Cookbook Chronicles: The Photoshoot
My team and I just spent 4 days photographing 40 bakes, and I recovered enough to tell you about it.
I planned to delve more into the cookbook creation process, but I’ve been busy actually creating it. But it’s time for an update. I’ve reached a big milestone. All of the recipes for the book have been developed. Most have been well-tested, and the remainder are out with my lovely batch of recipe testers.
But that’s not the most significant milestone. This is: Half of the recipes in the book have been photographed. That’s about 40 recipes baked and photographed in a mere four days. In one kitchen with one oven. (Not to mention a few process photos, ingredient shots, and, yes, even some gorgeous photos of my baking tools.)
To help me process and learn from this photoshoot, I here’s a behind-the-scenes look.
Looking for something to bake? I have a recipe index for you!
Do cookbooks need photos?
Some of my favorite cookbooks have zero or very few photos. And I don’t mind that one bit. I may even prefer it. I love imagining what a bake looks, smells, and tastes like. Reading gives me a magic mental picture that pulls me into the kitchen. Sometimes, an image of it dampens the mystique for me, and, for some reason, I’m less drawn to baking it. But then again, a photo of a glistening lemon tart can send me sprinting into the kitchen. Pictures of unfamiliar cultures or cuisines show me new ways of looking at food. Photos can teach and inspire.
I completely understand why most readers prefer to see photos of finished food. For some recipes, it’s helpful to see the finished product to guide your baking. How dark should you bake this crusty bread? What is the texture of Vollkornbrot? How do I decorate this chocolate peanut butter cake? For others, the photo drives home what this bake means to me or what setting I enjoy it in. Cheese puffs should be shared. Manchego and quince turnovers should be devoured hot. Toast is life. Photos can put a bake into its best light. Out of the oven, an apple strudel seems like a ho-hum-looking brown log, but sliced and served, we all know its comforting scrumptiousness. Finally, photos show off amazing bakes, from a close-up of incredibly flaky pastry to a wide shot of a gloriously towering croquembouche.
Assembling the team
I am not a professional photographer. I can manage a few snapshots with my iPhone, edit them in Adobe Lightroom, and post them on Instagram or pop them in this newsletter, but I can’t take print-worthy pictures. And I knew that from the start. I relied on my network and recommendations to find photographers. But great photos need more than a stellar photographer.
Photographing a book is expensive, and rightfully so. Professionals ought to be paid for their excellent work. However, I have a very tight budget for this book, so I had to find the right fit. I talked with several photographers before painstakingly deciding on the right fit for me, this book, and this budget.
Somehow, the incredible Milwaukee-based photographer Kevin Miyazaki reached out to me, and I was honored that he was interested in working together. As it turns out, Kevin had shot two books that I had recently read: Latinísimo by the incredible Sandra A. Gutierrez and Dolci! by Renato Poliafito and Casey Elsass.
, my fantastic agent, enthusiastically recommended Kevin, too. I talked with Sandra (because you should always check references), and she gushed about Kevin’s photos and the ease of working with him. Kevin suggested shooting at my (small) home to save both on costs—studio rental in Chicago can be at least $800/day—and to help make the baking easier. I liked that idea and needed to find ways to reduce expenses as much as possible. And importantly, he mentioned a Chicago-based food stylist he wanted to work with.I hate to say this, but I rarely “style” my photos. I consider myself more of a baker and wordsmith than a photographer, and, honestly, taking photos does not spark joy. I just take an overhead shot of the damn thing on my counter. I seldom capture the essence of a recipe that way. My photos usually convey, “Here it is.” Excellent food and prop stylists, like Mollie Hayward (who does both), bring out the emotion of a recipe—the feeling of it, the reason for it. They don’t just ensure the bakes look great; they make sure the book looks cohesive, varied, attractive, and stylish. Mollie has the skill of matching my aesthetic, vibe, and the book's goals with her impeccable, creative taste. The props, backgrounds, and surfaces she brought don’t distract from the food—they give it the full story. She has those food stylist skills to dollop whipped cream perfectly, create aesthetically pleasing messes, and build a perfect stack of pots and pans. Most importantly, Mollie makes my recipes look like the way I feel about them. I am creating these recipes, but Mollie brings them to life. I’m in awe of her work, and I don’t have the words to express how lucky am to have her on this team.
