I’m  a guest writer/photographer for heart-stoppingly beautiful new magazine about rural culture, Broadway+Thresher. Here’s a link to the article, featuring my photos and the recipe I developed for “Fennel, Blue Cheese & Spanish Chorizo Mini Pizzas”: http://broadwayandthresher.com/food-and-drink/2012/10/15/forage-for-fennel-bleu-cheese-and-chorizo-pizza

My childhood self would be totally freaking out right now. I’m in Reader’s Digest!

I am excited beyond belief! The cookbook app that I photographed has been released today!

About a year ago, Rovio Entertainment, inventors of the game Angry Birds, asked me to document the food culture of their famously egg hungry pigs. Their talented developers gathered over 200 of my resulting photographs in a fun and useful interactive cookbook app., which contains the pig’s egg recipes, and animated illustrations of the them in their native environment. It was a great honor to be able to spend so much time with the pigs to create the Bad Piggies Best Egg Recipes.
The pigs are fantastic cooks who love good food. They are also kind of messy and their life is in a constant state of flux and chaos. “What makes this cookbook special is that the photographs of the app are taken by the pigs, which means that your own dish always looks better than the ones in the book,” said Sanna Lukander, VP of Books.  “Quite a change from the average cookbooks on the market!”

You can download the app at the iTunes store for only .99 today! http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bad-piggies-best-egg-recipes/id558812781?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4

I had the great pleasure of discussing my Fair Food photo project with CNN Heath for a feature by Georgiann Caruso. Click on the photo to read the full article.

I’ve won an honorable mention in the food photography category of the 2012 International Photography Awards for my photo of fresh tomatillos:

omatillos: http://photoawards.com/en/Pages/Gallery/zoomwin.php?eid=8-49414-12&uid&code=Food

I’ve spent quite a bit of time sitting in bars, in the company of both friends and strangers, eating, drinking, talking (sometimes bit too much), and taking photos. I’ve put that experience to use in my latest photos for the feature, “Raising the Bar”. Here’s the cover, table of contents and opening spread.

I’ve been photographing portraits of southern Arizona artists for Phoenix Home & Garden Magazine for many years now. Here are a few of of my favorites:

Portrait of Carol Alleman in a mesquite grove

Sky Davidson at home on his ranch

Rose Cabat with one of her Feelies

Phil Lichtenhan with nest made of found materials

Judy Bateman with buzzard feathers

Acadia Alder in her garden

The folks at AARP Bulletin sent to me Sun City, the nations biggest and oldest retirement community. They wanted to show how the nature of volunteerism had progressed in a community dependent on the act. Women in Sun City have gone from organizing bake sales to starting small businesses. They asked me to photograph retired school principal Carol Struck, a volunteer who started a book store and a coffee shop in order to give back to the community using her unique skill set.

Carol Struck in the bookstore she opened in Sun City

Portrait of Carol Struck for the AARP Bulletin

I know that this is a touchy subject for some at this time of the year, but I do have a new Calorie Counter Cookbook out. Chantal Martineau wrote the recipes and I did the cooking, food styling and photography. It’s available at Amazon.com; just in time for your impending New Years resolution!

I’ve been shooting for the Tucson Guide for a while now,  but the new March issue marks my first cover. I love shooting for the Tucson Guide because it’s a way that I can help promote the restaurants in my community. It also gives me the opportunity to experience my own town like a tourist [...]

I’m thrilled to have been selected a runner up in Saveur Magazine’s cover contest.  Five images were selected from over 900 entries.

I was nominated for a Photography Master’s Cup award in the Food Photography category.

The Photography Master Cup is, “a global online awards show recognizing excellence in color photography. This celebrated event shines a spotlight on the finest professional and non-professional photographers and is presented by International Color Awards.”

