My first attempt at a real composition. This is not as simple as it looks. I can see everything that is wrong with each of these images and whats more I can see what to do to make the image better. And some areas are not too bad. I am taking notes!
I am looking forward to the Friday Pizza day so I can try again. This morning I am starting a Pizza Bianca. And the Fresh Cheese. Both of which take at least 24 hours. Impatience has no place in a world where we make everything from scratch. Like the vegetables I grow and the meat I grow, we do it slowly and gently.
This tomato has been nominated by Our John the heirloom tomato grower as coming from the perfect plant and so I will begin drying seeds from the perfect tomato from the perfect producing plant today. It is a Mortgage Lifter. My favourite this year has been Amish Paste. I shall be buying heirloom seeds from a tiny seed producer though. The people who keep our old fashioned heirloom seeds safe need some business to keep them safe.
The grapes are ready to harvest but there is no frost on the horizon. I need to decide whether to pick without a frost or wait for one and deal with more losses to the bird. I cannot call it ice wine if I do not have the cold freeze that concentrates all those sugars. But it is still a good wine grape. 
The bobble headed owls can only do so much in scaring away the birds.
This is the view of the barn and the rat house from the creek which is no longer a creek and is really a deep deep ditch.
Same position but looking South across the asparagus field and into the corn.
As usual Daisy is watching every move I make.
The chickens are producing anything from 19 – 24 eggs a day. I have a big flock so that the eggs can feed more than the house, they are the main protein for the pigs. It was Bulldog who suggested I pickle some. He used to make them all the time evidently, even packs jars of them when he goes bush in Africa.
Good Morning. Here is our neglected Daily View. Like I said, things grow slowly on the Farmy.
I hope you all have a lovely day.
Take great care of yourselves and your people, remember – there is kindness everywhere. We need to keep our eyes open for it. Kindness does not beat a drum for attention. But it is contagious.
Your friend on the farmy, celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
86 responses to “Pickled Eggs and Food Photography”
Lovely shots
Food photography has as many styles as does flower photography so play and find YOUR OWN 🙂
wonderful advice.. thank you.. c
🙂
By the way…I have a furbaby who looks like she could be your furbaby’s twin! LOL Her name is Samantha! We just call her Sam. Also…what variety of grape is that one in the photo?
The grape is a vidal blanc. sweet. c
Mmmmm…..my Steubens are spicy and sweet, with hints of honey (thus its nickname ambrosia). They are not only used as a wine grape but also as an eating grape and a jelly grape.
Pairs well with chili, turkey, salmon, barbecue, pasta, lamb and cheeses from what I understand! My Kay Grey I blend with my Niagras. Delicious! :)I may try the Vidal Blanc. They should do well here.
I don’t know how I became anonymous but it is me Mere! LOL :d
I love pickled eggs! Your photographs are always so pleasing! It’s a lovely way to start my day… and thank you for the reminder about kindness.
You know, I took a special food photography course in my early 20s when I just started photography and then threw everything away and developed my own style. I think your photographs are 20 times lovelier than any “professional” shots I’ve seen lately. Sometimes, if I’m not happy with a photograph, it helps to trow it into photoshop and multiply the layer. (do you know what I mean?) That gives the image incredible depth. Then you can adjust any way you like in curves. But thank goodness for digital. I remember having to scan thru hundreds and hundreds of negative proofs! Maybe that’s why I got into editorial photography instead of weddings. 🙂 Hope you’re having a lovely day.
I do work in layers in PS, but very quickly there is not a lot of time, I was deliberately over exposing this set, to get that white on white so that the red of the beets popped out. And you are right about developing your own style, your images are just wonderful. I am hoping to combine the written word with the images in mine as this seems like a natural progression for me. It is fun though, to develop a style or a mark, on purpose. My blog work is usually so organic and bordering on chaotic most of the time!! c
I agree taking photos of food is one of the most diffcult. It is so much easier capturing nature since the subject in itself is always beautiful. I love your last comment- ” kindness does not beat a drum for attention”……you have a wonderful day and lets hope kindness does become contagious….I enjoy visiting and reading about your country life…so peaceful:-)but a lot of work, I have no doubt.
morning robbie, luck for me the work is winding down now as we get all the food in and stored, a little ways to go yet but it is getting easier.. next it is the wine and apple cider!
