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.

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.

For this month’s photo remake, I want to pay tribute to Gourmet magazine’s fantastic cookie issues of the past. You know the ones. Cookies done up to be gorgeous graphic works of art. I have to admit I was really disappointed that Bon Appetit didn’t pick up that banner with the demise of Gourmet, so I thought perhaps you all might want to try your hand at it.

For this challenge, pick one of the Gourmet Magazine covers that features cookies, and remake it. Ideally, you’ll use a similar cookie, but if you need to substitute, that’s ok. You can use any of the covers I’ve included here, or take a peak back through your saved issues (or those at your local library) to pick one that you like. Just remember it has to be a Gourmet Magazine cookie cover.

When you do your remake, there’s no need to overlay the cover text, although you can if you’d like.

One more note for submitting your work, and I’d like to use this new format for all remakes… make your image a diptych with the original photo on the left and your version on the right. That will help in particular this month since we all may be doing different originals.

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 December.

The Donna Hay website has some beautifully simple shots to represent each of their seasonal menus. I love the look of the shot for fall. A simple potato shot, with peel. It’s high contrast and messy, and yet soft and clean at the same time.

Let’s see what you can do with this simple shot.

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 November.

[This shot is from the Donna Hay Website, photographer not listed]

Ok. So September kind of got away from me, photo remake wise. There are some beautiful canning jar shots in the pool that are still awaiting my comments. Despite the current lack of feedback, I hope you all learned a little about shooting transparent but reflective materials. Rather than letting October pass me by as well, I thought I’d jump right on it with the new challenge: Pie.

Pie is one of those things that seems simple, but turns out can be quite a styling and shooting nightmare. A slice standing on it’s own often requires a lot of reconstruction, or you end up with a gappy and sometimes flat mess. Not that that can’t be beautiful too. But that upstanding slice of pie that will soon be gracing magazine covers takes propping, stuffing and all sorts of fiddling.

Similarly, a whole pie, while easy to style and photograph, doesn’t give much of a hint as to what is going on inside. You have to dive in to really tempt the viewer. Take a slice out, and now you start to have something. Of course, then, you also have to start rebuilding the edges.

So, for this month’s remake, let’s see what you can do with a double-crusted fruit pie, shot top-down with a slice taken out. My pie was plum, which gave a lovely red hue, but you can use whatever fruit you’d like for your pie. But, do try to actually remake the photo including styling and lighting conditions! Just submitting any old pie photo you have won’t force you to study the image to figure out what is going on.

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 October.