Photo Challenge: Food

If you know my family, you know how much we LOVE food. It's all about the food! We don't have a ton of pictures of us growing up but it seemed like the camera came out when we were all sitting down and eating. Usually a dessert of some sort. My mom should be a pastry chef with her amazing desserts. I grew up eating four course meals with linen napkins every night. Minus a drink. We had really nice utensils, plates and even goblets. We never used the goblets though. There's no crying over spilled milk if you don't OFFER the milk! Hence, my misfortune in never learning to drink properly. I am the queen of spilling drinks. I have just enough coordination however to ensure I ONLY spill my drink on others and NEVER myself. After enough times of my mom having someone's drink dumped on her lap, plate of food & even hair (thanks Tony for the good laugh), my mom kind of banned drinking at the table. To this day our husbands think its wierd that we don't drink with meals but as my mom would say. "Why waste the calories?" I didn't realize how amazing our dinners were growing up until I attempted my first of many mediocre meals myself. After slaving in the kitchen for 2 hours with a baby crying in the background, I served a lasagna to my family. No homemade bread sticks, like my mom would have served, no fresh vegetable from the garden, no canteloupe & watermelon, and definitely no homemade peach pie with homemade vanilla icecream. Just lasagna. Served with a big fat side of nothing! And you better believe I wanted some appreciation for that lasagna! Yes, my family is quite talented when it comes to food. Most of the family's talent is in making the food. My talent is in DEVOURING it, and really appreciating the fact that I didn't have to cook it! When I think back of my family growing up, I often think of our dinners that we ate together every night. Always with a homemade dessert. I always came home from school with my mom laying on the couch reading a cook book and asking "What goes with Blackberry Cobbler? hmmmm....... Chicken Divan!" Because she ALWAYS made dessert first. This summer while doing photo shoots for some family and clients I've realized that food really can make a photo shoot go from boring, sweaty & hot, to fabulous and fun. This is my challenge for you- have a photoshoot with your own family using food to capture their true smiles. Here are a few samples for you. Because I don't cook or bake I used watermelon. You've got one week to do this photo shoot. Have fun & Bon Apetit!