Covering the Oakland Food Scene

I was recently given several assignments to cover the Oakland food scene. If you don't live in the Bay Area then you may not know that Oakland has recently taken some of the spot light off of San Francisco as being the place to dine in the Bay Area. Many East Bay and San Francisco chefs looking for cheaper rents have opened restaurants in Oakland over the past few years, with many others in the works. Having lived in Oakland on and off now for over ten years, it is exciting to see what's going on here. Having grown up in a community that grew its own food, had its own bakery, and even made its own tofu and soy milk, seeing restaurants like Ramen, where they make all their own broth and noodles, thrive, is just great. I love what's going on here and getting paid to photograph it brings it all full circle for me.

My Work

Moved Back to Bay Area!

We've just moved back to the Bay Area from Austin, Texas. My husband just finished this big project there, you can see it on his website if you like: http://www.ezrawheeler.com/ It's the White Cliff project. We've lived in Austin on and off over the years, and went back there to do this project and test the waters for staying permanently. After some weighing and seeing how things are going there, we decided the Bay Area and the landscape of Northern California was just too engrained in us to give it up. It's our home, so we are so happy to be back!!

The move back was long, we had to drive at 55mph for the moving truck and unlike all of our other adventures across the country we couldn't stop to dilly dally.  It was hard to look out on this vast landscape and not take any side trips. Stuck in the drivers seat, I could at least enjoy the views.

Sally Brown on the cover of Austin Woman

I got to do a cover shoot for Austin Woman last month-Sally Brown at The Lake Austin Spa and Resort. A great location and a beautiful, sassy subject to boot. The weather was not so cooperative though, it was actually raining when this shot was taken. A little digital retouching and...Check out the sky I added (below).

Suzanna Choffel for Austin Woman

I recently had the pleasure of shooting Suzanna Choffel for an Austin Woman style shoot. Suzanna is a singer/songwriter and doesn't normally model. She is amazingly photogenic and was very laid back about the shoot, willing to try whatever. It was a lot of fun. I got to choose the location-an artist compound in East Austin called Artpost. (They host open studios once or twice a year and if you have a chance to get to one, the place itself is worth the trip.) For more images go to http://www.smcintyre.com/

Suzanna waiting for the shooting to start.

One of my favorite things about Austin

Is the Wyld Wood shows. http://www.wyldwoodshows.com/ My friends Amy and Andrew are huge music fans. So they put together these shows in their back yard (they have a huge back yard). Everyone brings a blanket and picnic dinner for the event, gets to listen to great music and enjoy the evening. 

Food Photography!!

I've been very busy producing a new food portfolio. It's been exhilarating, exhausting, messy, and fun. Back when I was an assistant in San Francisco in the 90's I used to help my friend Steve Underwood all the time on big food shoots. He does a lot of packaging photography-like the photo you might see on a cereal box or a Nature Burger box. He is the photographer, but people in the industry know that a food stylist works on that type of shoot and the stylist has an assistant as well. I would help Steve and we usually had a second photo assistant too. That's five people working on a single shot.

Well, we are living in a new era. It's the age of the do it yourself-pairing down-going lean business model. The do more than one job at once era, is more like it. (I was recently photographing a news caster and she told me how she no longer has a camera person, she carries and sets up all the equipment herself.) I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. In this spirit, I decided to go it alone and do the styling and photography for this new portfolio all myself. It's kind of tricky, and hard at times to not get food on the camera. Sometimes I put tape over the shutter button so I won't get flour stuck in the crevices of my digital SLR. I don't plan on doing this for clients, but it's exhilarating to create these photos with out depending on anyone else. For more go to http://www.smcintyre.com/

Another Cover!

I recently finished a story on the art scene in Austin for Austin Home Magazine and am pleased to see my portrait of artist Roi James on the cover! For other portraits in this series see my website, in the main portfolio: http://www.smcintyre.com/