Near miss with Easter Dinner-The magazine made me do it!!!

I'm blaming it all on Style at Home Magazine. Okay, maybe it's not fair to lay ALL the blame at it's front door. In hindsight, I believe it was a combination of a number of elements that led to the near disaster of Easter Dinner being super late. All right- my "photoholic" tendencies took over at some point that afternoon in combination with my propensity to wander from one action to the next. My creative juices had been stirred by the magazine cover-plain and simple- it was a cosmic chain of events leading to the near disaster.

I guess I should begin at the beginning...(always a great place to start!) It was this past Thursday, a busy day in the grocery stores, everyone buying "stock piles" of food before their holiday weekend feasts. Therein lay the first "catalyst". Me in a grocery checkout line is never a good thing. My eyes wandered from heaping cart to heaping cart and then rested on the cover of Style at Home. The beautiful soft hues of blue, pinks and creams seemed to call to me.."Pick me up! Pick me up!" (Enough with the theatrics. ) Like every second person in line, waiting for their turn at the cash resister hoping for some sort of reprieve from the noisy chaos, I leaned over to the magazine rack, grabbed the magazine that promised me some sort of feeling of "calmness, relaxation with a breath of Spring" and began to flip through the pages. I then found myself placing it beside my pile of groceries, chalking the purchase up as some imaginary "health and well-being" expense.

The magazine spent the night resting comfortably on my kitchen counter. Every now and then I'd glance at the cover and sigh. Why was I sighing??? I thought about it quite often the next day as I prepared to have my extended family of 10 over for dinner that evening. As I wrapped the potatoes and made the salad I began to think about what to do as a table setting. That's when it happened-I'm sure of the moment now- Dinner had just taken a bit of a detour!

The cover of the magazine seemed to inspire me-Hummmm- pink, blue, and creams..... I don't have a lot of the "fancy" items showcased in a lot of the magazines, but I did have a few nicknacks that could pass. I took out my cream linen tablecloth, and a faded plaid blue and green relic of a tablecloth from a few years back. I had been given a beautiful bouquet of bright pink colored Gerbra's just a few days before and I had a collection of "flea market" inexpensive milk glass vases hiding in a pantry. They would do just nicely for what I had in mind. As I arranged the table and stood back to observe the room I was instantly "struck" by how beautiful the side light from the patio doors were illuminating the milk glass and the flowers. That's when the "photoholic" tendencies kicked in!

Yes, sad to say, that's dinner on the counter, (Above), sitting ontop of the stove, sadly forgotten over the next couple of hours that afternoon.

The next couple of hours were not only an experimentation with lenses, light, angle, and still photography but a self-realization that as much as I love this type of photography -it's excruciatingly painstakingly, detailed and difficult to do. Since January, I've been on my own as a photographer and not in the constant shadow of a mentor to whom I can constantly barge with photography related questions and glean valuable "how to" information from tagging along with on shoots. I've had to search out other avenues of learning. The best I've found - Just try it and learn.

The following day as I edited through the images I learned a lot. I was a little disappointed with the results. I learned I need to look for details as I photograph. I got sloppy- focusing on light, not the details filling my camera's frame. Details like, ripples in the tablecloth, crooked lines on mirrors and picture frames, etc. all went unnoticed till I edited. Ultimately the goal is to give the client the perfect Full Frame resolution file.

Most important of all, I realized what the "sigh" was all about. I remembered that not two years ago in a photography class -when I was asked what my dream photography job would be- I said I'd like to work for Style at Home/House and Home and do that type of photography. LOL. I have a lot of practicing to do till I get it right!

Don't worry- Most stories end well-and I'm happy to say I came to my senses and did remember at the very last second to get the potatoes into the oven, off of the stove. Supper was a bit delayed - I didn't say why. No one knew or would have guessed. Well, alright- maybe those who love and know me the best would have clued into the "tell tale" tripod sitting in the corner of the room. If they did, they didn't say.

Thank you to "Style at Home" for putting together a beautiful publication that can inspire individuals both personally and professionally! Special "Hats off" to the photographers that do commercial work for magazines such as this! Oh, by the way, I did look into one photographer's work, Virginia MacDonald (she was mentioned in the magazine.) I enjoy her work-click on her name and check it out!