If you had to choose, between lemon or chocolate, what would your choice be?  Throw some rhubarb into the mix and would it make your decision any easier?

Think about it… tart lemon with pockets of rhubarb, toasted coconut and sweet blueberries topped with a brown sugar, coconut, lemon zest streusel…

or

… moist zingy rhubarb offset with a cocoa-y muffin and a few chocolate chips on top…

Well… I’m going to make it easy for you today because, I haven’t perfected the lemon recipe.  So you’re getting the chocolate one.  See?  I like to make your lives easy like that.

Actually, I lie.  You’re getting both.  But only one is “official”.  The other I’m posting in hopes that somebody can help me fix it.

You see, the lemon one, I’m just not happy with.  I’ve made them twice… the first time the lemon flavour was too much and half the muffins stuck to the pan.  The second time, I got the flavour balance perfect… but the wet to dry ingredients aren’t working.  It was way too dry.  Good if you cut them open and warmed them up with a pat of butter on them but that’s not really good enough, is it?

The chocolate ones, however, are beautiful.  I tweaked a recipe I’ve been using for chocolate raspberry muffins for a few years now and they came out perfectly.  They were nice and moist, the cocoa wasn’t too overpowering for the rhubarb.  The use of sour cream makes for a really moist muffin.  The original raspberry recipe called for a lot of chocolate chips but I think that would have buried the rhubarb flavour, which I really wanted to shine.  So I simply put a few chocolate chips on the tops before putting them in the oven and it was great.

Why don’t we mix chocolate and rhubarb together more?  After discovering what a great combo it was last year with my chocolate rhubarb cookies, I’ve been looking for more ways to combine the flavours and I think this was a winner!

Now I have to get back to perfecting the lemon ones… it’s hard but somebody has to do these things, right?

I’m including my lemon rhubarb muffin recipe here if anyone has any suggestions on how to change up the wet dry ratio.  I’d love to hear what you think… (plus, I really wanted an excuse to do the contrasting photos in one post! teehee!)

Imperfect Lemon Rhubarb Blueberry Muffins

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• ¾ cup sugar
• 1½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• ¾ cup shredded coconut
• 1 egg
• ¼ cup vegetable oil
• 2 tsp grated lemon zest
• 1/2 cup lemon juice
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 1¼ cup chopped rhubarb
• 1/2 cup frozen or fresh blueberries
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tbsp grated lemon zest

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350F
2. Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and coconut in a large bowl
3. In a separate bowl beat the egg and add the oil, 2 tsp lemon zest and lemon and orange juices
4. Add to the flour mixture and stir until just combined (it will be lumpy)
5. Fold in rhubarb and blueberries gently until just combined
6. Spoon batter into greased muffin tins so it’s level with the rim of the tin.
7. For streusel topping combine brown sugar and tbsp of lemon zest – sprinkle this on top of the muffins half way through their baking time.
8. Bake 25-30 minutes

Thoughts anyone?  Let me know. I will dutifully report back on the progress if I get some good suggestions!

See larger image Baker's Secret Basics Nonstick 12-Cup Muffin Pan (Kitchen) List Price: Price Not Listed New From: Check Amazon For Pricing In Stock Release date May 1, 2005.

scallops in pea puree

Time for part 3 of the restaurant food photography series.  We covered off etiquette in part 1, and getting the most out of dining with family and friends in part 2.  So part 3 is all about tips and tricks for getting your best photos when you’re not in control of your surroundings.

The good news?  There’s a whole host of things you can do to improve your shots, before you even pick up a camera.  And there’s a lot of info here.  So let’s get started.

Plan Ahead

take a little time to plate some of your salad on a smaller plate if you have the opportunity. creates a different composition

This is particularly important for those of you who review restaurants for your blogs.  Odds are good you don’t make spur of the moment decisions on what to review.  You likely have a list of places you want to hit up

1. Scout out the Restaurant

Take a walk past, even take a peek in the door before you make plans to eat there.  It gives you the lay of the land.  You can see what the lighting situation is and what the seating is like and plan accordingly.

2. Lunch Over Dinner

If you can, choose lunch over dinner.  Even better, choose a late lunch.  Lunch means you have better access to natural light instead of dark and orange-y artificial light.  A late lunch means the restaurant will be quieter and there’s less chance you’ll be sitting next to other patrons.  That can give you a little space to move without annoying anyone.

A late lunch also means you’re likely to have a less harried server who might be able to spend a little more time with you talking about the dishes and the restaurant.  You might even get to chat with the chef.

3. Make a Reservation

If you make a reservation, you can ask where to be seated.  We always ask for a window seat.  Window seat = natural light.  In summer, it’s usually still light enough at dinner time that a window seat will give you all the light you need.  Or, ask for a seat on the patio for the best light!

TIP: patios apply to dinner.  Patio light at lunch time can be overly harsh so be careful.

4. Ask To Sit Somewhere Specific

Didn’t make a reservation?  You can still ask for a specific seat.  If the restaurant’s busy, you’re obviously going to be limited in your selection but, that’s why you planned ahead, right?

Chilled Dungeness Crab Cannelloni with English Pea puree, Meyer lemon, mint and topped with Skuna Bay Salmon Caviar.

As I’ve mentioned before, Food Husband Sean is the restaurant blogger.  His photography is fantastic (his images were featured in this month’s Chatelaine Magazine with their Food Truck feature!).  It’s not a fluke.  He’s a skilled photographer but, he’s also a meticulous planner and usually has a pretty good idea of what to expect and what he needs to do in most of the restaurants we eat in.

Have the Right Tools for the Job

While I’m usually the first to say you can take a great photo with any camera (and you can!), there are times where a smartphone just isn’t going to cut it.

Yes, you can take some really nice photos of your food with your iPhone.  They work great when you have loads of natural light.  But in a dark restaurant, they still leave a lot to be desired.

1. ISO Settings

A compact DSLR or a point and shoot will help you out a lot in these situations.  They give you some control over your exposure and your ISO.  ISO refers to your camera’s sensitivity to light.  The higher the number, the more sensitive it is.  What makes ISO tricky is, the higher the sensitivity, the more digital noise you’ll have.  It works in conjunction with your Aperture and Shutter Speed settings to control the light in any given image. The higher your ISO is the faster your shutter speed can be, which in turn, means you’re not as likely to need a tripod to avoid a photo that’s blurry from camera shake caused by slow shutter speed.

It used to be that using anything over 400 used to guarantee you a grainy, noisy photo. But the newest cameras have some pretty incredible ISO capabilities that will let you shoot in the 3200+ range and still have a sharp, grain-free image.  When I photograph in dark restaurants, I usually bump mine up to 6400 which will allow me to get a well lit image with no camera shake.

slow roasted New Zealand lamb with mustard and fennel streusel and a pomegranate gastrique

2. Lenses, f-stops, angles and blurry backgrounds

If you’re using a DSLR, and you are serious about your photos and have some extra cash, consider buying a lens that will help you with your food photos.  A macro lens can be a great investment as it allows you to get really close to your food and still focus.  Keep in mind that a 100mm macro lens is different from a regular 100mm lens.