After thinking about the amount of baking required, I started to panic. How in the world can I, a home baker, crank out 10 bakes a day? And do all of the dishes? The truth is: I can’t. I was blessed that my friend, baker extraordinaire, food photographer, stylist, writer, influencer, and recipe developer, Karis Stucker, agreed to be my kitchen collaborator. We knew we could operate well together in a high-stress situation because we had done it before—on the Great American Baking Show. Assistant doesn’t convey Karis’s role. She was my organizer-in-chief, co-baker, recipe measurer, cat wrangler (and cuddler), hand model, cake decorator, and emotional support person. Karis created daily to-do lists that kept me on top of things. She mastered the ballet of two cooks in the kitchen and somehow figured out where all the pans, tools, and ingredients live in my mildly chaotic drawers and closets. About two-thirds of the way through the week of shooting, I relinquished control and let Karis bake several of the recipes from start to finish, which she made perfectly, of course. If anyone needs help with a photoshoot, Karis gets my enthusiastic recommendation. (She does more than bake and organize: she’s a wonderful cook, photographer, and stylist, too!)
The best thing about this team? When I was busy baking in the kitchen and stressing about whether something would come out of the oven perfectly, I was never stressed about what was happening in the dining room photo studio. Mollie, Kevin, or Karis would call me in to look at a photo and I would beam with pride at the incredible shots.
Planning the Shoot
Before assembling my team, I wanted them to be on board with one thing: Breaking up the photoshoot into two sessions. I knew I could not handle an eight-day photoshoot with 75-80 bakes on my small budget. I can’t hire an army of bakers, and I’m not spry enough to do that myself. Plus, I signed my cookbook deal last summer, so it was too late for a photo shoot that same season. I wanted some photos of the bounty of Midwestern summer produce and sunshine. Luckily, the whole team agreed to split the shoot in half and do two four-day photoshoots. I’m glad I did that because it took me two days to recover after the four-day shoot.
Although I’m not necessarily a fan of using artificial intelligence for writing, I see AI as an skilled administrative assistant. I learned this perspective from a post by
. I fed AI a list of my recipes for the shoot and asked it to create a baking schedule, starting three weeks out. It spit out a shockingly good schedule (It knew that some bread recipes needed to start the night before!), and only needed a bit of editing.
I arranged a balance of recipes for each day of shooting. Many recipes could be made well ahead of time (lemon curd, Vollkornbrot) so that they were ready to go as soon as the team showed up. A couple of recipes could be made a day or two ahead. Some recipes had a dough that could be frozen (cookies) or had a component (like a cake layer) that could be made ahead and frozen, then thawed and decorated on the day. I aimed to have one substantial savory recipe every day that we could eat for lunch or dinner, like a quiche. Molly had the idea of slicing up one of the breads and photographing them as sandwiches, so we just ate those for lunch that day. Perfect! Some recipes were baked the same day, photographed hot out of the oven, and no fancy food styling tricks were required; think melty butter on hot biscuits and oozy cheese coming from warm turnovers. This arrangement worked well, although I will try to make as much as possible ahead of time for the next shoot.
Shooting at Home
Guess what? All of these recipes were shot in my little Chicago Bungalow. Although it was chaotic to live amongst a photoshoot, I can’t imagine doing it any other way. As I was baking, Kevin arrived with his array of equipment to set up in my dining room, which was now the photo studio. Mollie delivered a couple of carloads of dishes, linens, tiles, and other props, which took over our guest room/cat room and office. All of the furniture we had to move clogged the living room. The kitchen and laundry area were an explosion of bakes, ingredients, pots, pans, leftovers, and to-go boxes. But we managed to live amongst the exciting chaos in our little bungalow.
Shooting at home meant that I had all of the baking tools and ingredients at my disposal. I could bake as soon as I woke up and keep baking until bedtime. If we needed a random ingredient, I had it. I didn’t have to drive from some random studio to my house to pick something up or spend extra energy loading and unloading my car daily.
Oh, and the cats didn’t seem to mind one bit. Rio, the kitten, even slept under the table where the photos were being shot. They wanted to be part of the action
What did I do with all of the leftovers?
This is the most FAQ. Thankfully, only a tiny bit of food went to waste. Several friends came to pick up baked goods in the evening. I foisted nearly whole cakes on a few people, even if they only wanted a slice. One day, Sarah and Nirali raided the pile of leftovers. Jason, Karis, and I scarfed anything that could be construed as breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
Ok. It’s time to get back to writing…and gearing up for the second half of the photoshoot.
Happy Baking,
Martin
Love your sweet kitty--my fur baby Leo helps me test recipes all the time!
So pleased that AI helped you with the photoshoot. It's good for something!