Haight Ashbury Photo Shoot 2011

One Morning in the

Photo Studio...

Groovy

As art director, I typically plan photo shoot themes a year in advance. One afternoon the food editor, Marie called attention to the fact that September had been overlooked, and a quick decision had to be made. She suggested a number of recipes that had already been tested, that we might be able to use. As she ran down the list of recipes, Curry Chicken caught my atten-tion.

I IM’d one of our IT guys, Kapinder from our partner company in India and asked him, “What would you serve with this?” He gave me several options for a nice meal. I thanked him for his help, then confirmed with the food editor that we could indeed get the other foods for the shoot.

But the issue was not resolved as I soon realized, “How does one present traditional Indian food as American nostalgia?” I consulted with my Set Stylist, Deone. We threw around a few ideas: nehru jackets, hare krishna, peace and love. A spark grew into a creative fire as we came up with the perfect theme: Ashbury Haight... the Hippie Movement. We were excited.

This is that photo shoot:

Some of the props included

incense, candles, daisies, a beaded

curtain, and henna. The blue

and burgundy fabric is Deone’s

personal saree.

Mint sauce: with powerful properties that

make people speak the truth.

As per special request by Amit.

Chapati (flat bread) ... check

out the smoke of the incense

rising, man. Groovy.

Deone inspects details of the

props on the set.

Deone thinks we need more daisies.

We need a magic sitar.“I onwy thpeak the twoof.”

(That was a reference to the movie, “Moulin Rouge.”)

I am really turning on to

this scene, man

Food Stylist Sarah brings in the “hero” food

and works her magic with the

mango lassi.

With an expert eye, Sarah fusses over garnishes.Thank goodness for Food Stylists. They see details

most people don’t. To me, food is to be eaten, as long as food doesn’t look and taste like “caca.”

Dan the photo-grapher does

double duty as Fire Bearer to

light the incense and candles,

while Sarah uses a tweezer to strategically

place greens on top of the rice

and Chicken Curry.

Light ‘em if you got ‘em, Dan!

Dan checks out the lighting, exposure and focus of this colorful shot.

Is that Hindi music on satellite radio? Groovy!Hee-hee! Dan actually danced for us... he wasn’t bad.

I wish I would have gotten that on video to post to YouTube!

How’s that smoke from the incense looking

to you, Dan?

Another angle of the set...

An artsy moment in

time...

Me and Deone on the set...

no, we did not coordinate our

outfits...great minds think

alike.

We work well together and

have lots of fun with the shoots.

The final result.

Someone commented that “it really wasn’t

a picture of food, but a work

of art.”

It was the tastiest art I’ve ever eaten for

lunch!

Hm...this could be a cool

puzzle!

One last artsy moment back in

my cubicle!

The End