Sometimes, you have days where regular chocolate chip cookies are just not going to do the trick. Instead, you need double chocolate chip cookies.
When things get tough, you need to bring in the heavy artillery
Last week was pretty much a write off for me. My computer woes did not end with my last post. Two brand new hard drives later and several trips to the Richmond Apple Store lugging around that 27″ iMac, and a long call with the Apple Care people and… phew… finally. Good to go. While all of that was going on… a big yellow puppy, who shall remain nameless, decided to chew up the power cable for my iPad! We had words. Loud ones. And he spent some time in his kennel thinking about what he’d done. He got demoted from VP of Technology to working the phones doing technical support. If you called here and only heard heavy panting (or snoring) and the occasional “woof”, you were talking to Sam.
As frustrating as it all was, I know if the same thing had happened to my Dell, it would have been pure torture getting it sorted out, whereas Apple made it as painless as possible, given the circumstances.
The most painful part of the whole process was the multiple accidents on the highway every time I drove out to Richmond. I missed one genius appointment on one trip and on another, I barely made it in the store before they shut the doors for the night. A twenty minute trip turned into an hour both times.
a double dose of chocolate cures everything
On that particular night, I was driving into a gorgeous pink and orange sunset when we came to a crashing halt. I was at the end of my rope and just wanted to do a head bang into the steering wheel. Nothing was going right. Nothing. And then off in the distance I could see all the police and ambulance lights flashing and I realized ummmm… yeah… it could be worse.
So I decided there was really nothing I could do about my situation and that if I got to the Apple Store after they closed, my world would not end. And I sat on the East-West connector in stand still traffic, cranked the stereo while the sun set in all it’s pink glory in front of me, and watched the planes coming in to land at YVR and the farmers out in their cranberry fields harvesting to the last bits of daylight with the mountains in the background. And I figured I’m pretty luck to live here. Have you ever watched cranberries being harvested? It’s so beautiful… fields turned into giant seas of red.
Anyway, I’ve finally got all my software reinstalled, backups restored and I’m relatively caught up on client work. So I felt I could take some time to write a new post without feeling too guilty!
This is a recipe that I have had for years. I have no idea where it came from. It’s in a little notebook that I started to keep my grade 8 home ec class recipes in. I had legible printing back then, apparently! But oddly enough, I don’t remember making these in home ec.
- 1¼ cup butter
- 2 cups sugar (white or brown will work)
- 2 eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 2 cups flour
- ¾ cup cocoa
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 2 cups chocolate chips
- cream the butter and sugar together till fluffy
- add eggs and vanilla and mix well
- sift or whisk together flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt
- add chocolate chips and stir in gently
- drop onto a greased cookie sheet (or use a silpat or parchment paper) by the tablespoon
- bake at 350F for 15-20 minutes
Food Photography Tips
The images were a change of pace for me and all of these photos were taken almost three weeks ago. I find cookies one of the most difficult things to photograph from a creative perspective. It’s hard to do something interesting with them without a lot of planning and thought and plain old inspiration.
I’ve also had a bit of a split personality lately, vacillating between light and dark. I knew I wanted to do something with autumn leaves, but at the time I shot these, there were precious few fall colours around. Sam and I actually took a walk with the purpose of collecting leaves. And Christina from Teenie Cakes did me a lovely favour and it came with some raffia that I knew would be great for what I had in mind. I didn’t totally execute it the way I’d hoped, but I came close enough!
Image 1 f/8.0, 50mm, 1/40, ISO500, no exposure compensation
Shot from overhead with a higher f-stop to keep the whole image in focus. I had two reflectors (see photos below) and the window behind me for all the whiteground photos (white background). Post processing was contrast and clarity adjustments and sharpening
Image 2 f/14, 50mm, 1/40, ISO2000, no exposure compensation
Also shot with a high f-stop to keep the image in focus (and a high ISO used so I could try and get away with it hand held – I didn’t have the space or tripod height to manage it differently). Post was a small crop, a little burning to the butter and its wrapper to tone down some of the brightness, some contrast and clarity adjustments and sharpening
Image 3 f/4.5, 100mm, 1/125, ISO500, no exposure compensation
I shifted to my macro lens for this and this is still a heavily cropped photo (the uncropped version was nice too but I really wanted to focus on the cocoa smudges on the little silver bowl. The rest was a manual white balance adjustment, contrast and clarity adjustments and sharpening
Image 4 f/3.5, 100mm, 1/250, ISO500, no exposure compensation
Image 5 f/8.0, 100mm, 1/60, ISO1000, no exposure compensation
Both of the last two images were again, standard contrast, clarity and sharpening. I did a small white balance adjustment on 4 and a small exposure adjustment on 5.
Here’s a few images of the setup of the baked cookies along with all my props. Very glamourous as you can tell, but at the same time, a lot of work goes into it and it’s proof that you CAN do it in a small kitchen with less than the most professional gear.
Two pieces of white foam board and a reflector to get that hazy autumn bright light feel
This is how I hold my reflector up at the correct angle: a case of empty pop cans and a bowl of tomatoes from the garden. You won't find either at B&H or Henry's...
