taste unique

although i have been shooting the food scene in this town for 6 years, i am always amazed at how much i miss that goes on here. i was recently hired by Sunset Magazine to shoot a little italian place on division called Taste Unique. mostly a high end take out spot, once a month the chefs indulge their creative side and offer an "all you can eat plus one glass of wine" antipasto spread for $20. its AMAZING and although its been going on for years, is surprisingly still under the radar. the next one is April 6th. check it out!

here are a few dishes you might see:

taste bud bagels

i was doing some shooting at the Woodsman Market recently. the folks there really have their design aesthetic down pat. best bagel presentation ever...

Urban Gleaners etc...

recently i got to go up to the gorgeous house of Tracy Oserman, founder of portland's Urban Gleaners. its an amazing organization (check it out by clicking the link.) we shot a dish for an upcoming portland monthly, which i can't show quite yet, but here are a few outtakes, including her great dogs, Harry and Truman.

thrift store project pt. 15

found this dude at goodwill last week. he had a cool painted face, but the details on his shell were the best part. the style is very similar to a figure i shot as one of the very first images in this series. thinking maybe this is a south or central american style....? any ideas?

catching the ox catches a buzz..

so this time around for catching the ox, galvin collins and i decided to shoot whiskey. if you are following along at home, galvin came out to Joseph with us as my assistant on the 'Pure Beef' cookbook shoot. he's a real good dude and one hell of an assistant.

check out both of the photos HERE.

how to make a great negroni

how to make a great pretzel

who doesn't love a good pretzel

i got together with author and pretzel guru Andrea Slonecker and food stylist extraordinaire Caroline Ford to shoot some pretzels in the studio. it was a really fun day and we made some beautiful images of Andrea's pretzels. here's a sampling.

now go out and buy some pretzels. you know yer thinking it...

the mighty Morgenthaler

if you enjoy a good cocktail... and who doesn't enjoy a good cocktail, then you've probably crossed paths with this fine fellow. a gentleman and a scholar, and always pretty fun to shoot.

Danielle for Fine Cooking

of all the times i have shot at clyde common, i had never met or shot their wonderful pastry chef Danielle.

Fine Cooking Magazine is doing a story on her soon, so she needed some new portraits. when i got there, she was in full production mode, and we decided it would be fun to do a portrait before she got cleaned up. I'm pretty stoked on this one.

real men don't shoot quiche...

Not too long ago i cooked up this bacon, swiss, kale quiche to shoot and eat. just more play time in the studio. here's what i can up with. i realized lately that i need to work on my vertical food images. i'm just a bigger fan of horizontals, i admit it. but you don't get full page spreads in print with horizontals. So this was conscious practice, not to mention the light was pretty great in the studio that day. (Ready when you are, Bon Appetit!)

playing with blue cheese

recently i borrowed a large chunk of Blue from cheese guru and all around swell guy Steve Jones. I wanted to do a whole cheese project, but then i got busy.... oh well. more to come soon.

little t's sweet biscuits

just messing around with the natural light in the studio today before breakfast. gotta love little t's. its as much fun to shoot as it is to eat.

plus i just made 5 new tabletops from scrap wood at salvage works. spent a sum total of $17. i Love that place!

thrift store project pt. 14

i picked up this little milkmaid (?) recently. this was actually a hard one cause there were lots of different cool angles, so here are two options. haven't decided which i like best.

self portrait

i'm trying to get better about being in front of the camera. its just not my thing.
chances are, if you see me this winter, i'm gonna be wearing this hat and this sweater...

new Catching the Ox shot

so this time around i enlisted the help of Bo Baumgartner, husband of one of merediths coworkers. (we sat across form each other at the christmas party!)

The subject we chose was baking, but being a big fan of Instagram, Bo suggested we do our subject in that medium. I'm always up for a challenge, so there you have it. check it out HERE.

and if yer not following me on Instagram.... wtf? get on it.

Wafu Pdx pt.2

just had to throw in a few more images.....

Wafu Pdx

i was recently hired by Wafu to document the restaurant: the comings and going, the cooking, eating, drinking, noodle making and everything in between. suffice to say, after just two days of shoot i had over 100 finished images that i was proud of.

here are just a few. check out Wafu for menu, hours etc. then go get a big fat bowl of ramen...