Spring has Sprung!

New promo going out. Last week my neighbor popped over with some fresh eggs from his chickens. He was apologetic for all the noise they have been making. I was thrilled at the beautiful eggs he cradled in his hands, he had no idea what a gift he had brought over. I told him that I love the chicken noises, the crabby clucking of "chicken finger" protesting that his caretakers have stopped giving him people food. Lola my impetuous Pug, squawks back, as if they are having an argument. These lovely eggs aren't the neighbor eggs, but they remind me of my noisy feathered neighbors.

Eggs signify rebirth, thus used as symbols for Easter. Spring is my favorite time of year, the light, the freshness, the new life. Here is to Spring!

Communication Arts and American Photography Award Recognition for Still Life Food Images

It hasn't always been easy to get award recognition for still life work, and food work is even more of a niche category. Personally I think that still life imagery can speak to any subject, represent pretty much anything through symbolism or literally. It is why I think it is a great "language" to use when trying to convey a message or feeling and it is why I have focused my work in this field. It is always nice to get some recognition for the hard work we do. This month, my work was recognized by both American Photography Awards and also Communication Arts Photo Award Annual.

New Motion Work: Celebrating the Time Honored Tea Tradition of Chai

As drink that is not just enjoyed but also is an ancient tradition for the people of India, Chai has now captured attention in the US and around the world. It whispers of secret tales, riches and remedies. It's taste, smell and even how it is made has layers of mystique and intrigue. Dusty, rich, aromatic. Hints of cinnamon and citrus? The healing powers add more to the intrigue. Something so good offers up the healing antioxidant powers of the spices that are toasted and then brewed into the caramel colored beverage. Gosh, I am finding myself wanting one just thinking about it.

My team and I were inspired by this assignment, excited to take the visual voyage in capturing a bit of the essence of this culinary tradition. We wanted to focus on the elements closely, the movement and at the same time the stillness and meditative quality, the seductiveness of the process and the appetite appeal.

Feeling Optimistic with a Fresh New Website

Nothing makes you feel more excited than to share new work. As a photographer, sharing my work is both exciting and challenging. I strive to bring a fresh perspective of beauty to a world flooded with imagery.

It is for that reason am incredibly excited to share with you my new website. Every element is carefully considered as part of translating photos into powerful statements.

The way this website functions allows me to show, interactively, what my work is all about. Not just the different subject matter that I can shoot or the lighting. It shares a mindful approach to what I care about. Explaining what drives me and what my passion is. This website features foods and moods from sweets to drinks to what is on the table. There are also collections of fine art work, motion, and some of my favorite moments behind the scenes.

Through this new website, I get to share my commercial work, my tear sheets, my studio, my social media and also my personal work, a series of abstract landscapes.


My hope is that it becomes clear that the way I approach my work is through intuition. Passion for food, wellness, art and social causes fuels what I do. Imagery is powerful, it can change the way that you view the world around you. Through exploring this website I hope it leaves you feeling as encouraged and optimisitc as I do.

Foods and Moods, Foraged Aromatics for Holiday Infused Cocktails that Heal the Body and Soul

The San Francisco Bay area was home to the Miwok Indians. These people lived off the land, foraging for ingredients that grew wild to both nourish and heal them. Come fall time, the prevalent ingredients were mostly berry like, dark in color, inky and red. Also prevalent were healing and scented leaves and things like rose hips, the remnants of beautiful wild roses. Dan, our food stylist,  spends a lot of time hiking around the Bay Area and is familiar with these local "crops". He has been an admirer of the abundance out there and embraced the challenge to create cocktails that used these ancient ingredients that the ancestors of the region used to nourish and heal.

 

Breakfast Fun - Cereal!

Do you ever just want to do what Jerry Seinfeld did- eat cereal all day long? I do, and as the "cook" in the family, the simplicity of pouring two things in to a bowl and eating a nutritious meal sounds very appealing most days. These days there are so many fun things you can do with cereal too- bowls, bars, even toppings! Big thanks to Pinterest for all the fun ideas!

Wine Country Ingredients "Foods and Moods"

A focus on just a few of the incredible ingredients that have the power to heal us and nourish us- all which are grown locally here in our Northern California Wine regions - both Sonoma and Napa! A visual treat for me to shoot! I think that just looking at these beauties heals the soul.

Foods and Moods- Pineapple!

