Failure is Embarrassing

What happens if you fail food styling and photography 101 at Club Med Food Blogger Camp 2010?

This happens.  Blown out, over-saturated (without any post production work) images that make you want to like what you see, but the need for sunglasses outweighs any potential artistic success.

Paco, my own version of the traveling gnome is plagued by sunshine and the dulce de leche’s blurry pour doesn’t evoke that I want to stick my finger in the screen to scoop out some of that sugary goodness right now! look I was hoping for when I stood over the pot stirring all morning.  FAIL!

And then there were the empanadas.  I foraged through the fridge and freezer yesterday morning looking for inspiration and came up with a package of ground beef.  I had eggs, olives, San Marzano tomatoes, dried cherries and herbs and seasonings to take me back to Buenos Aires.  I made the dough, let it rest for a few hours and then got to work making the delicious filling.  The dough worked like a champ, but as you can see if you look closely, the dough was a disappointing thick and chewy vehicle for the perfectly seasoned filling.

But that didn’t stop me from shooting the finished product.  Once again, the colors are off.  While the color of the wrapper leaves me with the perception that the finished product is crispy and will leave flakes of crust on my shirt, it’s just too yellow.

I’m not sure what’s happening when I shoot, but results like this don’t stop me.  I’ll keep at it until I too end up with incredible shots like photos we see at FoodGawker, Tastespotting, Photograzing, RefrigeratorSoup and my favorite food blogs.

But for now, I’ll leave you with another look at Food Blogger Camp, 2010:

There were plenty of arches to shoot at Club Med, which I did, but I’m fascinated by the ability to make mosaics using my own photos.  I’ve been using MacOSaiX for a few years.  If you’re a Mac user I recommend it as a way to play with your photos for a change of pace.

This guy was making a lot of noise during my brief stay in Houston on the way home this past weekend.  Yes, it was unexpected, but by the light of day, with just minutes before I was to be released from the dismal prison that was the Ramada Inn, I really wasn’t surprised and it didn’t take away from the good company and surprisingly tasty meal I had with fellow Food Blog Camper’s, Donna and Michael Rulhman at Yo Mama’s Int’l Restaurant after we checked in the night before.

Meanwhile, i n uncharacteristic form, I haven’t been to the supermarket in more than 2 weeks and I’m anxious to get back into the swing of all things food-related in my life.  Thursday will be the day and I plan to whip up something special in my kitchen which, barring any unforseen scheduling issues, I’ll broadcast on Justin.tv at 7pm.  Hope to see you all there!  But first I’ve got furniture arranging to do so that we can go back to dining with a view and better lighting for my photos!!

See you Thursday night??

In 2007 my career with a large, but shrinking high tech Fortune 50 \"left me,\" leaving a void in my life. While lamenting the loss and flying around the world looking for a new career to get married to, I discovered a way to use a familiar outlet during tough times -- writing. My blog-writing morphed into writing about my favorite past time -- Food! I purchase food, sell food, make food, watch food being made, broadcast meal preparation, photograph and blog about food. Like I said; Food! To change this standard text, you have to enter some information about your self in the Dashboard -> Users -> Your Profile box.

Tagged as: Argentina, Club Med, Cooking, Dulce de Leche, Empanadas, Food