When I was younger, commercial work and what I’d frame on my own wall were two separate things. I’m happy to say that’s no longer the case. It’s great to be able to explore personal ideas, even better when you get paid for them.

We did this shoot on a Monday afternoon, and it was as fluid as jazz. We had prepared with a fitting. I wanted the wardrobe to move in the air to show a clear sense of our action and whimsy, so we ran around the studio in different outfits while Michael snapped photos. I felt like a kid. My first ever cameo in my own imagery. We couldn’t stop laughing.

The next step was to capture all the elements. Something that’s important to me during the creation of composite imagery is to do things as naturally as possible. When I lit the subjects, I lit them like the scene. Exactly like the scene. When I put the elements in set, I used the backdrop so our tones blended naturally. We created bounce light that bled the scene’s colors naturally onto the subject. We created a similar 3D groundcover on top of the backdrop ground so the colors and textures blended seamlessly. We created a light tent out of the actual backdrop so that the scene was naturally shown in the reflection of the metallic elements. It’s all about the right ingredients. All shot exactly to perspective, height, and angle.

I’d like to thank Amy, Wendy, Mimi, Wes, Jesse, Marco, Chad, and Michael. I couldn’t have done it without you.

Here’s the dish ran away with the spoon.