A lens with a low f number (ie f/2.8) means that the widest aperture you can have is 2.8.  This can be confusing because the smaller the f number is, the wider the aperture is – and the wider the aperture is, the more light you let into the camera’s sensor.  So a 2.8 lens has the ability to let in a lot more light than a lens whose lowest f number is 4.0.  This can be very useful in low light situations – working in conjunction with your higher ISO, you have the potential to get a great photo in low light without needing a tripod!

The negative of a lower f number is, it means you have a smaller area of focus.  In other words, if you take an image with the lens set at 2.8,  a smaller portion of the image will be in focus than if you shot the photo at 4.0 or, 7.0 or 22.  If you are taking an overhead shot this isn’t good.  With an overhead shot, you want to shoot at a high f stop – I would say at least 11 -  to keep the whole setting in clear focus.  Shooting at a higher f-stop means you’re letting less light into the camera.  That leads to camera shake (unless you have a tripod).  For this reason, I avoid overhead shots in restaurants – not only does it annoy everyone when you stand up, it’s almost impossible to get a clear photo. (the scallops at the top are an example – the tops are in sharp focus but the pea and nettle puree is not.)

But! Yes, there’s a but and it’s a good one!  The positive of a lower f-stop is… you have a smaller area of focus.  I know… I just said that was a negative.  Confusing, right?  Yes, for an overhead shot, a small area of focus is a drawback.  But when you photograph a dish straight on, that small area of focus (it’s actually called a shallow depth of field) is what can give you that dreamy out of focus background, which can be great for food shots (and for blurring out your dining companion sitting across from you!)

All of these things are very hard to control with a smartphone, and in some cases, with a point and shoot.  But it pays off with much sharper, better lit images.

Get Creative – Random Tips

smoked hickory salt biscuits – see the nice shallow DOF that renders the background blurry?

Sometimes, the setting just sucks for taking images and there’s very little you can do about it.  So you have to get a little creative.

TIP: Find something you can rest your camera on to steady the photo in low light – I’ve used my purse on multiple occasions.  And, I always carry a book with me.  The book is actually for reading but it can double nicely as a stable surface with a little extra height.

TIP: Get your food to go.  It won’t be plated as nicely but we’ve done this many times and then found a park to photograph it in with better light.

TIP: Wear a white shirt.  Really.  Built in reflector.  I spent 10 minutes trying to take an overhead photograph of a white cupcake a few weeks ago and it kept getting a pink caste to it.  Changing my white balance didn’t help.  Then I realized I was reflecting red light from my shirt onto the cupcake.  I changed the angle I photographed it at, and got rid of the pink colour.  If I’d had a white shirt on, it would have reflected a nice bright white light onto the photo.  When it’s dark, any bit of white light is useful.

TIP: Learn how to change your white balance. For the love of pete… if you take one thing away from this, learn how to change your camera’s white balance.  Often, the light in restaurants is fluorescent or tungsten.  So turn the dial on your camera to one of those settings before you take your photos – it will help neutralize the orange cast the artificial light will create.  If you forget, then fix it in post processing.  Check out this post for a little help with your White Balance in poor light.

surprisingly juicy green almonds

TIP: TURN. OFF. YOUR. FLASH.  Ok, I know if said if you took away one thing from this it should be fix your white balance.  But what it really should be is: TURN. OFF. YOUR. FLASH.  Ok?  It does nothing to help your photos.  You are shooting at too close a range and all that happens is you get a blown out, orange, unattractive image of something that may, or may not, resemble food.  And you tick off the restaurant guests.

TIP: Take the time to compose and frame the shot.  Be aware of what else is in the frame that might distract from the food.  Look at where your cutlery and glasses are.  Make sure the image is straight and that you’re not cutting off any thing critical to the dish.

TIP: If you have a DSLR, shoot in RAW.  It’s not scary and gives you a lot more flexibility in post production without damaging your image.  For more info on shooting in RAW (and for basic post processing steps) check out my tutorial on Basic Food Photography Processing.

TIP: Form a relationship with the restaurant.  This one may not work depending on what kind of blog you’re writing.  If you like to remain an anonymous reviewer, your options are limited.  But if you can, get to know the staff and the chef.  Don’t be obnoxious and all “i’m a big important food blogger and you should treat me better than everyone else because I write a blog and I want a free meal”.  Instead, visit a few times, leave the camera at home , chat with the staff about the food and by all means, let them know that you write a food blog after you’ve established a rapport.  This can pay off in dividends down the road if you also take great photos.  You might get invited for a new menu preview with your camera. If you take outstanding photos, they may even want to hire you to shoot their menu.  For some great tips on how to build a relationship (with a bit of humor) with the chef, check out Food Network Canada writer and food blogger Dan Clapson’s article for Food Bloggers of Canada.

If the restaurant is really dark it’s a good bet that it’s probably not the right setting to bring out a camera.  This is where I give up and just enjoy the meal.  You do have another option here though… ask the restaurant if you can come photograph the food at a later date with better light.  You’d be surprised how often this works!

Braised Rhubarb with white chocolate meringue, ginger infused green strawberries, ginger, green almonds and Rice Krispie crumble

Don’t Ignore Post Processing

Photography doesn’t stop when you click the shutter.  Not even when you shoot film.  Film photographers have dark rooms.  Digital photographers have Adobe Lightroom (or Photoshop, or Photoshop Elements, or even software that comes with your camera).

This is where you can fix small mistakes, decrease any noise you got from using a high ISO, adjust white balance if you forgot to do it in camera, sharpen the image and give it a little bit of kick.  I’m not talking about major alterations here.  I’m talking about spending 2-3 minutes on your best images to refine them a little bit, just like you would in a dark room setting.  it will take them to the next level.  You can check out my Basic Food Photography Post Processing Tutorial for the basics and then look at some of my Before & After tutorials for more tips to polish your images.  Craft and Vision has a great guide to Lightoom that you can download as a $5 e-book.

You’ve got a lot of information there to absorb and so, that brings to a close my series on Restaurant Food Photography.  If you missed part 1 or part 2 be sure to check them out.  And in the meantime, keep practicing and be thoughtful of others around you when you wield that camera!

Do you have any tips that serve you well when you photograph in restaurants?  Share them in the comments!

***A special thank you to Executive Chef Thomas Heinrich from the Vancouver Hyatt Regency for letting me photograph elements of his spring tasting menu – and a few other dishes – at the Hyatt’s Mosaic Grille for use in this article.  (I went in at 2pm and sat by a window )

***I am an amazon and Craft & Vision affiliate and as such, I earn a small commission from the purchase of any products linked to in this post.  I only link to items I use myself or that I feel good about and think will be useful to my readers.

