Cento Restaurant

Cento is the newest restaurant endeavor from our client, Food Fight Restaurant Group.  Chef Michael Pruett along with Sommelier (and managing partner) Caitlin Suemnicht are bringing a special dining experience to downtown Madison.  Cento will combine Old World Italian traditions with modern techniques.

We spent the day with Chef Michael photographing (and sampling!) some of his new dishes. I hope everything we tried makes it on the final menu because I can't wait to try them again.

Cento is tentatively scheduled to open the end of June, 2014.  Alla Salute!

Wisconsin Cheese, Cheese of the Month Series

We love cheese.  So.. how lucky were we to work with Wisconsin Cheese on their Cheese of the Month series.  We photograhed the featured cheeses and cheese boards last Fall and just wanted to share some of the images from the series.   A special thanks to food stylist, Stef Culberson for her creative touch. To keep up the with the most recent cheese of the month, check out Wisconsin Cheese or go to their Pinterest Cheese of the Month Board. You can also find what's happening on their Facebook page.

Sailing in Panama

We helped our friends, Don and Karna, sail their boat from Bocas Del Toro, Panama to the San Blas Islands. All I have to say is, "wow, Panama!".

Bocas Del Toro is a gorgeous and relaxing community, full of delightful expats who have found a way to make a living and enjoy the island lifestyle.  The San Blas Islands are stunningly beautiful and home to the Kuna Indians- from wikipedia: The San Blas Islands of Panama are an archipelago comprising approximately 378 islands and cays, of which only 49 are inhabited. They lie off the north coast of the Isthmus of Panama, east of the Panama Canal.

 On our way to the San Blas Islands, we weaved our way through smaller islands, and enjoyed the company of a number of dolphins who would find our boat to swim and jump in it's wake. We crossed the opening to the Panama Canal and were amazed by the size and number of freighters lining up to work their way through the Canal.

Once we sailed into the San Blas Islands we visited a couple of different islands where many other "cruisers" live year round on their boats.  I have included this link to the San Blas Islands to give you more information about the it's history and people. I will say that the smaller islands were the absolute perfect tropical deserted island that all of us picture in our minds.

The sailing was amazing and Panama City was beautiful.  We did get to spend a day and a half in the city exploring and taking photos...

Ten Slices to try-a Pizza Story for Madison Magazine

January- it's cold, it's dark, it's time for the perfect comfort food- pizza!  We love pizza and to have 10 new flavors to try, uhhh... I mean, photograph for the January issue of Madison Magazine was the perfect way to beat the Winter time blues. Check out some tempting new flavors from of our favorite Madison pizzerias:  Grampa's Pizzeria, Ian's Pizza, Paisan's, Pizza Brutta, Cafe Porta Alba, Glass Nickel Pizza Co., Lombardinos, Naples 15, Luigi's Pizza, and Roman Candle Pizzeria

Pancakes!

What a great shoot with Art Director, Tim Burton, for the December cover of Madison Magazine. We photographed this tempting stack of blueberry goodness on location at Marigold Kitchen.
  A popular place like Marigold's doesn't slow down for a photo shoot so we tucked our set up & gear into a corner next to some hungry breakfast patrons one early Thursday morning.  Coffee and a photography tutorial while you wait, courtesy of Madison Magazine! We also want to give a shout out to Tim for the food styling on the stack of pancakes and, ofcourse, the great cover design.

Photographing real ice cream with Jim Rude

I have always been a proponent of "keeping it real" in all aspects of my photography and photographing ice cream can be the ultimate challenge.  Food stylist, Jim Rude, is an amazing food stylist and happens to specialize in working with real ice cream.

During our shoot we took a little time to film Jim on set and prepping in the kitchen.  Check out the video to see a true master at work.  Jim offers his personal philosophy, insights and tools for working with real ice cream.  Video credits go out to Mark Gillespie at GHP Studio and Emily Kuh at Kuh Creative

103rd Race to Mackinac 2011

This year's Chicago Yacht Club's race to Mackinac Island captured by my iphone's Hipstamatic app.

July 15-18, I competed in the 103rd Race to Mackinac. Our S2/9.2, "Intuition",  finished 9th in it's division and weathered the horrific thunderstorm that swept through close to midnight July 17.  The sailboat "Wingnuts" capsized during the storm and 2 of it's crew lost their lives. It is the first time in the history of the race that anyone was killed sailing in the race.

Our boat had a crew of 6, with designated pairs rotating shifts. Two of the crew had competed in the race the past 3 years (finishing 2nd in their division the last 2 years).  For the rest of the crew it was the first time to compete in one of the most challenging and longest annual freshwater sailing races in the world.
Total elapsed time  72:56:17 
I'm already planning for next year's 104th challenge.