Loved seeing the pickled eggs on my reader today. Thank you. A favorite of mine since childhood. The little gem my grandmother packed in with her pickled beets as a surprise. Perhaps you’d enjoy my story, Beets. Now I must make it a priority to photograph what I remember sitting on her shelf. -Cheers
What an excellent idea, i bet your grandmothers food was real food too! The pickled egs are new to me, and I cannot wait to open the jar and try them. Sue, did your grandmother store them in the pantry then, not in the fridge? I am wondering how long mine will store for and whether i can put them in the cellar.. c
I remember the jars of pickled beets with eggs stored in neat rows on a shelf in the cellar. She would let me go down and grab a jar when I visited. I’d eat the beets straight out of the jar. Yum! Depending on how long you leave them you eggs will be a lovely, ruby red. She always put them out at Easter. Guess it depends on the brine. Do you want me to ask her? Perhaps you’d like a beet story and recipe? http://suebthefoodie.com/2012/06/25/beets/
-cheers
I would love you to ask her, thank you, and I shall pop over and look at your beets right now.. thank you.. c
Sounds good. I will ask her the next time I ring her up. -cheers
Ok the brick has dropped on my head – re the composing of the shot. the first one is too harsh on the eye and a bit loose and uncoordinated and while in the second your eye is naturally drawn to the centre you somehow ‘see’ the rest is connected – in your thirds grid.
What big paws you have Scrapper, and I love the Farmy walkabouts always. Laura
Yes there is work to do, slowly I will get this right. morning laura! c
Lovely day on the farmy! Would be nice to soak up the sun like that.
Heirloom seeds are so important. Food might be healthier if more used them?
Easy composition: groups of 3, vary height, texture, color old “rule” from merchandising display work.
The red smooth tomato on the dark textured wood…makes me hungry!
Gotta go – but had to pop in to check on you and the farmy! Have a great day
Morning Mouse!! I am going to go and dismember that tomato right this minute, and start the process! c
I love the message that kindness is contagious! Now to find some pickled eggs, I have never tasted them.
It sure is!!! “Pay it forward!”
Mere, I am a great believer in Paying forward!
Hi Celi, have a lovely lovely day…your food photography is coming along swimmingly…I’ve always loved it, exactly the way you’ve done it…so it will be great to see where you end up! (For ex., I love your beautiful tomato.) This is UTTER SILLINESS, but when I saw it, I thought immediately of all your chickens…this idea for Mercedes was based on a chicken fact that I’ve never heard, but which you UNDOUBTEDLY already know…I hope wordpress will allow me to leave this link for you. It’s so funny: http://www.fastcocreate.com/3018392/mercedes-scores-a-video-hit-with-dancing-chickens-that-demonstrate-stability
Loved it.. hilarious.. I should dance with my chickens like that!! c
Your images and words are always so beautiful … the shot of the grapes is lovely, but I especially love seeing your farm and the lay of the land … the image of the hens with the old car and big tree in the background and the shadow in the foreground, Daisy and her barn with the flat Illinois horizon in the background, the corn field and asparagus patch with the thin clouds – these convey a warmth, a feeling of “home” that I miss so much. Your images resonate, as do your closing words, “remember – there is kindness everywhere. We need to keep our eyes open for it. Kindness does not beat a drum for attention. But it is contagious.” I’m making that my mantra. You always make my day. Thank you for that.
I could so be doing what the cat is doing in the last photo – ha! Happy Day Around the Farmy:)
Greetings from Dijon France. I’ve never eaten a pickled egg. Not made them either. Are the eggs hard boiled before they go into the pickling mixture?
yes misky darling,hard boiled but STEAMED of course, give my love to France!! c
But of course! We’re off to les halles for Friday’s farmer’s market. Should be fun. xx
I finally have some time to myself (what a gift—time to yourself—but you don’t know that as you have oodles of time to yourself) to post my Daily View!
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
http://deltacountyhistoricalsociety.wordpress.com
Yes, there is kindness everywhere but some days it is harder than others to find it. X