At any rate… I’m pretty much never wordless so it’s not even a wordless Monday.  What it is, is “A Bunch of Pictures Monday”.  Because, I have a bunch of pictures.  And I thought I’d post them.

These are just some of the photos I’ve taken over the last month while traveling as well as in my garden and around Vancouver and I thought I’d share them.  Because I like them and frankly, it’s my blog so… are you all with me here?  Good!

Honestly, has anyone ever found a cookie they didn’t like? I mean I’ve found some that are not as good as others but…

Smoked hickory salt biscuits at the Hyatt’s Mosaic Restaurant. I could eat a whole bowlful all warm with a little butter melting on them. In fact, I almost did.

Vacouver’s Bella Gelateria – winner of the 2012 Florence, Italy Gelato Festival. And deservedly so. Vancouver’s best gelato. Frankly, the best gelato I’ve ever had anywhere and I have taken it upon myself to sample multiple flavours.  Just to be sure.  So there you have it.

Who buys rhubarb on the west coast? Seriously – the stuff grows like a weed. You have to be a bit lazy to actually buy this in the grocery store or the farmers’ market… And I am happy to go out weeding when it nets this from the back of my garden.

Chives just make me happy.

Calgary, you look all pretty at night!  And your Fred Herzog exhibit at the Glenbow made me happy.

My next afternoon to myself… this is where I’ll be.

And that’s it folks.  I hope your Monday is/was pleasant.  Be back soon…

Nobody had to wait to eat for this photo to be taken and it captures the feel of a bento box meal in a sushi restaurant

This is part 2 in my three part series on restaurant food photography.  In part 1 I covered etiquette when photographing in restaurants.  In part 3 I’ll cover tips and tricks to make the most of conditions you can’t control.  But, today, we’re going to look at dining with friends and family.

I don’t eat out anywhere near as much as people seem to think – budgetary reasons and I just like cooking at home. When I do go out it’s usually with friends and in all honesty, I’d really rather be in the moment with them and enjoy their company than take photos.

Sean takes me on a lot of his reviewing adventures so I get spoiled in that regard, but I usually just act as his second set of hands, rearranging plates and cutlery for him and letting him have the good seat with the best light.

And waiting till he’s done photographing my food before I get to eat…

Aha!

And there it is… how do you take photos when you’re out with family and friends and not annoy the pants off everyone?

Dining with food bloggers… a lot of cameras…

We’ve all experienced the rolling eyes, the “would you hurry up! I’m hungry!!” look, or just the flat out stares of annoyance and people telling you to put your damn camera away.  So what to do?

Dine with Like-Minded Companions

This is the simplest solution.  Go out to eat with people who also like to photograph their food.  Then everyone is happy to pass plates around, wait a few minutes till everyone gets their shot and then dive in.

Food Husband Sean, doing his thing. I amused myself by taking my own photos

This works well for me and Food Husband – even though I don’t always want to take my camera, I get that when I go out with him, there’s going to be photos taken and I’m cool with it.  And he knows that.  So it’s all good.  Often, I do pull out my smartphone and snap a pic for instagram and on the odd occasion, they pop up on the blog as well.

But let’s face it, we don’t eat out with food bloggers all the time and not everyone digs the camera on the table all night so…

Gauge Your Companions’ Moods

If you have an ounce of self-awareness, you should be able to tell what the mood of your dining partners is.  If they’re annoyed, back off.  It’s not worth a fight for a photo of a bowl of risotto.

If I’m working and I’ve been asked to shoot a menu or review a VanEats package but I get to bring a guest, I’ll often take a friend.   But I’m very clear ahead of time that this is a working gig, I’m going to be photographing the food and they’re going to have to be patient.  They get it and everything’s ok and they usually get a really good meal out of it.

my dinner companions actually helped me compose this photo. When your fellow diners know they’re still the most important part of the meal, they often get into the spirit of creating a great photo!

But when I’m just out with friends, the camera often doesn’t make an appearance.

TIP: However, if you must take a photo, be quick and be unobtrusive:

• don’t make people wait to eat – they’re probably hungry
• don’t spend all day fiddling with your focus and lighting
• if you really must rearrange plates and food, do it with your order – not your friends’.  Let them eat.
• use a smaller point & shoot or smartphone if the setting will let you get away with it (ie. if there’s lots of light)
• shut off your flash

Here’s the funny thing though.  There’ve been many times where I’ve gone out to eat with friends and not produced my camera.  And they actually stop before they dig in and say “aren’t you going to take a photo?”  When I shake my head or scrunch up my face and say “not today”, the overwhelming response is “but you should!  Get your camera out! We’ll wait.”  Even if I protest, they’ll push and be all “Melissa, get the camera out… come ON!”

It almost becomes a form of peer pressure – DO IT MELISSA!!  And so I invariably do!

TIP:  Sometimes just knowing that I’m not always gonna pull out the big gun is enough for my friends to feel like the dinner is about them and not the photos.

TIP: take photos while waiting for your food.  The photo of the teapot above was taken while we waited for our main dish and the people I was with kind of got into it and actually helped me compose the photo. 

Change Your Approach – Make the Meal the Story

Often when we go out to eat we focus on photographing the plate in front of us.  We want that idyllic shot of food perfection.

But what we tend to forget is that a huge piece of the food puzzle is the social act of breaking bread together.  A meal is as much about the people we share it with as it is about the food.

When you go out to eat why not focus on the meal as opposed to the dishes.

TIP:  Tell the story of the meal with your camera.  And this is where it’s ok to relay on your smartphone.   Smartphones are great for snapping moments without all the fuss of a DSLR.  The photo quality isn’t there in low lighting but sometimes when you’re just trying to catch that moment in time, that’s ok.

A lousy smartphone photo but it caught the feeling of the free for all that a dim sum meal can be.  Not something I’d usually use in a blog post but I love the moment it caught

The nice part of using this approach is, people can dive into their food right away and often they’re too busy eating or talking to notice what you’re doing and you can get some great candid photos and convey the spirit of the meal to your readers.  Even when you’re reviewing a restaurant for your blog, don’t neglect these kinds of photos – they add interest to your post.  Gorgeous food is mouthwatering eye candy – but people photos add some character to your posts and also show off the character and ambiance of the restaurant.

TIP:  Some ideas to consider:

• show people’s hands as they eat and talk,
• photograph your party pondering the menu
• get a shot of the group toasting with the first round of drinks
• order a pitcher of beer? photograph somebody pouring it, or pouring tea in a sushi restaurant
• show the table and all the food in various stages in the meal
• if your seating arrangement allows for it, snap a photo of the kitchen or the kitchen staff (sometimes, it’s best to ask to do this – gauge the tone of the restaurant first and if  in doubt, ask)
• don’t forget the decor

Pick Your Battles

One of my favourite photos, taken in Ottawa’s Mello’s Diner, an early morning breakfast with my team. Love the sleepy early morning feel to it as we wake up with coffee.

Sometimes,  you just need to know when to put your camera away or leave it at home.

