Magazine Shoot

Update: the issue  featuring our kitchen has been published. See this post for more details!

Editor Lisa Mowry came to our house, along with Christine and Owen (of Anthony Masterson Photography).   I first found out about Lisa through Sherry Hart’s blog. On a whim, I sent her a few pictures of our new kitchen and, more quickly than I expected, she responded and set up a date for a shoot for a feature in Better Homes & Gardens Real Kitchens and Baths magazine.     I probably would’ve been a nervous wreck about this if I hadn’t already freaked out over being house crashed by John and Sherry.    So thanks to that test run, I wasn’t nervous at all.

In the morning, flowers arrived before people did and they were fabulous.

Christine and Owen and Lisa all arrived at the same time, a little before 10 am,  and they got started right away.   Christine and Owen setup shop (aka their computer) in the ‘butler’s pantry’.   Lisa brought props and started with restyling my corner shelves.

I was surprised to learn that the magazine provided a sheet that specified exactly what shots should be taken, where the focus should be, and what kind of styling they wanted.  Apparently, the art director chooses things like colors, flowers, and what props should be where.   For some reason,  I thought the photographers had more liberty to choose what shots they wanted to take.    But look:   in addition to being a photographer, Christine also doubles as an expert fruit stylist.

I’m sure you can tell by now, the ‘pop’ of color was orange and the scene was set for breakfast.   Props included orange juice, bagels, and cantelope. It was really kind of cool to watch the process.   It’s more painstaking than you may think and there’s quite a bit of tweaking.   When they were taking a close up shot of the wine fridge, some bottles already in the fridge were changed out, due to the color of their tops, for other bottles that went along with the color scheme.    For one shot, the microwave was removed from it’s shelf.   So, it will be a kitchen without a microwave in the article.   In another shot, we moved the bakers rack (which I want to part with anyway) off to the side so it wouldn’t be in the shot at all.

I camped out in the dining room, working on the laptop, while all of this was going on.  I tried to balance staying out of their way with asking questions and listening just to learn about the process.    Most of the shots were taken in natural light without any additional lighting.  Right at the end though, they had to break out a big lamp for a shot of the dining table.

After a scene was setup and captured, they reviewed the pictures on the computer and made sure Lisa approved. At the end (it wrapped up late afternoon), I got a chance to see the pictures taken and they were beautiful.   It was fun and really, really interesting to watch such talented people do their thing and I am so excited to see the finished product.   I would love to attend other shoots to learn more.

I got to keep the flowers!
-J