Here are some of my favorite “just for fun” shots from the third installment of the Muddy’s Menu Photos sessions. It was “vegan day” at the photo shoot, so the first four photos are a selection of Muddy’s vegan items. You KNOW I loved that, vegan baking enthusiast that I am!

If you are looking for me the next few days, I’ll be barricaded in the house, editing away at more and more photos of baked goods! And then baking cakes to feed a couple hundred folks at a banquet next week. YIIIEEEE!!

Waiting room chairs outside my dad’s doctor’s office in Coldwater, MS. One of those oddities I run across and have no choice but to pull out a camera and document it. File this under “what is THIS all about??”

www.swp-blog.co

I love and never plan on changing  the web address shootwithpersonality.com. However, “http://www.shootwithpersonality.com” is a mouthful! Or, a lot to type.  Now, when you enter http://swp-blog.co, you’re taken to a welcome page where you can choose to click on through to the blog or go straight to the photo galleries. Pretty sweet, huh? Anyone can still access this blog by going to shootwithpersonality.com. That hasn’t changed. But now you don’t HAVE to type all that to get here.

AND, I have a couple of other little updates to SWP!

1. I updated the “About Shoot With Personality” section just slightly.
2. I added a new page called “About the SWP blog” – just to let folks know about the content of the blog.
3. My Contact Page now includes a contact form, so you don’t have to leave SWP to send me an email. So exciting!

I think that’s enough change for now. I now return you to your regularly scheduled Shoot With Personality broadcast (er, blog…)

You know me and my documentarian nature. While I’ve been working with the owner of Muddy’s Bake Shop, Kat, in her home to do their menu photos, I’ve been snapping photos of the “process.” I’ve also been taking photos around Kat’s home, because it inspired me both photographically and personally!

If you’ve ever been to Muddy’s, you may know that Kat considers the bake shop to be an extension of her home.  As such, I would describe her home as being “like Muddy’s, on steroids.” If steroids made decor extra cute, whimsical, and with an extra pinch of cheekiness, that is. I announced to Kat, “I’m pretending I’m doing a magazine photo shoot of your home because I love it so much.” Which I promise is far less weird than it sounds when I put it that way. But Kat’s probably pretty used to my being forward with my photography by now (“Hold on while I get my camera so I can take a picture of you in your wig!”)

Before I began my tenure at Muddy’s in 2009, I had people telling me “You have to go to Muddy’s! It’s what your bakery would look like if you had one!” It was totally true. By the same token, Kat’s home decor is in the same vein that I’d want my home to be furnished one of these days. I hope she won’t mind too terribly much that I’m sharing these with you all, as my way of paying homage to her impeccable style.

All photos taken with the lovely Yashica GT on Kodak BW400CN film. One of my favourite camera and film combinations of all time. That camera is going to get a much-deserved blog posting dedicated to it soon.

Olympus XA • Expired Fuji Super HQ 200 film • Muddy’s Menu Photo Shoot

An artist who works in buttercream and sprinkles.

(that last one an explosion of creativity from Kat and Kip. Gordon Super Powers, Activate!)

Another day filled with nearly a dozen cakes and a dozen cupcake varieties, not to mention pies, cookies and bars – and we’re not done yet, folks! So I’ll be posting more sneaky peeks from the photo shoots, PLUS I’ll have behind the scenes photos taken on film which might make a guest appearance on the blog.  In other words: more to come!

Hello there!  Today, I present you with (what I call) “the hipster cam” -  also better known as the Holga 135. If you like it when I you overly verbose stories about cameras and photos, then this is the blog posting for YOU!

A Holga is a cheap, plastic camera from China that originally came only in models that took medium format film (Holga 120.) I’ve been using medium format Holga cameras since 2000. More recently, however, 35mm Holga models have been on the market. I never really wanted one of the 35mm Holgas, for they are distributed by the Lomography people. I have long had a hate/fascination for the things they do. Over-priced, trendy, cleverly marketed products. Bleck! Even worse, you could buy a Holga 135 in the Lomography section of Urban Outfitters. Double bleck! A section of that retail outlet devoted to “analog photography” to make hipsters feel like they’re thumbing their nose at the digital photography establishment (I assume??) Fifty dollars for a plastic camera that looks like you spray-painted it in your garage?! I think not!!

All of those feelings about Holga 135 cameras were true until I went into Urban Outfitters with a friend last summer. When I saw a purple Holga 135 on clearance for $20, I couldn’t get it out of my head (this happens when I see most any camera for $20 or under.) I mulled it over for a few days and ultimately went against my nature buying a Lomography camera at Urban Outfitters. Yes, Hades had frozen over.

Riddled with guilt that I may have turned into a hipster at this point, I decided the only way to make up for this lapse in my usually unfailing devotion to anti-hipsterdom was to do a photo series with the hipster cam. A series of things hipsters like, more specifically. There are soooo many things which fall into this category, so I have only begun to scratch the surface. But here are a few of the shots from two rolls I put through the Hipster Cam mostly last summer:

Things Hipsters Like , Part One

Banjos

Old typewriters

Pho Hoa Bihn

Waffle House

Farmers Markets*

Sriracha*

Gibson’s Donuts

So, a couple of things:

1. I LOOOOOVE using the Holga 120 cameras I’ve owned. Having owned the 135 since late June, I have only shot two rolls of film with it. That should tell you something. That something being that I’m not in love with it yet.
2. After those two rolls of film, the rewind knob’s crank lever fell off. Or broke off. Can’t remember which.  Either way, I finally remembered to ask Lomography about a replacement part and was told I could exchange the camera. I sent it back last week. I didn’t like the purple one, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it will return to me as a mint green or blush colored Hipster Cam.
3. Turns out, I like a lot of the same things I would make fun of hipsters for enjoying. See, we’re not so different after all.

*The accuracy of the viewfinder on this thing. Not so much. I did not actually compose those shots that way.

Fake fire burning in the fireplace.  Mantel full of cake.  Welcome to a look behind the scenes of a food photography shoot.

Yesterday, I began [what will be] an on-going project to help Muddy’s Bake Shop  get their menu photos up to date. I’ll leak a few shots and behind the scene images here and there as we go along. Muddy’s Menu Photos: Session Numero Uno proved to be one big collaboration fest between me, Muddy’s owner Kat, and VP of operations/manager of awesome, Kip. So fun! If you thought working around these treats every day was my dream job? Take that dream, amend it to include photographing them, and you’ll find me. You know, living the dream.

Even if your one shining moment is during half-time of the older kids’ basketball game in the church gym. Grab a ball and step onto the court. Sinking shots like one of the big boys. Pure determination on your face. You can fly.