A Collection of Plates and Cups aka Photography Props

As you can see in the images above and below, my photography props have formed a serious collection. 

Some things came from my Grandma’s kitchen, and others I have accumulated over the years both second hand and new.

I have been lucky to find many very creative makers whilst searching for props, and I thought I’d share a few here. 

Whether you are into food photography or not, most of these suggestions are just lovely things to have or use in your home, or give as a really thoughtful gift.

1. Easy portable backgrounds from Capture by Lucy - This is the only photography specific suggestion! These photography backgrounds from the UK are the best I’ve used, and the last really well (I’m still using the first two I bought in 2017!). They are a great investment if you want a variety of backgrounds to use in your photography.

2. LouiseM Studio - I came across Louise’s work as she is the ceramicist who makes the butter keepers for Pepe Saya. Louise makes many lovely things, and I particularly like her use of colour. I recently bought a few plates from her - dinner plates that are actually the perfect size to serve a cake on - and I am getting a lot of use out if them.

3. Daisie Mae - I have been following Meg on Instagram for a while, and recently she opened her online store selling her handmade cushions and lampshades and also some really fun cups and vases. I have two of the pastel cup and saucer sets, and I think they’d be lovely as a daily tea cup and not just a photography prop!

4. Bridget Bodenham - Bridget probably needs little introduction, she’s been making her ceramics for a while now and if you’ve ever been to a Finders Keepers Market you might have seen her wares there. I really like the individuality of Bridget’s work, but also how every piece is also very functional if you were going to use it day to day.

5. Bec Fing Designs - I’ve mentioned Bec before I think, but I will again as I really like her bright colourful designs. Bec produces table linen and tea towels from her own hand painted designs, and the tea towels in particular I have found useful for a pop of colourful fabric in my photos.

Local is Lovely Workshop, July 2016 - A Photo Recap

I feel like I'm always saying this, but it's been a while since I posted anything here. If you follow me on Instagram you will have seen what I've been up to in the past month or so, including attending another wonderful weekend away at a Local is Lovely Workshop. 

I was lucky enough to attend the first ever Local is Lovely Workshop back in November 2014 (posts here and here), and always knew I wanted to go back. When I saw Sophie (Local is Lovely) and Luisa would be teaming up with Molly Yeh (My Name is Yeh), I knew this was a best opportunity to go back to Kimbri Farm. Meeting Molly, and all the other workshop participants was just super lovely. I never tire of meeting new like minded people and listening to how food and photography intertwines their lives. I also never tire of Sophie's amazing food, and the wonderful opportunity of being in the country and having an amazing setting to relax in and shoot great photos (almost no styling needed!). 

I have included a few of my favourite photos from the weekend, and yes, those blood orange challah doughnuts were as good as they looked (Molly has the recipe on her blog just FYI!)!

I would also like to recommend a really great podcast called My Open Kitchen, put together by Sophie Hansen and Skye Manson, which has just released it's first episode. During the first episode Molly is interviewed (which was recorded during the time she was here for the workshop), and its a really great interview. The whole podcast is great to listen to and I for one loved listening to it on the train home from work - a much more enjoyable ride than normal!

Apart from spending time at amazing workshops, I have been working and trying to enjoy baking in our new kitchen as much as possible. I have been in the kitchen so much that I have hardly been on the computer (to edit photos and write blog posts!), in a few weeks! I do have recipes in the works and things ready to post here, I just can't stand spending the whole weekend on the computer and not in the kitchen! Especially as I have four months of not cooking to make up for!

Anyway, I have some delicious things coming to the blog soon (or my version of ‘soon’, I should say), including a blood orange cake which I am quite excited about. I made it a couple of weeks ago and I’m pretty sure I ate most of it myself, which when you see the cake you will understand the seriousness of that statement! 

For now I’ll leave you with my photo recap of the wonderful weekend that was the Local is Lovely Workshop. Don’t forget to check out my Instagram and Instagram Story for what I’m up to in the kitchen in between blog posts!

