It's getting real! First photo shoot...

Yesterday was our first photo shoot for The Sobremesa Cookbook! I was very nervous, not only because it was a first for me, but also because it meant going into downtown Barcelona, which I’ve only done once in three months.

Becky Lawton, our photographer for the project, is absolutely amazing. Not only is she one of Europe’s leading food photographers, she is also a lovely person, and I have a feeling she likes me too and we are going to become friends. We worked wonderfully together.

Since the budget is tight, I couldn’t afford to hire a stylist, and we did the styling together. I wasn’t too bad at it, if I do say so myself. Becky had genially pre-selected a whole table full of props she thought I might like, given the inspiration board I put together for her and other photos I’ve shown here that I like. A true professional, she really understood what I wanted. Working with someone like Becky is such a blessing. One of my favorite things in life is when people cross your path who’s company you full out enjoy. That’s what happened yesterday. I feel very lucky about that.

We decided to start out slow and shoot only 3 recipes the first day. We were pressed to get on the photos because a couple of ingredients are going out of season (artichokes and peas, mainly) and there were some really warm days here recently. My farmer friend Dídac, who is donating the produce for the project, was holding his breath. He (or rather, nature) came through and we got some beautiful produce, which makes capturing the beauty of it all so much easier.

The day really flowed and I relaxed more and more as we got into it, so much so that after lunch (I am very pleased to say we actually ate what I cooked for the shoot! That’s how naturally styling is done these days, or at least in this project.) the photo of the last recipe we shot is my very favorite one so far. Here it is, a sneak peak just for you. More soon, thanks always for your support!

Please do continue to spread the word about our crowdfunding campaign; we are still about 2500 euro short of our goal!