make that a little more interesting.  Grrr.  Why didn't I think of these things  then?

Like I said, this was a boat load of work to make.  The fish was really yummy and I enjoyed it a lot, but I don't think the marinade did much for it.  It sure looks obvious, but flavor wise, I didn't really notice it.  I tasted Mahi-Mahi, which I suppose is the goal.  But hopefully you know what I mean.  The rice fritters were tasty.  Labor intensive, but tasty.  The sauce was ehhhh.... I don't think I'll make it again.  It made way too much, too.  And the slaw? I am a jicama fan, but this was yuck.  Granted, I couldn't find pea sprouts, so I used bean sprouts.  Perhaps pea sprouts make all the difference.  I've never seen pea sprouts here.  I think a different slaw with different vegetables would redeem that.  And to report on the kids.  Little Buddy wolfed his fish down.  Turned his nose up at the rice fritters and ate the slaw by force.  The Little Lady was a knock down drag out fight to eat just the fish.  Nightmare meal.  No surprise there, though.

Those are the same things, minus my kids' issues, the reviews on the Epicurious link say.  Hear, Hear, reviewers.

The Inspired Plate ladies have been talking up a storm about fish lately.  Very surprising that fish isn't so easy to come by if you are in the Midwest.  Very surprising how many don't care for fish!  I cannot WAIT to see what the rest of the group has worked up for their Fish Two Ways post.  I hope they can forgive my huge lack of finesse on this one.  Next up the lady who is sure to show my tail up!  I'm constantly amazed at the food coming out of this woman's kitchen.  If there were ALL the states, practically, between us you better believe I'd be visiting her house alllll the time!  Laurie m. Vengoechea | San Diego and Riverside County Food Photographer

I shot these with my D90 Sigma 30mm f1.4

Project 26 | Post 13 | Me and Mine

Multitasking.  I am female and I'm supposed to be able to multitask well.  I cannot.  I could somewhat before having children.  Now?  Not.at.all.  Period.  This is one of those areas where I feel so much more male than female.  I suppose I have to punch a hole in stereotypes somehow.  All that to say, the addition of the Finding the Light Workshop (have I mentioned how awesome that is???) has caused me to dig deep and find my multitasking self somewhere in there.

For the workshop, I needed to take some images using one of my favorites:  Garage Light.  Kids needed to eat lunch.  Kids wanted to eat a picnic outside in the driveway.  Compromise and Multitask.  In the words of Michael Scott, a win-win-WIN!

I made a picnic lunch and set up our picnic quilt on the floor of the garage, just where I wanted them for the Garage Light photos.  It worked wonderfully.  They were occupied with something to do, yet stationary (at least as stationary is my children become).  But I had them right where I wanted them, light wise.  I shot way more than I needed for the assignment (what's new?)  Yet suddenly in the middle of documenting this fun picnic, I realized that this week was a Me and Mine post!  In just a few days, I'd need some images of them with me.  No time to over think it.  Just do it.  This was not a "put forth the appearance effort" day - I expected to go to running class at 6pm.  But as has been most of these awesome Me and Mine in my Group Project 26, it is real.  I didn't plan.  I didn't think.  I didn't prepare.  I just ran inside, grabbed my tripod and remote, and went to town.

We had a ball shooting these.  The kids have actually really enjoyed helping me with my "uh-tography"  class, as she calls it, and are for the first time in their lives enjoying seeing the results of the image on the LCD screen.  As is my usual case, how could I exclude any of these?  So you get them all.  Looking back of these, I think maybe, just maybe, I am a fun mom.
















Here is where Little Buddy realized he could get up and watch the LCD screen behind the camera.


And of course the Little Lady needs her turn, too.






Please take a few moments to spin around my Group Project 26 circle.  Up next is Christine Blaylock and I'm super excited to see how she worked up a Me and Mine for this June!

I shot these with my D90 Sigma 30mm f1.4

my royalty: my Monarch

Shawn has joked that I get the Monarch Caterpillars for myself, and not for the kids.  He thinks he's joking, but truthfully, I think he's right.  Of course the kids enjoy the caterpillars, and then enjoy watching the Chrysalis change, and finally enjoy the emergence and flying away.  But I am enthralled and fascinated by the entire process.  Feeding and maintaining the habitats of the various creatures we've brought into our home over the last two years or so (lizards, hermit crabs, crawfish, turtles, etc.), has been an annoying burden.  I've done it, because I want this for the kids.  But it is annoying.  However, caring for these caterpillars has been no burden.  I've loved every moment of it.  (which, if you know me and my anti bug philosophy, is quite extraordinary).

