How I Accidently Ate Chicken Liver

This past weekend I had the good fortune to attend the Austin Food Bloggers Alliance (AFBA) food photography workshop at Aviaryin Austin.  This was my first blogger event, and to be honest, I was a little nervous.  This blog of mine was supposed to showcase my food using Ian's photos--this worked well until he relocated to D.C. to finish his MHA/MBA.  The photo quality decreased a tad at that point. 

Anxiously gripping my Sony NEX-3 in one hand an a glass of Harpoon UFO White in the other I introduced myself to Jessica from Bake Me Away and Crystal from Serendipity in the Kitchen.  Then it was off to the races!  After a quick intro by Jennie from Miso Hungry, we split up into groups based on our interests.  Crystal and I worked with Marshall in the "natural light" group.  The Aviary provided some beautiful charcuterie platters to photograph and Marshall provided the brains--the one in his head, there weren't actual brain platters.

 They were simple tips that my simple brain could process and utilize....use a tripod, use a poster board with some clamps from Home Depot to reflect light, your food should tell a story.

The figs were the star of the show initially--lots of texture, voluptuous, prettier than pate.  Here I can see how I would have benefited from a tripod--just a little out of focus.

The bread, monochromatic but not short on texture either.

 The salumi, and what's that in the background?  A caper berry?  I learned something new.  Capers are a flower and the caper berry is a fruit.  I also learned that I probably shouldn't have that distracting cutting board edge in the foreground.

This is my favorite photograph.  That little crostini in the foreground?  Chicken liver.  I ate it.

Before I knew it the session was over.  I wish we could have had more time to discuss and work through some post processing, but maybe that can be a future workshop.  I feel more confident with my skills at this point and a huge mahalo to AFBA and Marco the owner of Aviary and all the folks who made this workshop possible.

 Say kimchi.