TIP: Some examples of when to put the camera down:

• date night with your partner – unless you’re both food photography geeks, it’s really not that romantic.  Give your partner the gift of your undivided attention.  After all, that’s kind of the purpose of date night!
• a meal that’s about somebody else – your bff’s birthday, mother’s day brunch, your sister’s graduation.  Sure you might want to take photos to preserve the event for posterity but the food is not the focus and you holding up everyone isn’t either.  Make the photos about the people there instead!
• friends who really don’t like waiting to be allowed to eat, or who are starving or don’t want to play pass the plates.  You don’t need to photograph every. single. meal.  You can put your camera aside once in a while when you eat with them.

And you know what? It’s ok to put your camera aside.  There are times where it’s more important to be in the moment than capturing the moment.  You might just have a fantastic time!  At any rate, I promise you the world won’t end!

Stay tuned for part 3 in the series where we get into the nitty gritty – tips for taking your best shots in restaurants!

If you missed it, you can catch up with part 1: restaurant photography etiquette.

Time for a Friday tea and chocolate break!  This week we’re hanging out with some lovely chocolate from Coppeneur.  I spent a week in Calgary towards the end of April for work and after an early morning meeting my first day there, I found myself with a free afternoon.

When you visit a new city, it’s only polite to visit their chocolate shops.  Really.  I’m sure your mother taught you this.  Look it up in an etiquette book.

So in the interests of being polite, I felt I really had to visit the little chocolate shop up the block from my hotel and I took one of my teammates with me.  He took a ton of photos in the shop.  I just lusted after chocolate and tried to decide the best way to spend my $20 bill.

Coppeneur Calgary is a family run shop – they sell a lot of Coppeneur product from Germany as well as a selection of other international chocolate.  Their Canadian selection was lacking – just some Rogers & Soma chocolate.  When the girl behind the counter said there were only two producers of chocolate in Canada I wasn’t sure if I understood what she meant.  Off the top of my head I could think of Thomas Haas, Purdy’s, and so many artisanal makers like Cocoa Nymph.

Quite unintentionally, I realized after I got back to my hotel that everything I’d purchased was actually Coppeneur product.  I snacked on the mini Date and Nougat bar before dinner that night but everything else made it home safe and sound in my suitcase 5 days later (is that willpower or what??)

Coppeneur Cuvee Maracuja & Bourbon Vanille Bar

The first bar I opened and photographed was the Cuvee Maracuja & Bourbon Vanille bar.

This was a lovely surprise.  I’m not a huge fan of white chocolate – I find it too sweet as I get older.  But the bar itself was just so pretty I couldn’t resist buying it.  In fact, the whole Cuvee line is gorgeous and I’m glad I let the pretty factor win me over.  It has a very creamy texture and the dark chocolate (70%) swirled in adds a nice cocoa-y flavour to offset the sweetness of the white chocolate.  The dried passion fruit bits add a sweet but tart pop of flavour that gives the bar something special.  You have no worries about it being sickly sweet but you also don’t get that overpowering dark chocolate flavour.  I also thought I tasted a little bit of citrus and after checking the ingredients, I was right.  What I really didn’t notice was the bourbon flavour! But it is there as an added note.  This is quite the complex bar of chocolate.

You don’t see the imprinted side when you pick the bar up – the flat side with the passion fruit bits is what you see through the packaging so I was pleasantly surprised to see the molded side when I opened it up.  I was also very happy to find out that Coppeneur Calgary has an on-line shop so I can try some of the other bars in the Cuvee line (they ship to the US as well!)

You can see for yourself just how pretty the bars were – works of art in their own right.  I’m very much looking forward to trying my other Coppeneur bars now!

Photography Tips

A while back I posted about Soma Chocolate and how great it was photographing them in my hotel room with all the white light.  Calgary was equally great.  I’d originally planned to keep everything until I got home and then photograph it there but, I really wanted to try that Date & Nougat bar and while I pondered this, I realized “hey, I have white hotel room with a giant window”.  So I shot these all around 6pm in my hotel

Never underestimate your surroundings and when you find yourself with great light, find a way to use it.  Hotels often have privacy sheers which are, like, the world’s best diffusor e-VER! <–valley girl voice.   With so many hotels going the route of white duvets and pillows – which are terrible for people like me, who have a tendency to spill whatever they are eating or drinking, but wonderful for photography, make use of them if you can!  Here’s my makeshift studio, proving once again, it’s only what’s in the frame that matters.

Freak Lunchbox – Calgary

I also (again, in the interests of being polite in a strange city) had to visit a candy store – one of the fellas on my team had stocked up on his first afternoon in town and when I saw his haul, I insisted he take me there before we finished up.  Freak Lunchbox.  I wish I had pictures but the candy disappeared faster than you can chew a fuzzy peach.  DO NOT TAKE CANDY ON THE PLANE WITH YOU.  You won’t have any left when you reach your destination.

What an awesome place – every penny candy you ever had as a kid is on display in bulk bins and some you’ve never seen  Pick up a plastic bag and fill to your heart and childhood’s content. I even found sour cherries and orange Aeros.  And psychedelic butterflies.  The shop was covered in great original art (no photos allowed though). Freak Lunchbox… PLEASE come to Vancouver.

Be sure to stop by next week when I have part 2 for you in my restaurant food photography series!

Today is the start of a three part series on restaurant food photography.  I’ve been asked a few times to offer up some tips on how to take solid photos in restaurants where it feels like you have very little control over the surroundings, lights and food presentetion. It’s something I’ve wanted to write about for a while.

Lately, however, it seems there’s been a bit of a firestorm and a backlash over bloggers taking food photos in restaurants, with some restaurants going so far as to ban it.  So I thought it might be interesting to do a series on restaurant photography and look at three different key components:

1. etiquette
2. dining with friends and family
3. tips and tricks for making the most of your surroundings

Today in part 1, we’ll look at the stickiest piece of the puzzle – etiquette.

Etiquette is a touchy one and the one that seems to raise the most hackles but it’s really very simple – it comes down to one thing:

Respect

That’s right, have some respect.  Respect for the chef, for the restaurant itself, for your fellow diners, for your readers and for yourself.

Respect the Chef

Chefs are skilled professionals and artists.  They take a great deal of pride in their work and their creations.  You are a blogger.  Odds are good you take a great deal of pride in your blog and the efforts you put into crafting your words, images and overall site.  Are you seeing where I’m going with this?

Bloggers are the first to scream blue murder when somebody takes their words, their photos or their recipes and plagiarizes them or twists them into something they weren’t meant to be.  So have the same respect for the chef when you enter a restaurant with your camera that you expect readers to have for your work on your blog.  It’s your creation – a piece of you.  Just like a chef’s creations are to him or her.  Do your very best to show a true representation of the work they produce.  If it’s amazing, your photos should reflect that.  If it’s not, your photos should reflect that too.  But put forward your best camera work.