Everything I used for this shoot: foam board, reflectors, pop can cases, camera, lenses, leaves, mugs, scissors, scotch tape, parchment paper, scrapbook paper, raffia, mugs and teabags, coasters and cookies
Technical support, please! Oh, my. You are such a sport. I’ve had words with my two foot warmers here, too.
Thank you so much for the photography tips ;-). I should really start getting to know my camera before it grows feet and runs away.
Thx Annapet. He’s mischievous but it’s very rare he does anything that naughty! I don’t think he’ll do it again.
You know, I really do love you sometimes 🙂
I think these pictures are just stunning, and I wouldn’t mind a huge bite of those cookies (biscuits, biscuits) either. I love how you let us into your world, I cannot imagine anyone else doing the same. And you know the best bit about your pictures and tutorials? I don’t look at them and think, nope, I can’t do that, that’s too much trouble. Instead, I look and them and think, that’s not intimidating, and I can do that with a little bit of thought and patience and imagination.
I adore the colours of that first picture, particularly. I like brightly coloured happy pictures, if you’ve already not noticed. But the second and third one, with the dark cocoa are pretty darn beautiful as well. Moody, but with a hint of decadence… like a French princess!
You’re so generous with your time and patience and tips and I just want to say thank you 🙂
awwww.. thank you Michelle. That just made my day! Really. I really do believe that photography shouldn’t be this big mystery only for people who spend gobs of money. Lord knows I still feel like it is some days! So if I can make it a bit easier for others to figure out then I’m happy to do so!
I like the bright cheery ones best most of the time too but sometimes dark and moody just speaks to me!
LOVE this post! I love Autumn, and these colours are the epitomy (sp?) of it! Will try the cookies too, but still trying to unpack the new house and get organized. Thanks again for such beautiful work!
thx Jodi! Hope the move went well and you’re almost all settled in!
And that is what I hate about technology, when it fails it fails in a major way. It’s crazy how when one thing goes wrong it seems to attract a whole slew of other things with it.
I think the machines all plot after we go to bed…
I love what you did with the cookies in the photos! They look great! I also love your photography tips at the end of the post.
I am an expert at patiently sitting in traffic jams and zoning out. They used to drive me insane but since I cannot avoid one during my commute I now just listen to music or books on tape and pretend that I’m just in a really comfortable chair that isn’t supposed to be moving around anyways. I hope the next week is a much better one for you!!
i work from home now and left commuting behind almost 2 years ago. I do not miss it. At all. But sometimes you have to accept what you can’t control and realize that the world will not come to a crashing halt if you are inconvenienced a little bit. It’s terrible for my ego though 😉
I absolutely absorb everything you post. Your tips are soooo helpful! I love seeing how you did your set up. Keeps it real, I’m still working the reflective thing and controlling lighting. Right now I’m using a poster board and a piece of cardboard wrapped in aluminum foil and struggle, struggle!
I’m glad that your computer woes are contained (for now) and that you were able to keep perspective during your commute.
i struggle with lighting every day. I find it’s a great big puzzle and you have to move all of the pieces around until they fit right. Sometimes they don’t seem to.
I’m so glad you find it helpful though!
Melissa, We ALL love you for showing us that you don’t’ need fancy equipment to take brilliant pictures. Please send one dozen cookies to your FBC partners asap.
I don’t know if I have the strength to get these packaged and to the post office… maybe if I had some macarons I could manage it… *rolling eyes innocently*. Actually, I just found a place in Vancouver that has them. I’m going to try them out and let you know what I think about all this macaron hub bub.
Those dbl choco cookies look deliciously decadent!
I love how you share your settings…your images are absolutely stunning. The colors are so vibrant and I luv how you don’t get stuck around the same f-stop. Your images look perfectly sharp…adore your camera’s handling of a high ISO without the hint of any noise.
LOL! My eyes about popped outta my head when I saw the mention of the raffia…thank you for the kind shout-out! Only a creative person could appreciate that raffia. 🙂
Have a fantastic weekend, Melissa!
ooooo yeah… would not recommend an ISO2000 on most cameras! I’m very lucky to be able to own a camera that can handle it. And not getting stuck on an f-stop is a conscious thing I’m working on cuz it’s so easy to get stuck there.
And the raffia… it’s like gold to me! I was so excited when I saw it on the box – you can bet I’m keeping that! thanks again for all of that. You are a star!
Oh i so agree with you. cookies are really difficult to capture!
thank you so much for sharing your tips the cookies look absolutely scrumptious!
you’re welcome! and thanks 🙂
Happy Friday Melissa from another Virginian.
I’m so happy to stumbling upon your amazing blog. I love the way you described the photos showing there’s no need for fancy and expensive equipment to get wonderful photos.
Thank you also for the Lightroom tutorial. can’t wait to experiment now after reading your tips.
Welcome! And I’m glad you found it all helpful 🙂 It’s always nice to hear that – makes me want to keep on putting up tutorials.