Tucson is HOT in the summer. Most days hover around 100 degrees. There’s still fun to be had, though most of it happens after the sun goes down, or inside, or underwater. I was paired with two elementary school boys and their parents, sent to three amazing locations and set loose to have a good time while photographing the results for Tucson Tourism’s summer ad campaign.

We went to The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, Loews Ventana Canyon Resort, and The Mini Time Machine. The kids and their parents were charming and funny and we all had a blast.

PDN Magazine is running a feature article about it titled Tucson Tourism the Real Way.

Here’s a few of the images I took, followed by one of the final ads:

Boys eating popsicles

After a day at the pool

At the Desert Musuem with a cool owl

One of the final ads

I recently did an assignment for the Tucson Guide on the various sandwich options available around town. I visited an authentic South Philadelphia style cheesesteak shop, a combo Jewish/Italian deli, and a place whose name was inspired by The Lord of the Rings (Baggin’s). The sandwiches were are absurdly huge and extremely yummy, and I [...]

I was a little worried, because the menudo I’d had in the past was awful. Greasy and of questionable origin. Plus, it’s tripe. But, when I’m on assignment, I always like to taste the food I’m photographing. So, I was determined to give the menudo at Teresa’s Mosaic cafe a try. It was delicious! Not greasy at all, and they serve the menudo spices on the side so you can make it as hot as you like. And speaking of hot, they garnished the margarita with a jalapeno in addition to the usual salt and lime. It was the perfect combination of salty, sweet and spicy.

White menudo with all of the fixings.

Giant margarita

Jars of drinks sit on the counter.

Teresa making handmade tortillas at the comal.

The 2010 holiday ad campaign that I shot for La Encantada, an upscale open air mall in Arizona, illustrates the story of a dapper man-about-town as he picks up last minute holiday gifts for his family… and himself. Our hero, dressed in a Brooks Brother’s suit, stops at Tiffany & Co. where he buys a huge, four carat diamond anniversary ring. After that, he decides he could use a drink, and a smoke, so he stops at a wine bar, removes a Cuban from his Tommy Bahama cigar case, and enjoys a glass of fine brandy. He chooses a new pair of specs, straps a holiday wreath from the Pottery Barn on his vintage Mercedes, and heads off into the evening with a new found friend from the Humane Society.

This is running as a seven page magazine insert. Produced and styled by Melanie Sutton and Adriana Barillari. Layout by Heidi Zielger-Voll @ Heidi5. Our models were John O. from S.I.M. Agency in Phoenix, and our own Adriana Barillari who stepped in as a Tiffany’s shop girl at the last minute. John, it turned out, is also a coach for the Chicago White Sox.

I am especially happy to say that all of our amazing animal models from the Humane Society have been adopted!

I visited Costco on the busiest shopping day of the year and was more taken by the ladies passing out samples than I was with the merchandise.

Renee with Coq10

Mary Beth

Janis

Evelyn

Barbara

I wrote and article titled the Food Photographer’s Guide to Working With Restaurants which has been published on the Learn Food Photography blog. All of the photographs featured in the article are mine as well.

" Food Photography and restaurants are inseparable. Each restaurant sooner or later will hire a food photographer. If you are seriously thinking about getting into professional food photography, knowing how to work with restaurants is essential."

Here are some images from  my most recent cover story for the Tucson Guide Magazine. I got to eat a LOT of pizza.  I’m a very lucky girl.

Thank you Inside Tucson Business for nominating me as a 2011 Up and Comer. and congratulations to all of the other nominees. “Up & Comers is a recognition program designed to highlight the achievements of people in the Tucson region in their 20s, 30s and early 40s who, while still early in their careers, are already making a difference, both in their work and in the community.”

More fashion photography from the runway and exclusive behind-the-scene shots  from Saturday’s Rock the Runway Fashion show at La Encantada are available on my website.

The show featured Ford Models and spring fashions from St. John, BCBG, Antropologie, Tiffany & Co., and others.

