Teresa Forster Photography
It’s never too early to start thinking about one’s cats on a Christmas card. I had no idea it would be so hard to get Marshall and Lilly to pose together. After 10 mins of Marshall trying to flop himself over every time I stood him up, or Lilly refusing to put her butt down, I quickly gave up and shot (perhaps ‘photographed’ is a better word) them individually, putting my faith in photoshop. Hopefully the joke makes sense/ you can read the text on the cover. Suggestions welcomed!
I’m still many pages, words and hours away from completing a family cookbook, but I’ve been distracting myself with cover ideas in the meantime.
I was happy with the originally intended cover photo, (above right) but then found some gorgeous pears at the grocery store- 3 unique varieties, fully developed with brown mottling and blush toned flares. I couldn’t resist a little photo shoot while my veggie fritters were frying up for dinner.
So far the cookbook has (to name a few) fudge, chocolate italian cookies, and cranberry buckle for dessert; beef stew, spinach quiche, risotto and crab cakes for dinner; Arugula/parmesan salad, chicken salad, and orzo salad for lunch; hummus, latkes, zucchini fritters, pinwheels, butternut soup, and coleslaw for sides- oops, I think I just gained a few more pounds…
Recipes aside, the question for now is only: Which cover photo is better?
It was a beautiful fall day for a visit to my grandmother’s and apple picking at Sholan Farms in Leominster, MA (home to Johnny Appleseed, how apropo). It was my first time ever picking apples and I was as giddy as the 3 feet tall munchkins that were running around everywhere, (think kids- not umpalumpas). From giant green Mutsu apples to your traditional McIntosh, the orchard was bursting with colors- and flavors- as my grandmother was keen to explore as she taste tested in every row.
Apple picking was made all the more interesting by my grandmother’s usual antics: “Do you like my two apples?” she asked, holding the apples in the most appropriate location. She later upgraded to two pumpkins. With them nestled against her chest, she smiled at her friend who was volunteering at the farm. Her friend returned the gesture with a playful slap to the arm, ‘Marie, don’t you get fresh now!”
It all started with a trip to the new art store in Central Square, Blick. As part of their opening sale, much of their store was half off, a frugal artist’s dream. I decided to only get a single, large canvas. Then I convinced myself I needed new tubes of acrylic (primaries only, of course… well, maybe a brown). Eighty-five dollars later, add two 8×10 frames to the order, argh, oh well. 
I was so eager to validate the spending that I got to filling the frames right away. But what to put in them? Not another landscape or flower, that just might push Will over the edge. Then a random, beautifully stupid idea popped in my head: ridiculous self portraits. I believe the photos above speak for themselves, cats and all.
Christmas planning has begun early this year. After searching for a recipe that I have looked for a thousand times before, and should really have memorized, I realized it’s probably time to get organized. I have slowly gathered recipes from all over- websites, restaurants, magazines, friends and family. They exist in digital and physical sticky notes, emails, print outs, and dog-eared pages. My attempt at ordering the chaos materialized are far as a manilla folder jammed with chocolate stained paper and ripped magazine pages.
As our families grow and younger generations mature, cooking seems to become more a part of things. I know we all would appreciate knowing just how my grandmother makes her famous lazy lasagna or chocolate cake, just as much as my grandmother would love to know the southern cooking of my sister-in-law. So what better excuse to see all this to fruition then through Christmas presents for all in the form of a family cooking book. Once the decision was made, I knew I had to get started early, gathering recipes, baking/cooking and then doing the best part of a cook book (besides taste testing)- shooting the photos.
The first two photos were shot as intended cover photos. I’m not sure how I feel about them, but it’s still early. If the book is called ‘Family Flavors’, then the idea was to capture the raw, pure flavors of a range of produce. I threw in a few other kitchen objects to make them more of a still life shot. All the other photos are to accompany a recipe, the book being organized by the different meals of the day, breakfast through dinner. As you can see, there’s still a long way to go, but if I cook dinner nearly every night, it shouldn’t be a problem. The hardest part is cooking the meals early enough in order to shoot with good light.
As usual, I shot with my favorite lens, 50mm 1.8, using all natural light. The bokeh created by shooting with a low f-stop (say around 2.0) seems to be the welcomed cliché to shooting food, making for blurred, forgiving backgrounds. The cover shots were also shot through lace, to soften the image. Another fun thing to play with has been the dish-ware. I’ve been using a mix of plates I made, bought at bed and bath, or found at thrift stores.
Family be forewarned: this will not be a low-calorie family cookbook of any sort. It would just be too ironic.
On September 5th, my cutie pie niece Isabel turns 2! It’s a well known fact that she loves anything Disney ‘Cars’ related, so I decided to paint Isabel as a car. That’s right, what Isabel would look like if she raced alongside Mater or Lightning McQueen. I was originally thinking ‘purple’ volkswagon bug, but my older sister thought Isabel would definitely be a Jeep. In hindsight, she would have also made a cute little Mini cooper but alas- the paint has dried and the package is shipped.
