If a Chocolate Photo Assignment is reason enough to not blog for a bit, well then, I have a Chocolate Photo Assignment.

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I-DO-I-DO-I-DO!! And it’s the highlight of my month! I had to read the email request from Choco’a, one of my favourite Chocolate boutiques in the city, twice, thrice, before it sank in…would I be up for shooting a few of their gorgeous chocolate and cakefied creations (that I’ve actually blogged about before, here and here) in their boutiques? Are you kidding me?! Can my camera and I twig together a little nest in your store and photograph dessert all day and night long??

The first day of this two day shooting assignment began this week. I spent much of the day surrounded by chocolate, moving their displays around, re-angling my lens every two degrees and shooting the same things over and over again, occasionally peeling off a price tag and shoving it in a corner so I could photograph a gift arrangement [and then realizing midway that there was a line of now-mixed-up-and-homeless price tags waiting to be stuck back on. oops.]…hundreds and hundreds of shots, just because my camera has this strange uncontrollable magnetism towards food, and I can’t stop clicking for the life of me when faced with that much goodness.

Last evening I sat down to sift through and post-process the massive set of photos I’d taken. As I started narrowing down to a handful of photos that could actually serve some legitimate purpose for Choco’a other than just appeasing my strange camera-food fetish, I realized…WHOA. This is time consuming.

Don’t get me wrong – I’m loving every minute of it, and if I could, I’d spend every waking minute rejiggering these photos…BUT, I have a day job (which is – gasp – not food related at all, unless you count lunch breaks.) + an important family milestone coming up this Friday + some major aesthetic personal-overhauling that needs to be done prior to Friday’s family gathering + personal emails and facebook messages that have been hankering for attention for days now + maybe a swim squeezed in there somewhere so that my eyeballs don’t dangle out staring at the computer screen for so long + I’m nervous about these photos not turning out right + I haven’t even looked at my blog since last week (except now. and since I’ve barely said anything edible other than a scant word of chocolate or dessert thrown in a few times, it doesn’t even count.) and AHHH I FEEL LIKE I’M BEING SUCKED INTO A VORTEX OF ANXIETY AND OH HELL I JUST NERVOUSLY WOODPECKED MY NAILS THAT HAD BEEN MANICURED FOR FRIDAY NAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA……

[Voice from vortex]
But I do love food photography. I really, really do. I wouldn’t give up shooting chocolate and dessert for the WORLD.
…unless the world had magic trees that bore chocolate-covered espresso beans and white sweet yogurt pretzels.

To regain some semblance of sanity in life, I’m reprioritizing. My blog will be taking a little breather for a few days. Maybe a week, maybe ten days, maybe less, maybe more. Depends on how many of the crazy angled photographs actually move up to the next round of editing. And depends on how wild I go with my camera on Day 2 of the assignment next week.

In the meantime, here’s one of the photos I snapped so that everyone who’s read this rambling post thus far, hoping for something remotely food-related, doesn’t abandon my poor blog in a fit of raw unsatiated hunger…

And oh, Choco’a owns the exclusive rights to the two photos in this post, so please, please, please don’t use these photos in any way. Not like anyone would want to, but if you did, just imagine a friend-who-you-want-as-more-than-a-friend discovering a mug shot of you holding a 345682A placard, and asking you about it. What would you say…‘I inappropriately used a copyrighted picture of petit gateaux’? Lame.

Anyhoo, wish me luck with getting some decent photos out of this project, I desperately need it. That, any photo editing tips. Or an extra pair of eyeballs.

[Wow, if someone could have broken a new record for an out-of-blogosphere message, I think I may have just broken it.]

