Picture Perfect

I recently did my very first professional photoshoot! I received a gift certificate for a talented local photographer, Meredith Black, as a wedding gift, and my wonderful friend kindly leant us her kitchen to use as a backdrop for the shoot. By the way, isn't this kitchen sick?

I showed up at my friend Kara's house super early, toting boxes of cake, props, and hair supplies. I also drove there with giant rollers in my hair and no makeup, so my apologies to anyone who had to see that train wreck while I was slamming back Starbucks on I-95 that morning.

That said, waking up early and looking a little cray cray was worth it. The display cakes and props came in really handy and added a much more personal touch. The gold forks, the burgundy napkins, and white plates are all part of my branding and it was good to have them to incorporate into the pictures. Additionally, I brought fresh flowers which I picked up from the fine folks at La Mee the day before. It was lucky that I found them as I had been scrambling like a crazy person trying to find a good quality florist and, lo and behold, I stumbled upon La Mee and was able to procure some GORGEOUS blooms.

I planned to style a couple of cakes for the pictures, and had a general idea in mind of what I was going to do in terms of design. I also decided to do my own hair and make up (things turned out ok, but important lesson learned: don't test out a new curling iron on the day of a photo shoot. It creates unnecessary anxiety.).

On to the cakes.

One cake was a "semi-naked" cake, meaning it's not totally frosted and you can see bits of the cake underneath. When paired with fresh flowers, as pictured below, it has a lovely rustic vibe.

The other was supposed to be a bas-relief style (it's sort of a sculpted look) but I'm not sure it panned out the way I envisioned it in my mind. It's ok, that happens sometimes. I'll just keep working on it :) On the bright side, my sugar flowers looked fab.

I also learned a few things, particularly about planning. Never having a done a professional shoot before, I thought there were some things I could just wing (like a bas-relief cake--how hard could it be? Ha ha ha.) when I should have really thought more about the composition and color. The design matters since you're kind of doing everything backwards for the camera. For instance when I'm working on a cake for a client, typically I'm looking at it head on, and I'm not worried about what my face looks like. For the photo shoot, the cake was in front me and I was coming at it from behind so that the camera can capture my face in the frame. It doesn't sound hard but it is; I realized that's a major design component I would need to be mindful of in the future.

All of the photos came out BEAUTIFULLY. I'm so happy to have them; I had never had professional pictures taken before; except for my wedding, which is totally different. It was an amazing experience, and I'm so grateful for it. Sending a huge thank you to Meredith Black for these gorgoues pictures!!

Here are some more photos from the shoot, including shots of some of my display cakes.

Enjoy!