Rhubarb & Olive Oil Cakes - Made by Molly Yeh

Molly icing her cake with tahini buttercream

Molly decorating her cake - complete with a marzipan kangaroo!

The beginnings of challah doughnuts - making the dough

Challah dough

Molly with her freshly fried doughnuts

Blood orange glaze

Challah doughnuts with Blood Orange glaze

Making sourdough

Finished sourdough 

Beautiful fresh produce from Epicurean Harvest

Molly making Shakshuka

Shakshuka with homemade sourdough

Summer Afternoon Tea with The Girls

In my last post, I mentioned that soon I would have a couple of things to share with you all. This is one of them! 

I am very excited to share, that in collaboration with Liveability, I have created an event guide for a Summer Afternoon Tea. 

I organised, styled, catered and photographed the event, and have put together the guide and mood board for the event which can be viewed on the Liveability site. 

A few of the recipes made on the day, and shared in the Liveability post are my own creations as well. 

I have always enjoyed a good afternoon tea. I love a good pot of tea, especially when the tea can be drunk from a lovely tea cup. Scones are of course, essential, as are a few sweet treats. As the weekend of this event was fairly warm, I opted to have more cold drinks than actual tea. I made an iced tea, a cordial and also provided water. 

Much of the tea ware and serving plates were vintage, mostly from my own collection. In the Liveability post I have listed my favourite shops to find vintage wares. My current favourite is The Lost and Found Department, which is based on Sydney’s Northern Beaches. 

To see the event guide in full click here. 

Many thanks must go to Cecille and Liveability for allowing me the opportunity to do this. I really appreciate it. Thanks! 

Thanks also to those who attended the event. Thanks for being my wonderful hand models for the afternoon! It means a lot that you came and made the effort for me. 

Thanks also to Jackielyn (Inside the Treasure Chest) for my head shot. I didn’t realise we were shooting one at the time, but I’m very glad you took that photo! Thanks for sharing it with me. 

If you are interested in my catering, styling or photography, please contact me at kulinaryadventuresofkath@gmail.com, or via the contact form on this site.

All baking, styling & photography for this post by Kathryn Vincent of Kulinary Adventures of Kath. 

Local Is Lovely Workshop

As I’m sure many of you have already seen, last week I was lucky enough to attend an amazing workshop hosted by Sophie Hansen, of Local is Lovely. The workshop was held at her family’s farm, Kimbri, in Rydal. It was a lovely place, and I surprisingly enjoyed being outside and on a farm (for those who know me well, know that I am not much of an outdoors person!). It was calming being out of Sydney for a few days, and like always with such workshops, invigorating to be around like minded creative people. 

By now it must seem like I’m a bit of a ‘workshop junkie’, having attended 4 workshops in the last few months. I cannot properly explain how much I have learnt from these workshops. They have been exactly what I needed, and each has added to my photographic skills and most importantly, creative confidence. 

When I first saw Sophie’s post announcing the workshop, I knew that I 100% had to go. There are times when something like this comes up, and I just know that it will be fantastic and exactly what I need. One of those things that you get so excited about, that not being able to go just can’t be an option! This was especially so when I saw that the lovely Luisa Brimble was going to be at the workshop, along with stylist extraordinaire Stephanie Stamatis. I was also rather excited about getting an art lesson from Sophie’s Mum Annie Herron.

The time I spent at Kimbri was just amazing, and I had a really great time. It was wonderful meeting new people, and catching up with those I had met at previous workshops. The food Sophie cooked, with the help of her friend Willa, was amazing. Before attending the workshop, I was in somewhat of a ‘food rut’. I had no motivation to cook anything much, particularly things that would be appropriate of lunch or dinner (read: you can’t have cake for lunch/dinner every day). After enjoying a couple of cooking-free days where I didn’t spend half the day deliberating what to make for dinner (then giving up at about 5:30pm and just having Vegemite on toast…again), I felt ready to tackle the daily dilemma of dinner again. First point of call was re-creating the zucchini galette made for lunch on the first day of the workshop. Luckily, after an ok first attempt, Sophie posted the recipe on her blog, so I could make it again properly! 

