If you find yourself drooling over pricey French Linen tablecloths, head over to Home Depot and check out their canvas painter’s drop cloths. A 6′ X 9′ canvas is only $10, and the smaller 5′ X 5′ is only $5! Once ironed flat, they look great and provide a lovely, neutral texture to your photos.

Here are a couple of shots from my recent Food Photography classes, with the tarps in action.

It’s no secret around here that I am a huge fan of Matt Armendariz and Adam Pearson. Both personally and professionally, these guys are some of my favorite people around. And when I saw this salad posted as part of Matt’s new column on the Cooking Channel website, I immediately wanted to make it. And, to make it the new remake challenge.

photo courtesy of Matt Armendariz; Styling by Adam Pearson

See, this photo hits one of my own personal challenges in food photography: Making a landscape photo look great. Whenever I am required to shoot landscape (and it usually takes a requirement), I cringe a little inside. It’s quite a bit harder to get depth into a photo when you have limited vertical space… and I find myself trying to figure out what in the world to do with all that horizontal space around it (unless I know that some copy will run there).

For this challenge, make a simple, non-lettuce based salad (I highly recommend following or at least adapting Matt’s recipe, because tomatoes photograph beautifully) and shoot it in a landscape composition like the original photo. Note where the light is coming from here too… you are going to need some sort of bounce to offset that lovely backlighting.

It’s really helpful when you use the new diptych format when you post your results! For this diptych the original photo goes on the top, and your take on the bottom.

If you are new to the monthly photo challenges, head over to the Flickr group for the rules and to introduce yourself.

This challenge will run through the end of August.

Don’t you just love the charming colors and textures of these Wobbly Plates’ biscuit bowls.

It has been far too long since I’ve posted a new challenge for you guys! My apologies. I’m hoping that one of the upsides to the blog consolidation project is that it takes some of the barriers of blogging away… it was an awful lot to manage so many blogs, each with their own little foibles.

This month’s challenge, which will start now and go through the end of June, is a subject very dear to me: muffins. I make muffins a lot. The particular recipe in the photo for blueberry streusel muffins comes from Lorna Yee’s beautiful cookbook, The Newlywed Kitchen.

“The Newlywed Kitchen: Delicious Meals for Couples Cooking Together” (Lorna Yee, Ali Basye)

Whether or not you are a couple, this book is full of lovely, delicious recipes that really work and I’d highly recommend picking up a copy (or giving one as a gift if you do have a wedding shower coming up). These muffins are insanely soft and fluffy, packed with fruit and just the right amount of spice.

For this challenge, you can use any sort of muffin you’d like though. I think the streusel topping gives a fantastic texture and adds visual interest, but your muffin can be simpler if you’d like. The key to this photo is the careful layering of linens, dish, parchment and wrapper, all that lead you up to that first bite. Getting a good bite can be a bit challenging because you want to make sure you hit the fruit and show a nice amount of crumb.

It’s really helpful when you use the new diptych format when you post your results! The original photo goes on the left, and your take on the right.

If you are new to the monthly photo challenges, head over to the Flickr group for the rules and to introduce yourself.

This challenge will run through the end of June.

I knew I perhaps had a problem at the last blogger meetup I attended. As everyone was going around telling a little bit about themselves and their blogs, I began to worry. Which blog to I choose? Do I really list all of them? People might start falling asleep by the end. But, some people know me from Cook & Eat, others from Still Life With, others know me as that crazy doughnut lady or the photographer who is sharing a studio with Clare Barboza. And, would it surprise you if I said I had possible plans for even more?

The time had arrived to give my blogs a single, simpler home. Now you can find (almost) everything that I blog all in one spot. You can subscribe to the whole kit and kaboodle, or just the categories you are interested in:

• Cook & Eat
• Still Life With
• Doughnuts
• Photography Portfolio
• Love

I also added a snazzy new archive page. Literally. The plugin I’m using is called Snazzy Archives, and it’s kind of sweet looking.

I’m sure there will be kinks I’m working out of the next few days, but I hope you enjoy it!