This May we bought four caterpillars for us.  A friend raises them and sells them for us to adore, watch, protect and set free and uses the funds for a charity.  I really hope we can get some milkweed to grow in our yard!!!  One of the caterpillars was actually just the egg on the milkweed leaf.  That was my favorite.  We watched as the egg changed.  We watched as he hatched was soooooo tiny.  We watched as he grew and grew and grew and turned into a fat little sucker.  (Dude, these things can eat!!! and poop!)   We watched as he hung in his "J".  We watched as he did his final skin shedding and turned into his Chrysalis (we saw every one turn into the Chrysalis this time!).  We watched as the Chrysalis changed.  And for this little guy, we expect he emerged from the Chrysalis a day or so after we left for the beach.  So we didn't get to see him emerge, but we did see the others.  It's such an amazing thing to be part of.

Our month of May was crazy and raising these little guys was part of it.  I only managed to capture this one image of one of our little beauties, before he fluttered away.  I didn't even manage any caterpillar images, but here(link) are some from last year.  I wonder when the kids will outgrow the fascination with them, and when I'll have to face the embarrassing confession that I still want to raise the caterpillars, all on my own.  However, I still cannot bring myself to touch the caterpillars.  Gross.

I shot these with my D90  Nikon 85mm f1.8

10 on 10 | June Edition

Compromise.  I've never been very good at that... but I'm in the midst of teaching Little Buddy and Little Lady all about it.  And I suppose that means I could use a good adult dose of it as well.  Today, June 1, as I'm preparing this post for the 10th, I've had to compromise.  The general household, packing for our annual beach vacation, end of the school year May activities, Karate, Tball, my running, The project 26, The Food Styling Challenge, this 10 on 10, and then lastly, add on the amazing Finding the Light workshop.  Something Had to Give!  Compromise.

I shot 2, 250 images in May.  That is not a typo.  More than two thousand images.  No special trips.  No new equipment.  Just two thousand images.  And I didn't shoot purposely for the 10 on 10, which typically yields me 500 images.

So...

I didn't have time to manage shooting a 10 on 10 day this month.  I scheduled it twice, but it got ran over. So I decided to give you an early May weekend afternoon instead.  Way  more than ten images.  Way more than ten collages.  But that's me for you.  I loved them all, and honestly, it took less time to include them than it would have for me to try to choose my favorite favorites.

Don't forget to keep going and see what my friend, Jayme Franklin, has in store for her 10 on 10.  For now, enjoy an afternoon with us.

Don't forget to keep going on the circle to view my wonderful friend Jayme Franklin's amazing work.  I love how she documents her children.

I shot these with my D90  Nikon 85mm f1.8

Project 26 | post 12 | Displays

[see the updated book that I did for 2013 along with my tips and instructions here]

Today's post is post 12 in my group Project 26 this year.  Almost halfway!  The theme this time is Displays.  Since I already posted my own home wall gallery displays for Wendy VonSosen's Art Display Project(here and here) back in January, I decided to do a little different take for today.  Here you have my display of affection for Little Buddy's awesome pre-K teacher this year.

(When you finish here, make sure you continue on my group circle to Celeste Jones and see what she has up her sleeve for Displays).

As the end of the school year approached and it was time to think about End of Year Teacher Gifts, I began to brainstorm.  I wanted something their teachers would really want themselves.  While I'm sure they appreciate the sentiment behind some art my kids would make, or something they'd create themselves, it wouldn't be something their teachers would want to keep.  I detest buying gifts just because I'm supposed to buy a gift.  I want my gifts to have meaning.  I want my gifts to others to be things the recipient truly wants or would benefit from.  But at the same time, I wanted the gift to have some significance, some meaning, some remembrance of this last school year.

As Mother's Day was looming, I began to see those interviews pop up in my Pinterest feed.  You know the ones where the kids answer questions about their Mommy.  And I was inspired.

I decided to create a little interview for each child in the classroom to answer, about their teacher!  And then I would compile those into a photo book, including a photo of each child, some facts about each child, and their interview answers.  I was super excited!  I googled for question ideas and then asked on facebook for other suggestions.  A few of my friends were gold-mines!  I emailed out the questionnaire to the parents and asked for them to get the answers back to me, along with a favorite photo and a few facts about their kid.   I did this for both of my kids' teachers.