Respect the Restaurant

I hear two things over and over again by bloggers who get up in arms when they are challenged about their photography:

I have every right to take a photo in a restaurant if I want to, I don’t care what they say

or

they should be thankful for all the free publicity/marketing/etc. etc I am giving them

First of all, no you don’t have the right to take a photo in a restaurant.  I’m no legal expert but I well remember my days working retail where one of the first things new employees were taught in training was “this is private property – you have every right to ask somebody to leave who is behaving inappropriately”

Yup, that’s right.  You are a guest in a restaurant, albeit a paying one.  You can be asked to leave any time if you are disturbing other paying guests or staff (that’s right – everyone else there is paying for their food or just trying to do their job).  Don’t like it?  Well, you have every right to show your displeasure by not patronizing that establishment ever again.  That’s how it works.  But chances are if you’re behaving in a way that’s respectful of those around you, you’ll be left alone.

Second, yes, as a small business owner, free publicity or marketing can be a very good thing if… that’s right… IF… it shows my brand in a good light and it fits into the direction I want to send my business.

Let’s say somebody wrote a positive piece about my company and how they enjoyed working with me and they used my logo in the piece:

Melissa is great! woohoo!

Nice! Yay me and my company!

Now let’s say somebody else did the same thing… only this time they used a lousy replica of my logo that was blurry, orangey and blown out:

Melissa is great! uhhhh…

Uh… I’d be ticked.  Really ticked actually.  That is not a good representation of what I’m about (I hope!)

So ask yourself – are my photos top quality?  No?  Then don’t post them.  Are they ok?  Yes?  Think twice about posting them.  Are they a true representation of how amazing (or not) the food looked?  Yes?  Then post.

I, quite frankly, am not motivated to go to a restaurant where the only photos I’ve seen of the food are dark, grainy, orange, blurry or blown out.  It’s not appetizing.  If the conditions aren’t right for a photo, don’t take one.  If your smart phone isn’t up to the task of low lighting, don’t use it.

Respect Your Fellow Diners

Why is this so hard?  I just don’t understand.  Time and time again I’m out to eat and I see atrocious behaviour by food bloggers trying to get a photo in a restaurant.  And I’m a food photographer and a blogger – I have a pretty high tolerance.

I have seen bloggers elbow fellow diners in the back of the head while trying to get a photo.  I have seen bloggers move furniture around to get a shot.  I have seen them push people out of the way to get a picture.  I have heard of bloggers standing on chairs at their table to get an overhead shot.  I have seen flashes go off.  I have seen full on video rigs get setup.  I have sat in a restaurant where a group of bloggers were so disruptive that the entire restaurant stopped eating and was watching them.

Where did we get this sense of entitlement that this was ok?  It’s not!! It’s why restaurants are saying “no… you can’t eat here with your camera”.

Here are a few rules to follow:

1. Don’t stand on the furniture.  This is never ever acceptable behaviour in a restaurant.  You wouldn’t do it if your boss took you out for dinner.
2. Don’t move the furniture around.  This is not your house.
3. Be cognizant of the space around you and where your fellow diners are.  Hitting a person with your elbow or your gear is inconsiderate.  If space is that tight, put your camera away and sit down and eat your food.
4. Pushing is never ok.  Do like your mom taught you and use your words.  The ones like “please”, “thank you” and “excuse me”.
5. Keep the noise level down.  So you’re a blogger.  Big deal.  So am I.  The person at the table next to you might be a mechanic, a nurse, a teacher or your boss’s wife.  All of them are just as important as you are.  They don’t feel the need to broadcast to you that they saved somebody’s life today, or taught a child to multiply or fixed your car for a lot less than you had expected.
6. Turn off your flash.  It annoys people and it guarantees you will have a picture that is not good enough to go on your blog.
7. You don’t need to set up a tripod, pull out a reflector or use a lens the size of a small child.  If you want to do that, contact the restaurant after hours and make arrangements to shoot their food then.  You might be surprised by how receptive they are to that.
8. Don’t tweet inappropriate comments about other restaurant patrons.  Yes, I’ve seen bloggers do this – it’s not cool and it’s not difficult to attach the tweet to that guy who was taking photos and figure out who they were talking about
9. YOU DON’T KNOW WHO IS AT THE TABLE NEXT TO YOU.  Three times in the last three months I have found myself sitting next to tables of people with whom I discovered I had social or professional connections with just by hearing their conversations.  I witnessed poor social behaviour at two of them that have been filed away in my brain for future reference.  You never know who is sitting next to you so be conscious of the impression you are making on your fellow diners.

Respect Your Readers

Your readers don’t want to see lousy, blurry photos of unappetizing food.  Like many of you, I live in a city full of restaurant bloggers.  Most of those who do well have great images as well as balanced reviews.  And yes, there are secrets as to how they do this.  We’ll talk about that later in the tips and tricks post.  If you want your readers to come back over and over, write solid, thoughtful reviews and have strong images.

Respect Yourself

Be proud of the material you produce for your blog.  Yes, there’s a learning curve and taking great photos is not something we are born knowing how to do.  But make an effort and be courteous and considerate when you are taking photos.  You don’t need to take a photo of everything and if you don’t have the gear to take great photos in poor conditions, consider thinking outside the box (more on that coming in the tips and tricks!)

Perhaps another way to think about it is – how would you behave if you were having dinner with your grandparents?   It’s just a matter of being considerate of those making your food, those serving your food and those who are dining around or with you!

I’ll be back soon with part 2 – dining with friends or in groups.

All images for this post were taken at the Hyatt Regency Vancouver in their Mosaic Grille Restaurant.  The images were all shot on a Canon 5DMII with a 24-70 2.8L lens.  I didn’t stand up, I didn’t bump anyone in the head and I didn’t re-arrange the furniture (just the plates!).  We had a lunchtime reservation and asked for a table by a window.  Nobody was harmed or asked to leave – in fact, the chef came out to visit!

When you give birth to something you are passionate about, building, nurturing it, and shaping it to follow a vision is a labour of love.  Labour and love being the key words.

When you publicly attach your name to it and throw it out into the world and are a recovering perfectionist like I am, it’s downright terrifying.  When you are also a control freak like me and you join forces with two good friends in the process, it’s also fraught with potential minefields.

When we opened up Food Bloggers of Canada to the Canadian food blogging community in September of 2011, we had no idea what we were doing.  We thought we’d make this nice little space on the web where we could all hang out and maybe learn a thing or two.  Maybe… maybe if we were lucky, we would reach 500 members one day.  What a crazy day that would be.  Were there even 500 food bloggers IN Canada? (oh we learned how naive that was pretty fast!)

And then we hit member 100 almost the moment we were out of the gate.  I still remember it – it was my introduction to the lovely Stephanie Eddy of Clockwork Lemon – still one of my favourite blogs and one of our conference panelists.  And suddenly, we had sponsors wanting to work with us and we had to scramble around to figure out how to make that happen.  And then we had more members and had to find content.