This year I wanted to start a project that reflects a challenge to myself to explore new ways to use my photography + passion for food to help deepen peoples connections to the foods that not only nourish and nurture, but also heal us. Growing up with my mother fighting breast cancer for over 30 years meant being exposed to alot of talk of healing foods and nutrition. It is probably why she lived so long with cancer, due to her proactive attitude and diligence to nutrition. So you can see that healing foods is something very special to me. I also seem to have spent my career shooting for magazines and brands that revolve around healthy food and lifestyle. Each project has exposed me to how powerful ingredients are in helping our bodies heal and be healthy.

For my first study on “Foods and Moods”, I partnered with twin sisters and talented chefs Mary Barber and Sara Whiteford, aka Mary and Sara  (www.maryandsara.com). Besides our mutual love of making a storied image, they also have learned along the way to make and eat foods that help the body heal. And we love Turmeric.  And pineapple — not only for its taste, texture and flavor but because it is also a serotonin-rich food that helps promote optimism. For this project we wanted to focus on foods that promoted good mood and optimism in conjunction with my friend Riley John Donnell’s movement UMEWE ( you me we) and “Into Yellow” which is a platform and specific tone of yellow he has created in conjunction with Pantone to promote optimism as well.  http://www.intoyellow.com.  

Collaborating with Fellow Photographer David Martinez to Create Stills and Video for Beer Campaign

A recent project came my way that required stills and video. The project was with an Art Director who I had worked with in the past, who knew my style and thought that I would be a good fit for the project. When a client shows me that kind of support for my work, I will pretty much give up my first born for them. The project grew to require video as well as still work done. While I have shot video before, I felt that I wanted my main focus to be on shooting the stills for the campaign, so I looked for a videographer to partner with. My rep, Heather Elder suggested another one of her photographers as someone to collaborate with on the video portion. I have known David since we both shot for Health Magazine (he shot the yoga shots, I shot the food,) so felt that we would work well together. I like the idea of photographers working together. Here is a few snapshots of the shoot (which was so much fun! Hard work, but so much fun!) I can't share the photo we took just yet!

Writer Anne Telford Gives a Spin on My Work on The Essence of Wine

By Anne Telford

No less a consumer of alcohol than Ernest Hemingway said of wine:

“Wine is one of the most civilized things in the world and one of the most natural things of the world that has been brought to the greatest perfection, and it offers a greater range for enjoyment and appreciation than, possibly, any other purely sensory thing.”
― Ernest Hemingway

Photographer Leigh Beisch’s collaboration with wine and restaurant blogger Alder Yarrow came through a cookbook referral from noted San Francisco chef and consultant to the restaurant and food industries, Joyce Goldstein. “He wanted someone to partner with for the blog. He’s very articulate and elegant. The way he spoke about my work made me feel like I’d be partnering with someone who understood my work,” Beisch explains.

Yarrow’s highly regarded blog, Vinography® details his opinions and insights on “Wine and food adventures in San Francisco and around the world”. Vinography.com has been published daily since 2004, and he was nominated for a James Beard Award in 2013.

Together Yarrow and Beisch collaborated on a wine book that is startlingly unique. To round out the project, Sara Slavin, who frequently collaborates with photographers, designers and publishers on editorial projects, and has co-authored numerous books.  Sara was brought in as an art director/stylist. “We have similar feelings about work. We view our jobs as not just jobs but work we are passionate about,” Leigh says. “Sara put in a lot of leg work, we tried to create photography that went beyond the expected shot of these flavor essences of wine. We tried to capture that taste, that aroma.”

Winner of the 2015 Chairman’s Prize at the Louis Roederer International Wine Writers Awards, The Essence of Wine Celebrating the Delights of the Palate is both a comprehensive wine guide, coffee table opus, and an art book so beautifully photographed and styled that one can almost smell the delicious aromas arising from its pages. In fact, the book contains an aroma card that tells the story of wine’s flavors. The Essence of Wine is divided into four groups of the “sensory panoply” wine offers: harvest, garden, terrain, and kitchen, providing inspiration and guidance for Beisch’s approach.

“I wanted it to be a fusion, something that is personal as well as a product for clients. It pushed the boundaries, but was a commercial project in some sense,” she says of the long-term project.  “Wine is an artistic form in and of itself. Alder brings all the passion that goes into wine,” she adds, and she brought the passion of a fine artist to the project. Trained as a painter, Beisch’s work is sensuous and rich, often appearing more like a painting than a photograph, and always impeccably styled with a light, but sure touch.