A Happy Plate

At the urging of my friends and family, I’ve put together a new blog of easy, healthy and hopefully fun recipes that I’ve developed over the years. It’s illustrated with food photos that I took just for this project. I have about 10 recipes up now with more on the way. Please check out Jackie’s Happy Plate.  I’d love to hear what you think.

I’ve been on a hot dog eating binge ever since I went to the Pima County Fair (see below), and had one of the best hot dogs of my life from a tiny stand in one of the buildings there. Since then, I’ve been buying every hot dog I see, trying to re-create the experience, which is impossible. So, I decided to conduct a taste test. I’ve bought every hot dog I can find that I haven’t tried before. So far Trader Joe’s all beef uncured franks have won, but I heard there was a sausage place on the other side of town that I have to try.  All of this culminated in me having to eat a Sonoran style hot dog today at El Guero Canelo which are rumored to be the best in town. Sonoran style hot dogs have become all the rage here in Tucson for the past couple of years and have gotten international attention due in part to this article in The New York Times.

Here are a few photos from my adventure today.

Note: My husband is a vegetarian so he had a whole bean and cheese burro which was excellent.

Our Hero! The Sonoran Hot Dog at El Guero Canelo

Grilled onions, cucumbers & salsa from the condiment bar

Someone Else's Order at the Counter

Burro filled with white cheese and whole beans

Janos Wilder supplied a recipe for Somen Noodles from his new restaurant Downtown Kitchen + Cocktails, to a beautiful new online green living magazine. I supplied the photo. You can get the recipe and check out the rest of the magazine at Sustainable Online Magazine.

Somen Noodles from Janos Downtown Kitchen + Cocktails

sweet + sour marinated shiitakes, tossed with olive + sesame oils, basil, broccoli rabe, scallions, Tohono O’odham roasted squash, chile-braised tofu:

La Encantada and Paula Taylor Productions asked me to document their recent fashion shoot for Tucson Lifestyle Magazine. All of these images were styled by Melanie Sutton, Paula Taylor and Adriana Barillari. You can see more of the images here: http://bit.ly/qH9vjY

There are some crazy – big burgers in this town and I was elected to photograph them. I was more than a little surprised by what I found.

The magazine printed this amazing Mac & Cheeseburger as a vertical spread in the centerfold. I turned it for better web viewing. I usually at least taste all of the food that I photograph, but I found this one a little too daunting to even consider eating.

The burger on the right features three burgers, and onion rings between two grilled cheese sandwiches.

And here is the song that goes along with this post:

The Tucson Jewish Community Center’s sculpture garden was the setting for a fashion shoot I did for the March 2012 issue of Tucson Lifestyle Magazine. My producer Melanie Sutton and I decided to have the model as well as the photographs themselves emulate different sculptures. Here’s a link to the rest of the story.

Tucson Lifestyle fashion issue intro

My favorite fair food has all the qualities of a carnival freak show. It has elements of the unexpected; it’s bigger and weirder than the food I see everyday; and it evokes awe and borderline disgust. The more absurd the better. This is my second year documenting the food at my county fair, and even though some of the food wasn’t as over the top as I would have liked, I still found it all pretty intriguing. Here are a few photos:

My photograph of an American flag themed frosted cake was selected for inclusion in the European Annual of Gastronomy: Foodprint 1112.

Below is the image that were selected. The whole book is filled with the most beautiful food photography, and I’m thrilled to be included.

I’m very happy to have my photo of a triple bacon honey bun cheeseburger in Bloomberg BusinessWeek. You can check out the on-line version of the article here: A Food Site That Aims to Quantify Healthy Eating

Good Morning America is featuring my photo of a giant Chimichanga at the El Charro Cafe, (graciously modeled by my husband Jason),  on their website. They say, “that they’ve scoured the country looking for the largest and fattiest foods.  From deep-fried delicacies to larger-than-life sundaes, here are the foods that you should probably share.”