Along the way we made mistakes… lots and lots of mistakes.  And we did a few things right.  And then a few more.  Followed by some more mistakes.  And then came the day where we had to become a business.  And then we had to incorporate and learn about very un-food like things like insurance and government forms.

And then… then we had to plan a conference.  We’d never planned a conference before.  Mardi & Ethan had been to lots of food ones.    I had been to lots of tech and design ones.  Ethan & I had some experience working on event planning teams in different but relatively small capacities.  But none of us had started from scratch.

We agonized over decisions: who to ask to speak, who to ask to sponsor, where to have it, how much to sell tickets for, would we have enough money to pay for it and most importantly… would anyone come??  There were a million smaller but equally important decisions to make as well… what to serve for dinner, how to get volunteers, who to do our AV, all the little details that make or break a conference.

We got crash courses in negotiating contracts, working with big brands, PR firms, agents, and people we looked up to immensely.

We fought.  Yes.  We did.  Believe it or not, Melissa, Ethan and Mardi are not all sweetness and light all the time.  Not even close despite what you might think from our social media accounts or our blogs or even meeting us.  We all have wicked tempers and sharp tongues.  We are three very different personalities but we are all equally passionate about FBC and with passion comes emotion.  It would scare me if we agreed all the time and probably mean we’re doing this wrong.

As we got closer to the date we had even shorter fuses and wandered around in a state of exhaustion and queasy stomachs.

And then it was the week of.  And things started falling apart.  Yes, you heard me right.  It felt like everything that could go wrong did.  Ethan called me two nights before our departure at 10pm to say he was completely and utterly defeated and was going to bed.  I knew exactly how he felt.

a pretty worn out Ethan

The next night we checked in on-line for our flight only to discover that the aisle and middle seat we had chosen together so we could work on the way to Toronto, were, in fact, two middle seats 6 rows apart.  I’m hugely claustrophobic on planes and the thought of being squashed between two people I don’t know literally sends me into a massive irrational waves of panic and anger.  I started to cry and couldn’t stop until I fell asleep. Everything was going wrong and I couldn’t even sit next to Ethan on the damn plane.  It was a small silly thing but it felt like the last straw.

That was, until I was driving to the airport at 5:15 the next morning only to see my phone lighting up with long distance numbers I didn’t know and twitter notifications.  Flights into Toronto were being cancelled and delayed all over the place because of an ice storm.  Half our volunteer team, most of whom we were going to pick up at the airport when we landed, was going to be late… Of equal concern was the fact that our flight was still on time!

On time it was and it wasn’t until we started our descent into Pearson airport that things got a bit dicey and we had an aborted landing in the midst of hail and ice we could actually hear hitting the plane and snow we could see.  I’ve never had an aborted landing before.  It’s pretty scary.  Your stomach does things it shouldn’t.

On the ground things got better.  Janice had manged to get on a different airline and made it in time to meet us.  Deb got herself to the airport from Markham.  Michelle was delayed in Edmonton until 1am that morning.  Kathy was finally en route from Halifax.  Kathryne was stuck somewhere in northern Manitoba trying to get home from another trip she had been on.  But, the roads were clear and there was no ice, snow or rain coming from the sky.

We made it to Hockley Valley, where we met the incredible team we had been working with for the last 12 months.  They are as much a part of making the conference a success as we were – they actually knew what they were doing and made sure we looked like we did too!

Our team continued to trickle in.  Aimee and Danny drove in from Montreal, Calantha had a white knuckle drive from Elora late that night.  We stuffed SWAG until 11 and then sent them all to bed while Ethan and I sorted out seating charts  till 1am.

The next morning we woke up to a fairyland of ice and snow with rain.  The roads were frightening and the rain froze as the day went on.  But Michelle had arrived and then Tiffany and finally Kathryne.  We stuffed SWAG and lanyards and prepped signage and centerpieces.

And then… then the power went out.  Not for 5 minutes.  For 3. 5 hours.  We had 120 guests arriving for a sponsor cocktail party, a sit down dinner, a keynote address and a movie night demoing KitchenAid blenders and making milkshakes.

It was one of those moments where Ethan and I told everyone it would be fine, no problem, it’s all under control. And then we yanked each other out into the hall and said to each other “what the hell are we going to do???”

But, you know what? It all worked out.  As things tend to do.  The Hockley staff were stars.  After speaking to them our fears dissipated and we were as calm as they were.  It wasn’t the end of the world.  People would understand.  We had options.

The power came back just in time for cocktails with our fabulous sponsors and Mardi made it in from Toronto after having to work all day.  The music turned on, people poured in and munched and sipped and started to laugh and have fun… the noise level rose and suddenly, I knew we could breathe.

The weekend is still a blur to me.  I can’t wait to see the recordings of the sessions when they arrive next week.  Maybe that will make it seem real because right now, it doesn’t.  I can’t believe we trended worldwide on twitter.  Not just in Canada, but worldwide.  Huh.  Weird, eh?

These are the only pictures I had the opportunity to take all weekend – behind the scenes on Friday!

So, in the spirit of a good post conference list… here’s my ten things that stood out:

1. The incredible staff who worked with us Hockley Valley Resort.  They couldn’t have made it easier.  Amanda was a rock star but I also know she will modestly say it was the entire team.  And it absolutely was.  But she was still a rock star.
2. The Hockley Valley Beds.  Trust me.  The current “business class” hotel I’m staying in as I write this doesn’t come close to comparing!  I wish I could’ve lounged in one all day!
3. The graciousness of all our speakers who agreed to not only speak, but to participate -  many for the entire weekend.  A treat for all of us to be sure.
4. The hard work of our team from CCR Solutions who gave us AV/Multi-Media/Tech/Camera support.  As one tech geek to another, I know how often the tech team gets overlooked at these events and how hard they work behind the scenes when everyone else is… ummm… eating! haha.  They only ever get noticed when something goes wrong.
5. My awesome presenting partner, Dave Zille.  Seriously.  Thanks dude.
6. Our volunteer team… ummm… YEAH!! What to say here… I don’t have words.  David Leite and Dianne Jacob will be shaking their heads.  What a privilege to finally meet you all in person and I admit to being a little bit awestruck by how smart, strong, independent and motivated you all are.  Being surrounded by people like you is what gets ME all pumped up and inspired.  Thank you for all your help, Michelle, Kathryne, Calantha, Deb, Tiffany, Janice, Aimee, Danny and Kathy during FBC2013 and throughout the  year.
7. Our sponsors who were so excited to be there and who contributed so much to the event.  Who says Canadian brands aren’t wanting to work with bloggers???  I think they proved that theory to be completely off track!
8. Meeting all of YOU! It was so exciting.  I’m only sorry I didn’t get to meet all of you, what with running around like a madwoman all weekend.  An event is only as good as it’s attendees.  What a fun bunch you all are!
9. The food.  Enough said.
10. Mardi and Ethan.  Again, I don’t have words – none that will come out without tears coming out too.  Oh dear… they already are.  I know it’s been rough at times but it has been so worth it.  You aren’t friends anymore – you’re family – with all the bad AND the good.  And there’s been lots and lots of good.  I love you both THISMUCH!!! xo

Will we do it again? Time will tell.   We have full-time jobs that need our attention and family and friends who have been badly neglected and need to have us back for a little while.  And we have other FBC things up our sleeves that we want to have happen first. We still have 860 members who DIDN’T come to the conference who need some attention.