Now, a week on, I am still in a slight workshop day-dream, re-living those couple of days through the photos and reading others blog posts about it. So now, I’ll add to those other posts, and go get myself a second helping of zucchini galette!

Stephanie making Turkish coffee.

Styling by Stephanie, photography instruction by Luisa.

Flower arranging with Amelia from Flower Era. 

The finished product. 

At Fabrice's Farm.

Styling by Stephanie. 

Sophie making pasta. 

Styling by Stephanie. 

Art with Annie. 

Pickling. 

Many thanks to Sophie, Luisa & Stephanie for a fantastic couple of days. 

Some sites to look at: 

http://www.local-lovely.com 

http://artclasseswithannieherron.com.au

http://www.stephaniesomebody.com

http://www.luisabrimble.com

http://www.theflowerera.com.au

http://www.racinerestaurant.com.au 

https://www.facebook.com/firstfarmorganics

ABC Delicious Food Photography & Styling Workshop with Olympus and Megan Morton @ The School

Here are a few of the photos from the latest workshop I attended. The location was wonderful, right next door to Kitchen by Mike. The workshop was split into two areas, one shooting dishes made by Kitchen by Mike with the help of the ABC Delicious and Olympus Teams, and the other setting up and shooting props with Megan Morton. 

Slow Living - A Practical Workshop, September 6 & 7

This is my first non-recipe related post. Apologies if you were hoping for a new recipe. However, I attended this amazing and inspiring workshop on the weekend of the 6th and 7th of this month, and can’t possibly not write about it! Oh, and there are photos! 

The workshop was hosted by Luisa Brimble, an amazing Australian photographer, Beth Kirby of Local Milk Blog and Rebekka Seale of Camellia Fiber Company. The calibre and expertise of these three women meant that an opportunity to spend two days with them just couldn’t be missed. 

The workshop was held at Glenmore House. A perfect location for such an event, as everywhere we turned there was a moment or object waiting to be shot. The workshop also involved a handful of other women, all talented, creative and inspirational in their own right - Stacey Clark a witty and talented stylist from Perth, the generous Sneh Roy of Cook Republic, and the tasty and photogenic food for the weekend was provided by Hetty McKinnon of Arthur Street Kitchen, Anna Simamora of The Floury Baker and Claire Dickson-Smith.

The workshop focused on photography, blogging, natural dyeing, food and styling. On the first day Rebekka showed us how to dye linen and cotton with natural dyes and served as our in house model for shoots (thank you!). On both days we got to watch styling master Beth in action, as well as gain invaluable advice and experience from Luisa on photography. I got so much out of these two days, and I certainly don’t look at photography or styling in the same way as I did before the workshop. I feel just a little more confident in my abilities, especially in my ability to be creative. Being creative isn't something I would have attributed to myself in the past. However, being around like minded people has had this wonderful way of being an inspiration and catalyst for all the things brewing in the back of my mind.

As I had only bought my camera a couple of days before the workshop, I still had a lot to learn about it. On the first day I used my 14-42mm lens, and felt slightly frustrated about how my photos were turning out. I kept thinking, oh I can figure something out when I’m editing them. Then on the morning of the second day, I used up my first memory card and when I was swapping it over for another, I thought, why not change the lens as well? As soon as I started using my 40-150mm lens, I was suddenly getting some great shots. So now I am kinda kicking myself for persevering with the 14-42mm lens for so long, but everything is a learning process I guess. 

Thanks again to everyone who organised and ran the weekend, particularly Luisa, Beth and Rebekka. It was an honour to spend a couple of days with you all, and I hope another chance to spend time taking photos and learn from all of you comes my way again soon.

- day one - 

- day two - 

Originally Posted September 19, 2014.