CategoriesCity DubaiTags,

Author: InaFryingPan

With a family legacy of ingenious cooks, a nutritionist and chef-extraordinaire mother, and a father who introduced me to steak and caviar when I could barely reach the table, I had no choice but to acquire a keen awareness of food during my childhood years in Dubai. But it was only after I found myself on a college campus in Philadelphia – far away from home, too cheap as a student to spend on anything other than pizza, and with dorm rooms that had little rat-holes of kitchens if they even had them at all – when I developed a heightened appreciation of food. An appreciation of food that I once ate every night at the dinner table in Dubai, but that was now an entire ocean away. I lusted for the culinary treasures that lay outside the stale walls of my college dining hall, hijacked friends’ kitchens to try my hand at something, anything , remotely edible, and greedily raided different websites in search of highly-rated restaurants. With my move to New York to work for a consulting firm that secretly harbored self-professed foodies, my appreciation transformed into a passion, an addicition. I felt like everyone around me in New York was talking about food: where to get the best cupcakes, pizza slices, banh mi, kati rolls, pho, fried chicken, and every other food item out there that is just a plain old dish in some part of the world, but that’s become hyped to unforeseen proportions in New York. What fuelled my addiction over time was travel to different cities, both for work and play, which gave me unfettered access to the culinary havens of not only New York, but also of DC, Virginia, Chicago, Houston, Vegas, Austin, Seattle and even a little city called Bentonville (Arkansas!). After 9 years away from home, I’ve finally taken the leap to come back to Dubai – with not just an awareness, but genuine appreciation and passionate addiction for what I’d taken for granted as a child. Mom, I’m back to reclaim my seat at your dinner table, and to rediscover this city with its ever-expanding menu of international flavors.

13 thoughts on “If a Chocolate Photo Assignment is reason enough to not blog for a bit, well then, I have a Chocolate Photo Assignment.”

  1. Sally says:

    Abandon your blog? Never…we’ll miss you and wait patiently for your return. Blogging is for writing about real life after all.

    Reply
  3. rado says:

    love the post, again :)
    1- good luck for the family event, keep your hands neat, be pretty and smillllllle ah and take pics of the food :
    2- the choco pics are just great! why dont you enable the right click on your post, momentaraly…just an ideaa

    have fun!

    Reply
  4. Rajani@eatwritethink says:

    oh wow to be surrounded by all that chocolate goodness… you have your hands full girl, bet ur happy! … btw… you dont really need any aesthetic overhaul as far as i am concerned!!

    Reply
    1. InaFryingPan says:

      @Sally – Aw thank you lady, you’re a rockstar for saying that :)

      @Abigail – Thank you!

      @rado – yaaay, merci beaucoup! Actually, I’m going to leave my camera at home for this event…I get shy to take food photos in front of such large gatherings :/

      @Rajani@eatwritethink – ya know, I always feel like such a slacker whenever I complain about too much work, coz I don’t have any babies to handle – now THAT’s a full time juggling job! I think I need to add babies to the mix to make my whining seem legitimate…
      But thank you for the vote of confidence…as for the face lift, tell that to people at work. I have been told that I look run over by a truck lately :o

  5. Yasmin says:

    Gosh, I always find myself cracking up after each and every post you write out. Not only do I think you should pursue a career in food photography but also in food writing/copywriting. You are one talented chica and I can see you managing this tornado gracefully (with some cake pops to mediate some of the nerves!)

    Best of luck, we believe in you!

    Reply
  6. Francine Spiering says:

    as if I can pluck these chocolates right off the screen. Amazing STUNNING photography

    Reply
    1. InaFryingPan says:

      @Yasmin – YOU ARE SO SWEET. Oh my goodness, I am so overwhelmed by your message – I think you’re way too kind Yasmin. Now I’m just going to have to treat you to a floofay bun, I just have to. *OVERWHELMED*

      @Francine Spiering – Thank you!! I think they still have the lollipops at their store in Barsha, still very there for all to eat and totally pluckable :)

      @DevinaDivecha – …and all it took was one word to make me feel all warm and happy and loved inside. Thank you lady. *HUGS BACK*

  9. saleem says:

    Nice photos – love the chocolates – need to get some home.

    Reply
    1. InaFryingPan says:

      @Elainegan – Thanks! These lollies could do with some red lacquered hand modeling ;)

      @saleem – thanks dad, your request was fulfilled…except that those two boxes I brought home seem to have already been ’reserved’ by the other two ladies of the house. eeps. :/

      @Meris – awww thanks lady! A choco lolly in return for a slice of your legendary cheesecake pleeeeaase.

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