But first and foremost?  The three of us would just like to sit down and have a beer together – we haven’t had a chance to do that yet.  And I think we earned it.

It’s been quiet around these parts lately, I know.   Even when I’ve posted it’s been sadly lacking in photography tips and tutorials and such.

But, there’s good reason behind it.

You see, we’re putting on a conference.  A food blogging conference.  Canada’s first national food blogging conference.  FBC2013 from Food Bloggers of Canada.

When I say we, I mean me and my two partners, Mardi and Ethan.

The thing of it is, when you decide to do something like this, you know it will be a lot of work.  But the other thing of it is, you really don’t have the faintest idea how MUCH work.

It sorta takes over your life.  And you forget about your camera and your kitchen and your blog and just focus on getting your day job done and give your nights and weekends over to planning an event you hope will bring together some awesome people who will have a great time, learn lots and go home thinking “that was great – lets do it again next year!”

So that’s what we’re doing.  And it’s a lot of hard work, but it’s also a lot of fun.  There’s moments when you stress each other out.  And then there’s moments when you buck each other up and keep each other going.

Ethan, Mardi and I are a single handedly keeping Canada’s telecomm companies up and running. The vast majority of our texts are not printable in polite company #piratemouths

We’re lucky – we’re working with the most awesome group of sponsors who are a big part of the reason why we’re able to make this happen in the first place.

We’re in the most amazing venue, Hockley Valley Resort in Ontario, where they value locally sourced, fresh food and even grow a lot of it on the premises.

And best of all… we’re totally sold out! And that makes all this crazy insane work worth it – knowing this was something this community wanted and we we’re able to give it to them and they signed up to come on down!  So now we’re doing everything we can to make sure they have the best damn weekend possible!

So now we’re on the mad rush with all the last minute details and finishing touches.

On a personal level, it’s been kinda cool getting to work on some design projects that are totally new to me.  I got to work with Blurb Books, one of our sponsors, to pull together the FBC2013 conference program.  It’s using Blurb’s new Magazine option.  Yeah… you can create your own magazine!  I don’t do a lot of print work and this meant I got to dive head first into Adobe InDesign and create… that’s right… my very first magazine! It was a bit of a learning curve for sure, getting my head wrapped around a new medium and new software in a very short period of time, but I had so much fun!  It’s got my brain whirring on some new ideas for sure.

So that’s where I’ve been, and where I will be for a few more weeks.   And I’m excited and nervous but that’s what all this business of trying out new stuff is all about, right?  As I tell E & M on a regular basis… get ‘er done!  Woot!

A few Saturdays ago, the power went out.  I had just made a big cup of very hot tea and had planned on sitting down to work for most of the day.

Our power rarely goes out and when it does, it’s usually for just a minute or two.  I cursed under my breath for having left unsaved Photoshop and Illustrator files on my computer and puttered about in my kitchen, cleaning the counters and putting dishes away.

Five minutes went by.  Still no power.  So then I started the mammoth task of matching up my tupperware containers with their lids.  I had a lot of orphans.  How does that even happen?

Anyway, tupperware cupboard sorted… and still no power.  My tea was at a drinkable temperature but with a laptop that has a wasted battery, an iPad sitting at 30% power, a Blackberry battery that has been beyond temperamental the last few weeks and an iMac I can’t use without power, it seemed like somebody was saying STOP.

And so I did.

I sat down with my cup of tea and the Saturday paper, which I subscribe to but never have time to read.  And suddenly, I became very aware of silence.

But not exactly silence.

The computer fans had stopped whirring, the heat was off, the fridge had stopped humming.  There was no music or tv playing in the background.  My load of laundry spinning in the washing machine had come to a halt.  All the sounds we don’t notice throughout the day were gone.

Suddenly, I was very aware of the ticking of the one manual clock in the house.  It was almost eerie how loud it was. But soon my ears picked up other sounds… slowly, one at a time.  Like I was being absorbed into an entirely new set of surroundings that I hadn’t seen before!  The dog gently breathing in his sleep at my feet was first.  And then a car slipped past on the main street a block over.   Next, the wind rushing through the trees (likely the cause of said power outage) and then jingling my wind chimes hanging from the kitchen patio.

I couldn’t remember the last time I was so aware of my surroundings.  It struck me so forcefully that I had to write it down – in a notebook.  With a pen.  And then the scratching of my pen on the paper added to the new sounds around me.

Sometimes, we need a power outage.  We need to be forced to sit and to become aware of all that happens underneath this cacophony of modern noise and distraction we’ve created for ourselves.  As Simon and Garfunkle said… the sounds of silence.

While it wasn’t silent it was peaceful and an odd calm descended on the whole house.  And just as quickly as the power left, it came back.  The fridge hummed, the furnace fan kicked in and the washing machine started spinning.  I picked up my cup of tea and went back to work…

My Morning Mate Tea by Teavan

The tea I had made that morning was My Morning Mate by Teavana – another selection from my tea Christmas present.  This is a delicious tea – a blend I’ve never tried before.  It’s a mixture of mix of maté, black tea and red rooibos – a great caffeine kick to start the day.  I wasn’t familiar with maté so I looked it up on Teavana’s site and it’s apparently a wild shrub from Argentina with a lot of flavour.

Teavana describes My Morning Mate as an

unbelievably rich and robust caffeine mix of mate, black tea and red rooibos. This morning blend is filled to the brim with sweet cocoa, chocolate and almond bits, pistachio nuts, macadamia nuts, and coriander rounded off with warm hazelnut and cinnamon.

It is just as described and I actually found it reminiscent of the fruit cakes my mom made for Christmas when we were kids.  It is a very flavourful tea and required a good five minutes to steep but you do wind up with a very rich cuppa which is lovely in the morning when you want something warm with a fuller body.  A nice accompaniment to designing websites or reading the Saturday paper!

The label warns that it includes nuts and dairy.  However, I’m lactose intolerant and didn’t have any issues with this tea at all – I’m guessing it’s the chocolate that contributes to the dairy warning.  I’m looking forward to trying some of their other “mate” teas - the yerba and samurai chai both sound interesting!

Disclosure notice: I was not compensated in any way for this post.  The tea was not purchase by me but was a Christmas gift.  All opinions are my own.

