In two years of sharing my food with you, across the interwebs, I’ve come to love the baking photos best:
These are the sweets I keep in a special folder,
quarantined from the riff raff.
But then,
sometimes I open my oldest digital photo album, and I find these:
These photos are the first I ever snapped of food that I had made. Looking at them now is a joy. A smile, really.
Mostly because, I think about myself back then- in 2009- working on production of the film “How Do You Know?” in Philadelphia and how fun it was to stay up past midnight day in and day out, baking, so that I could bring a new dessert to set every single day for sixty straight and unrelenting days.
*True story.
*Unfortunately.
And when I see the flash of my point-and-shoot Canon reflecting on every cupcake, every pie slice, every last styled crumb, I remember how
absolutely
just down right
beautiful I thought these photos were at the time.
I’m *as proud as my mother on the night I met [and hugged] Leonardo DiCaprio in 2008.
*just about
I love that, by staring at these glossies, I can know the start of my food writing. I love that I can see the way I decorated then, the way I’ve changed in years since. I love that I have visual record of how obscene I am. How excessively and eccentrically I live my life- never thinking twice about baking for sixty days straight. Never even pausing to consider whether or not I could possibly run out of sweet ideas.
They’re happy photos.
Is Paul Rudd just as dreamy in real life? -swoon-
SO dreamy. And down to earth :)
I love these photos. I feel like I can almost taste the deliciousness through the screen! I can’t believe these were your firsts–apparently, you’ve always been amazing.
I want to meet Reese Witherspoon some day, she seems very down to earth. I just watched Water For Elephants on DVD recently and loved her look in the period costumes.
Ahhh, I too have long lost photos taken of cupcakes. I loved them then, I still love them now. But I’ve learned a few things about food photography along the way and I love to continue to learn new things.
Food is a beautiful thing.
Reese is very sweet and humble!
They’ve gotten much better, but these early ones are still making me hungry – especially the last one.
Wow, sixty days straight. No wonder Leonardo wanted to hug you.
I love this. I like to look back at where I’ve come from myself. its a great motivator!
I can’t help but want one of those adorable little rainbow cakes. Do you have a recipe?
Hey Skye! http://www.canyoustayfordinner.com/2011/02/10/rainbow-tie-dye-cupcakes/
These photos warm by baker’s heart! And baking 60 days straight – bliss!
I’m hoping to kick off 14 days of Valentine’s treats starting tomorrow if I can kick this head cold to the curb.
Have a sweet day!
Sounds like a delicious VDay plan!
You have always wowed me with your photos even the ones at the very begining! They still look delicious! :)
I would love to have every one of the recipes for these pictures! I think my family would go nuts for them =D
I bet you were the popular girl onset having people run up asking what you made that day! Gorgeous pics now and then!
I love this post. Love to see the progress made from such great food photographers!
: ))
Jen
It’s a shock you even had time to bake anything with sexy Leo running around. I’d probably end up designating all my free time to stalking. That in itself is a great feat!
If I baked more, I’d have this kind of photo too,but then someone would have to eat what I baked and that would probably be me. Maybe it’s better this way…
Your “first” photos are still better than mine :) My first step in improving my food photography was getting a better camera, the next step is getting my own kitchen (Mid-March! A lovely apartment near Umass–Cliffside, perhaps you know it?), and the final step will be finagling some of that “food styling” I hear so much about. I cannot wait :)
Oh, I love all of these photos! It’s so wonderful to be able to look back and see how far you’ve come. Next time I’m feeling blue, I’m going to do just that–not with photos, but in other ways. Thanks, Andie! Just love you to pieces! XO
The best part of documenting your ideas/creations is that you can track your growth
I love that even your oldest food photos look amazing! Mine were…not so pretty. ;)
I love this post! I love looking back at old photos I’ve taken and how much I’ve grown from them.
You definitely didn’t suck then and you are even more to the awesome now. I don’t overly care for sweets (I’m more of a dip and main course kind of girl) but you make tie died cupcakes look good!
Love those tie-dye cupcakes!
This post reminds me how very much I want to improve on my photography…
This post is everything I want to do in my life right now. Photograph food? No. Bake 60 days straight? Are you crazy?! Meet celebs? Yes, but not possible unless they show up where I teach or I become paparazzi. Dive into the pictures and eat every last morsel? Ohhhh yes, but, the REAL thing I want to do: Celebrate the things that make me happy! Just like you did with this post! (And just like I did by clicking on your link for a few minutes in a hectic evening! Thanks for being here!)
I think I just gained 5 pounds READING this post. Yum!
Wow, I think your old pictures look awesome, too. What are the gems in the very last photograph? Something with pb &j?
Hey Tamar! Thanks :) The last photo is of peanut butter and jelly bars by Martha Stewart!http://www.marthastewart.com/338877/peanut-butter-and-jelly-bars
Yum! All of these look scrumptious. Especially the cupcakes.
I love your blog, Andie. I just discovered it a couple weeks ago, and I read your posts every day now 8^)
I can (and will) vouch for every single delicious day of the 60. I think the grasshopper brownies were my favorite. Or the carrot cake cupcakes. Or, you know, all of them.
Glad to see you are doing so well – I love peeking in on your blog (found you on Pinterest!) and seeing what deliciousness you’ve posted recently.
The photo of the Rainbow tye dyed cupcake is exactly how I discovered this site almost one year ago. My daughter was turning 10 and she had seen these cupcakes somewhere and your recipe, although I believe referenced, came up in the first few on Google…Your photo was the most vibrant,inviting one of them all.On Feb. 24th, she turns 11…and guess what? She recently said to me….”for my birthday this year, can we make those rainbow cupcakes again?”….you bet !!!!