“Due to my thesis work at RISD [Rhode Island School of Design], I have been trained to think about how and why I do things,” she explains. “A lot of it stems from being a female artist as well. I allow my emotional response to what I’m photographing play into how I’m photographing it. Food is an emotional experience. Rather than viewing it as subject/object, it’s really an experience.

“For this project the subjective point of view was more important. That experience you get with wine tasting. I certainly appreciate wines; I am interested in any kind of art form. I talked to vintners about how they made their wines. They are like paintings, these wines.”

Food and drink are two of life’s great pleasures and experiences. The sensual textures, aromas, flavors, and colors of wine enhance its gustatory pleasure. Most oenophiles, or wine lovers, can describe flavors they enjoy; some might be fans of red wine, others favor whites with their lighter, crisper taste. The strict traditions of consumption, and appreciation, of wine may escape the average consumer, and are often seen as arcane and pretentious by the uninformed. This tome offers a chance to acquaint oneself with the components that make up this time-honored beverage and to be drawn into a deeper understanding of wine.

Using props, textures, and light, and never over styling, allows those natural elements, changes and differences to come into her work. “They are important. They are the subjective part that as an artist you want to bring in. As a human, as a woman— and as a huge consumer —I feel like I reflect a very appropriate point of view that works with the consumer market,” Beisch details.

“When I first started in commercial photography, as a fine artist I tried to challenge things. Why do all the labels have to be in focus? Why does the wine have to have no studio lighting reflections? Why can’t it be dappled, or highlighted? It seems more energetic and exciting, questioning those things,” she says.

When one discovers Beisch’s background, it’s no surprise that she challenges and examines conventional wisdom. Born in New York to a poet mother and creative director father who worked with photographic luminaries like Diane Arbus, Irving Penn, and Richard Avedon, she was encouraged to pursue photography. Her father’s work brought his family to London, and eventually back to the States. “He got a gig heading up an agency in the Boston area. My mom started going back to school at a Harvard extension,” Leigh says. Concord is where she grew up with stories and ideologies of nature and art.

“My mother was writing poetry on her IBM Selectric in the dining room,” she remembers. “Hearing her always reading poetry aloud, brought us up in this world of seeing things in different ways—looking and savoring each thing around you, turning words into images and vice versa. “

David Williams, in his review of the book for The World of Fine Wine, lavished praise on Beisch’s photography: “The essays alone conjure a vivid sense of each flavor or scent. Combined with Beisch’s photos, the experience is gorgeously sensuous. A series of still lifes, they could so easily have become repetitive or have lapsed into the clichés of stock photography or an upper-end food-store catalog. But Beisch, while stamping the book with a recognizable signature, invests each image with its own personality, texture, and feel. Like the prose, they stand on their own. Together, they make for a highly original and pleasurable experience.”

The Essence of Wine isn’t a book you would take to the store to help you select wines for an important dinner party. It is a book you can cradle in your hands and peruse the way you would walk through a museum gallery, stopping to admire and study certain compelling paintings. Beisch’s preference for natural light shows to great advantage when focused on sensual still lifes of elements that fuse together to create wine, that elixir that has been celebrated in art, song, and poetry for millennia.

(The book is available from Blurb (www.blurb.com) for $75.)

www.vinography.com

Just in Time for Thanksgiving-A Turkey Company Website andSocial Media Update

    "If it doesn't challenge you, it won't change you." 

In my work these past few years there has been greater emphasis placed on assignments crafted specifically for social media needs. Before this, assignments would be primarily focused on Ad work, with social media as a secondary need. Things have changed, and now I seem to be shooting specifically for social media, websites that will attract pins from Pinterest. From that work the agencies will cull which images will work for Ads. Change can be good, and in this case it is. I like this direction as the social media assignments are usually broader in range- meaning larger scale - like a cookbook- so we can approach these shots in an editorial way. We can develop an overall look and feel for the body of work and we can be looser in the styling and compositions since we don't have type overlay to consider.

An example of this is a project that I recently shot for Cargill Turkey. Here is the newly updated website with the recipe photographs I shot, as well as the recent national Ad that is running in magazines like Martha Stewart Living, Eating Well, Cooking Light and Real Simple amoung others.

http://www.honeysucklewhite.com

Art on the Go

Not many things in life prove more fulfilling than discovering your own art out in the world, being put to use. Except maybe for a giant Egg McMuffin. I’m thankful to have been apart of the McDonald’s ‘On the Go” campaign. For those on the road, keep your eyes peeled for the moving McCafe!