See larger image Teavana My Morning Mate Yerba Mate Tea, 4oz (Misc.) New From: $12.85 In Stock

When I was a kid and then a teenager, and then a university student, and then a homesick Canadian living in London and then a person who had a real job with actual lunch breaks, I read voraciously.  In my early years and my teens I would hole up in my bedroom, curled up on my side on the bed with the book resting at a 90 degree angle next to me, flipping and flopping it depending on which side of the page I was reading.

I was taught to read with Dr. Seuss – some of my earliest memories are of sitting on my dad’s knee, sounding out The Cat In the Hat and my very favourite line in all of literature “glop shlop with a cherry on top” (from Oh the Things You Can Think).  My first chapter book was the Wonderful Wizard of Oz.  It was a Christmas present when I was six along with two other “chapter books”.  I was entranced.  I read it over and over and over and over and OVER again.  One day my mum gently suggested I might like to try some of my other new chapter books but I thought this was quite ridiculous.  No book could ever be as good as the Wizard.  But eventually I was convinced to open the cover of a Bobbsey Twins book and I have pretty much been hooked on mystery novels ever since.

I made my way through them and the Enid Blyton Adventures and Famous Five series and then moved on to Nancy Drew, mixed it up with all the Anne of Green Gables books, Beverly Cleary, the Narnia series, Judy Blume and all the other usual suspects.

Eventually I exhausted the school library and the local library and moved on to my parents bookshelves and found Agatha Christie, Ivanhoe, Jane Austen, Barry Broadfoot and John Steinbeck.  I probably stumbled on (and devoured) East of Eden about 5 years before I should have – and consequently thought reading the Red Pony and the Pearl in jr high to be a colossal waste of time.  My dad bought me my copy of Catcher in the Rye when I was 11 and I still have it – its instantly recognizable burgundy cover with yellow text worn around the edges from being read almost as many times as the Wizard of Oz and Anne of Green Gables, marked up with notes from having to study it many years later in both senior high and university (x2!).  Like all teenagers, it spoke to my angst years where nobody understood me and I would burrow even further into my room but now accompanied by my walkman and it’s yellow headphones (as ubiquitous as the white apple ones today!) – endless Bryan Adams, Duran Duran, Pet Shop Boys, Depeche Mode, Glass Tiger, Platinum Blonde, New Order.  Totally dating myself here, right?

In University I would try to score a “comfy” bench… comfy being a relative term… in between classes in the SFU applied science building.  I was an arts student but the AQ was made up of cement benches.  The applied science building had cushioned ones.  Often my breaks would be 4 or 5 hours and if you know SFU, it’s on the top of a mountain.  Going up and down between classes took up too much time.  A cushioned bench was a luxury!  There I would pull myself through piles of history textbooks for my major as well as Thomas Hardy,  Joseph Conrad, Herman Melville and countless other dreary, dull classics for my lit classes for what I thought would be an English Lit Minor, but that somehow morphed into an archeaology minor.  The Margaret Laurence semester was a breath of fresh air!  Reading for pleasure went out the window and I forever blame uni for making me feel like reading fiction is the ultimate guilty pleasure when I could be reading something useful.

As a homesick Canadian living in London after university, I fell upon my Aunt’s books and she introduced me to Maeve Binchy and then I discovered Marion Keyes and fell into a steady diet of Irish literature that fascinated me with it warmth and humor and gentle way of exploring harsh topics.  I would while away the hours lying on the deck chairs in the sun in many London Parks (Stanley Park… take note: deck chairs.  For real) when I wasn’t working in Chelsea or window shopping on Regent Street or Kings Road.  Talk about a fish out of water. A poor starving shop girl working in the richest part of London!  My customers spent more on hairbrushes than I spent on groceries all week. Reading was free entertainment.

After returning to Canada I went through a phase of what one lit prof called “chip dip lit”: John Grisham, Michael Crichton, Ridley Pearson, Patricia Cornwell.  My brain was still too fried from university to want to read anything that required too much thought and I didn’t want to analyze another book for hidden meanings when really, sometimes the kitchen sink was just that.

But eventually I started to creep back out into a broader spectrum of reading material.  I would still curl up on my side in bed with the book propped up, but I spent more and more time in Starbucks on my lunch hours in an armchair, being the only 30 something in the place with their legs curled up underneath them or cross-legged with the book resting on their Chuck clad feet.

And now, my attention is so divided and so short.  For years I read one book at a time, savouring it, sometimes reading it all in one sitting, never starting another until I turned the final page in the current one.

Now I have 3 or 4 on the go in an eternal state of being half read.  I never seem to finish one – I just start another.  At Christmas I turned off all the machines for a few days and wallowed in a novel – one I read for pure pleasure.  Not a business book, not about photography, or design, or dogs or marketing or food.  It was wonderful.  I forgot the satisfying feeling of tiredness that sinks in after finishing a book because you’ve become so absorbed by the characters and their lives and emotions.

I tried e-books for the first time last year on my iPad.  It’s great for certain situations like commuting or traveling but I still can’t get cozy with one – just like I can’t get cozy with a hardcover book.  And that’s a key reading requirement for me.  So I still gravitate to soft covers.

Sometimes I fear the world of blogs, news snippets, soundbites and eye tiring screens has ruined our ability to concentrate on reading anything with any depth in it for more than a moment or two.  It makes me sad.  All those worlds we shut the door on.  I notice it in myself every day.  But that is a discussion for another time.

One thing that has always been a constant for me with books is food.  I can’t eat without reading and I can’t read without eating.  Be it books, magazines, newspaper or cereal boxes.  Snacking on apple slices, raisins, cookies, or as an occasional treat as a kid, smarties.  (I could make an entire box of smarties last through a full day of reading!).  It’s not a mindful way to eat but it’s something I’ve always done – nibbling away in teeny tiny bites to make whatever snack I had been given or had made last as long as possible.  The part in Little Women where Jo March talks about eating an entire plate of apples while reading in the attic completely makes sense to me!

But honestly, the best one is and always has been, a plate of cookies and a glass of milk  -  now tea.  And these chocolate chunk toffee cookies were put to that task. They were chewy on the inside, crispy on the outside, with the sweetness of white chocolate to balance dark cocao-y goodness.  The toffee was just a little je ne sais quoi.  Along with the fact that I had extra toffee chips to use up.

The book in the photograph is Pride and Predjudice – my well worn copy.  Elizabeth Bennett is my favourite literary heroine after Anne Shirley.  Kinsey Milhone comes third and Dorothy Gale is in fourth.  I’d love to say it’s what I was actually reading when I ate these cookies but it wasn’t.  These accompanied Arlene Dickinson’s Persuasion – she’s one of my favourite, most respected real-life business women and her books is an interesting look at using the softer, genuine approach to working with people.  I’ve learned a lot so far.

What about you?  What are you currently reading?  Do you have a “must have” reading snack?  Or a spot you love to curl up in?  Is it paper or e-book?

*** author’s note: I know my posts have been sorely lacking in photography tips and hints lately.  I promise they are coming back.  Life has been hectic with work and prep for FBC2013 which is fast approaching with just a month to go.