If she doesn’t like the painting, I included some back up gifts, just in case. Happy (almost) 2nd Birthday Isabel!
I somehow managed to convince my sisters that Gloucester was better than the Cape, thus we found ourselves eating lunch along the water front, visiting the Fudgery, and seeing Hammond Castle on a perfect Saturday. Below is two panoramic shots from the trip.
Click on the photo to zoom. To shoot panoramic, just keep a steady hand and a natural pivot. Each photo is about 4 shots combined (post processing), with lots of ‘overlap’ within each shot.
Surprised that there’s a castle just 1 hour outside of Boston? In the 1920s, Hammond Castle was built by inventor John Hammond to house and satisfy his renaissance collection. Hammond, with over 400 patents, was a pioneer for the remote control, a device greatly utilized during the war. As an inventor, the man might have molded the future, but surely desired to live in the past.
Vistaprint has got to be one of the most annoying online companies. No where is it safe from their ads or spam and to actually purchase something, you have to click through about 100 request for magnets, mugs, and t-shirts. I, however, had a $50 gift certificate to use that expired at midnight. I didn’t care if I had to order 50 pens or 10 pointless key chaines, I was going to get my money’s worth.
So I made about 1,000 business cards that I don’t really need. I also only had about 2 hours to make them and wasn’t about to use one of their templates. So what do you get when you have no time and not exactly sure what your business card should say? See below.
I quickly watercolored an image of an old Nikon SLR, slapped some Tiffany blue down in photoshopped, added some stitching details and basic info- viola. A card that’s borderline tacky, but me nonetheless.
Interestingly enough, I might be changing my phone number soon (so long 772).
It reoccurs, often. This harrowing dream that I have.
It’s vague and non-distinct, more of a thought process than an actual scene. I’m somewhere exciting, foreign, seeing something truly spectacular. Like, unicorn spectacular or interstellar sunsets. I happen to have my camera. I frantically grab it from where it hangs on my shoulder, focus the lens and push the shutter release. It’s going to be the photo of the century. Except nothing happens. I push and push down on the shutter, anxious to get the shot before said marvel fades away. The button depresses, but there’s no satisfying ‘click’ of the actual shutter release. No photo being taken. I panic. Why isn’t my camera working? Why, at this spectacular moment, does the camera become defective? Either the scene fades as predicted, or I’m off to chase some other dream sequence, the disappointment lingering and tainting the rest of the night…
I know what Freud would say. Freud would claim, a cigar dangling in his hand, that was we have here, is, Photography Impotence. Yes, yes. Failure to do the job. Or rather, a fear of failure- it being a dream and all. In the dream, all the stars have aligned the perfect shot, the available equipment, but still something goes awry. Either I have failed myself, or technology is not to trust. Things break often, no surprise there. Yet when I awake, it’s a sad disappointment that plagues. When something breaks, or an item fails to do its job, our logical response is always anger. We’ve all kicked the soda machine when it greedily ate our change and yielded no beverage. We’ve all banged the key with a rat-tat-tat-TAT! when the computer freezes. I’ve even seen friends chuck cell phones against walls (maybe not so logical). Point is, I don’t injure my camera nor wish it ill will in my dream. I’m just, sad.
If the assumption is that dreams reveal something about ourselves, albeit a fear or secret wish or even something mundane as randomly restrung memories, then a reoccurring dream must be like an alarming mental mantra. As a photographer, I’ve raced to catch many a sunset or held my breath trying to snap a skittish creature. It’s the decisive moment in photography that makes a photograph spectacular. Being able to know that, I can fear missing it.
In the end, it’s no secret, the reason I have these nightmares. In school they taught us that there’s a few reoccurring dreams that most people have as they grow up. The professor polled the class as he listed the predictable dreams, and I raised my hand for having experienced every last one of them. Teeth falling out? Forgot that there was a test in school today? Missing an item of clothing i.e. shirt, shoes or pants? Yes, D, all of the above.
So the question is, am I the only one to have this dream? Do other high-strung photographers also have, (a made-up-freudian-term) “photography-impotence”? I’d like to think so. Or rather, I’d like to hope so.
And if dreams help us in the real world by making us work through potential dangers and threats, then let’s all hope that when ever I do come across a unicorn, etc, my camera, and myself, won’t fail me.
Liz Vaughn, Dartmouth ’08, is a fantastic musician. She sings, composes and plays the piano. Oh, and just happens to be gorgeous.
Last Wednesday we did a night shoot in downtown Boston. The goal was to get some ‘editorial-like’ head shots to help promote her budding music career. The shoot was part 1 of a (hopefully) 2 part shooting project. The second shoot will be a total contrast to this one, to be shot with plenty of sunlight and nature.
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