Denny Breakfast Competition

When drifting through blogesphere and the 'book of faces', I keep coming across the Denny Ad below. It links you to Denny's 'Home Is' site which currently has a competition where you can win a free breakfast. Cliona, Aoife and I created the shot above as part of the Denny repackaging project posted about previously.

I hadn't mentioned before about the propping for the shots - nothing like a good excuse to trawl auction houses and second hand and charity shops *squeels of delight*. Parents cupboards were also raided looking for those perfectly mismatched and homely looking table settings. Loving those egg cups!

And see, real people....Richard from Denny, Nik from Wonderland and fab assistant Aoife tuck into a Denny home(see, not studio!)-cooked brekkie!

Have a great weekend! I'm looking forward to having Sunday off to hang out in the Hamptons ;)

recent shoot

Here's me deep in concentration - or was it moodiness?! - on one of those January 'in denial about being back to work' shoots. It was with photographer Harry Weir and so we had fun....Check out Harry's new blog for some more snaps of our mischief!

Denny Mania!

Well, it's certainly Denny Mania out there as the new packaging hit the shelves a few weeks ago. Here are some snaps I managed to get, not without many raised eyebrows from fellow shoppers, quickly followed by sweeping of Denny products into their trolleys leaving nothing but bare shelves (ok, embellished a bit, but not much...this packaging is hot!). Sadly I didn't manage to get a snap of a bus advertising the Denny Gold Medal Sausages (even though I was willing to die for the cause!!) You can also see the sausage and bacon packs at the end of this TV ad.

new work space

Well, one day of filming down so far (see previous post) so I thought I'd show you where I've been working....

Photos from House Beautiful

one more sleep...

One more sleep before I head off and fly into what is being dubbed 'Snowmageddon'! I'm heading to the states. East Hampton in The Hamptons to be precise. I'm hoping the weather there isn't that bad as I cant fit any more warm clothes in my 23kg baggage allowance!! (How is a girl to survive on rations like that?!).

Sorry, I digress....I'm very excitedly off to work for a few weeks on Barefoot Contessa. I worked on it a few years ago so I'm really looking forward to catching up with everyone on production. The show, presented by Ina Garten, has broadcast on the American Food Network for quite a few years now where it is hugely popular, and has more recently come to the UK Food Networktoo so you may be familiar with it.

Now, job aside for a second, you'll never guess where I'll be living? Only 'Gingerbread Lane'! *heart pounds, hand goes to brow and faints* I'll be back in touch once I get settled in there...

Denny Repackaging

Denny (an Irish institution for rashers and sausages!) commissioned photographer Cliona O'Flaherty (along with fabulous assistant Aoife of course) and I to style and shoot the food for the repackaging of their extended range of products (that go well beyond breakfast). That's what this post was all about. It is all to tie in with Denny's 'Home Is' campaign which is sweeping the nation!

We worked with the talented team from Wonderland WPA in London who designed the packs, gave us lots of ever-professional briefs, acted as fabulous models, drank LOTS of tea and ate lots of 'toasted specials'!

The brief was to use a very lifestyley and homely feel that used real people in real life situations. I even sometimes had my hand smacked for making things look too neat and 'styled', for God's sake! We had barmy conversations about why we were eating a particular product in a certain situation. The scenario had to make sense and be relative for all of us to be happy with the shot. Just like actors on stage i guess, where you have to believe it yourself if you want anyone else to! So yes, the food definitely looks real and very approachable for consumers.

So the first phase of new packs were launched a couple of weeks ago (so how excited were we all!?). Since then, we've all been like inspector clueso around supermarkets and snapping excitedly when we see the packs displayed (to strange looks of other shoppers). But more about that in future posts. In the meantime, heres a sample of a before and after of what we achieved.

behind the scenes of the Blueberry Pie business cards

When I announced my new business cards here I forgot to show you some behind the scenes snaps of the photography for the cards. By now, if you ventured onto my website to take a peek inside the cards you will see I came up with 6 recipes (so 6 different cards) and all in-keeping with the Blueberry theme of course! Photographer Cliona O'Flaherty took the fab shots to go with the recipes (and of course helped me eat my way through the goodies too!).

Empire Paul Rankin

Here are some snaps from a recent shoot with chef Paul Rankin for yet another string to his bow with the expansion of his food products. This time some great mushroom and sauce packs. I'll pop the finished packs up (shot by photographer Gary Jordan) once they are finished.

Paul being styled and then Paul styling his food