Then I went to research the best place to order the book.  The end of the year had strapped me for time.  Typically I like to design things myself.  But when I found the "The Was the Year" book template over at Paper Coterie, there was absolutely no question.  This was it! [edit Mar 2014: Paper Coterie has since, most unfortunately, gone out of business]

Instead of a page spread for each month of the year, I left the template numbers in on the spreads as the number of each child in the class.  I ordered them in the order I received the answers from the parents, so I could upload and tweak as I received the answers.  (Tip! If you do this, do it WAY ahead of time.  There are always straggler parents, and you want to have time for the book to arrive!)  I left a page at the end for the kids to sign their names.  For my daughter's class book, I thought of the idea to leave a page where the teacher could add her little 5x7 copy of the class photo, too.

I was so thrilled with the result.  I had a ball compiling all the kids' answers.  They were utterly hilarious.  I couldn't wait for it to arrive.  But when it did, I was beside myself.  Truly, Paper Coterie is an awesome resource. [edit Mar 2014: Paper Coterie has since, most unfortunately, gone out of business] I hate, hate, hate that it arrived the evening of the last day of school and the other parents weren't able to view and hold the book themselves.  It turned out SOOOO cool.  And it's awesomeness inspired me to use THIS as my post for Displays.  Here is my display of a classroom full of cool kids, and a huge display of affection for their amazing, amazing teacher.  I hope it inspires other parents to create something similar for their teachers next year.  Little Buddy's teacher absolutely LOVED it.

(This was my first time to create a book with Paper Coterie.  I've loved them for other products, but was really pleased with the ease of use and speed of their book creation 'software' on the site.  This would have taken so much longer to create on my own in Photoshop.  The template design was so perfect, and I was able to quickly tweak the template for my needs.  I deleted the elements I didn't need, and added the kids' photos and text boxes for the questionnaire.  So super easy.  And the color in print was spot on.)

Without further ado, here is the 8x8 softcover photo book from Paper Coterie.  [edit Mar 2014: Paper Coterie has since, most unfortunately, gone out of business]

I took my kids out to the preschool playground after school one day (so midday sun... not the best, but it was what I had time to do) for the cover and title page shots.  I tried to capture the playground equipment, rather than their faces, so they were creative but generic for both teacher's books.



I've blurred the names and faces of the kids, for privacy reasons.  Here is a closeup of Little Buddy's spread.  Each page included the child's full name, age, and facts about them.  So Little Buddy's says he loves science and nature, grilled cheese, ocean creatures, getting muddy, staying up late, and I foolishly left off camouflage!



There were 10 kids in Little Buddy's class, but the parent of two of the kids didn't get me the stuff in time.  I left those two pages blank besides their names, and then scrapbooked their photos and answers in when the book arrived.  I didn't photograph those pages.



Then at the end, I left a page blank where I had hoped the kids could all sign their names.  Since the book didn't arrive until the even ing of the last day of school, I had the kids sign a piece of scrapbook paper and I used scrapbook adhesive and photo corners to add it in after the fact.  I wish I'd made the "thank you" part on the left smaller and left a space for Mrs. Robin to add the class photo.  I'll remember that for next time!





And here it is wrapped and ready to go.  Mrs. Robin adores the beach, so we used a cool white starfish for the package adornment.

Do make sure you take a few moments to become inspired by the rest of my group's interpretation of Displays.  Next up is Celeste Jones. 

(To help others who are inspired, here is the questionnaire we used. )

About My Teacher Questionnaire

What is your favorite thing about Mrs. Robin?

How old is Mrs. Robin?

What color are Mrs. Robin's eyes?

What is Mrs. Robin's favorite food?  (I meant to ask favorite restaurant here, but accidentally typed food.  This worked in my favor, because some of the answers to the favorite thing to eat question below were hilarious, as the kids picked up on the redundancy)

What is Mrs. Robin's favorite color?

What is Mrs. Robin's favorite thing to do?

What is Mrs. Robin's favorite thing to eat?

What makes Mrs. Robin happy?

What makes Robin sad?

What does Mrs. Robin work hard at?

Mrs. Robin makes me feel good when she....

What two/three words do you think most describe Mrs. Robin?

If Mrs. Robin were a superhero, who would she be?

What does Mrs. Robin do when she is not at school?

What do you think Mrs. Robin was like when she was 5?

If Mrs. Robin wasn't a teacher, what do they think she would be?

What super hero or cartoon character would most likely hang out with Mrs. Robin?

If you could make one rule that Mrs. Robin had to follow, what rule would you make?

If could change one rule Mrs. Robin has, what would you change?

Of all the things you learned in Mrs. Robin's class, what do you think will be the most important when you are a grown-up?

Mrs. Robin is special because .......

I shot these with my D90 Sigma 30mm f1.4