Atlas lunch menu: Fish Tacos

Avenue Bistro & Atlas Cafe, both in the Comox Valley and owned by the lovely Sandra & Trent, are return clients of mine for which I’m incredibly grateful. I’m not even exaggerating for the purpose of this blog post - they are talented and generous and collaborative and I could eat nothing else but Atlas Cafe’s falafel for the rest of my life and be happy. Ok, and maybe bartender Christina’s smoothie to balance it out.

Initially I photographed Avenue when it first opened (2 years ago? 3?! Wow time flies!) and recently went back to take some updated shots, followed by a day at Atlas shooting food, staff, and the restaurant interior for an update of their website. I occasionally need to dust off my headshot shooting skills for some of my restaurant clients (there are actual people full of talent & creativity behind all of the delicious food that I shoot) and they need to be in the spotlight sometimes too, as much as they resist every waking second of it. The interesting part about this here though, was that we shot customers: real restaurant guests that we often ambushed prior to their lunch. Thankfully they were all wonderful sports! Here’s a few of my favourites, plus some tasty food shots too.

Christina @ Atlas garnishing a Mojito

Atlas dinner menu: steak, potatoes + seasonal veg

Avenue Bistro

Find Avenue Bistro: website •  @avenuebistro • Facebook Fan Page

Find Atlas Cafe: website

Seriously, go for the falafel! Go now!

~ j

So this was a dose (ha ha) of something different into my food and beverage shooting routine: prescription medication! However, Jane & Greg at Living Room Pharmacy were a breath of fresh air. They were recommended to me by a dear and long time client of mine, Sandra of Atlas Cafe & sister restaurant Avenue Bistro, all of which are in the Comox Valley (that’s on Vancouver Island, about mid way up, for all you city dwelling folk).

The main focus of the day was to get some shallow depth of field still-life shots of what happens behind the pharmacy counter, as well as a few lifestyle photos in and around the store. The behind the scenes shots was the fun part, because us creatives on set got to pick out the most colourful, crazy, psychedelic looking pills for the shots…like kids in a candy store (and then we got the explanation of what each one was for!).

Also on this project, and driving Living Room Pharmacy’s re-branding from their previous identity, was Perry & Mandy at Spring Advertising. I’ve been to Spring’s office, and it’s busy, let me tell you. I don’t know exactly what they’re doing, but they’re doing something right because they’ve got some great clients and neat projects on the go. Maybe it’s because they offer to go out and grab a coffee for all those waiting in their lounge chairs like they did for me (or else that kind man thought I was someone much more important than I actually am). Either way, I just hope Perry’s fancy new wheels didn’t get him a speeding ticket on the way home from our shoot that day. Perry: I, too, have new wheels now, so ha.

Find Spring: @SpringAd •  Facebook Fan Page •  website

Find Living Room Pharmacy: website

Find Atlas Cafe and Avenue Bistro: Atlas website • Avenue website • @avenue • Avenue Facebook Fan Page

~ j

Through this vast interweb and the likes of Twitter and Facebook, I recently met Bethany from Comox Valley Dwellings, a great little “online magazine (or web-log ”blog”) for Renovations and Interior Design in the Comox Valley” contributed to daily by Bethany. I think I tweeted something about heading back home to The Comox Valley for a weekend, and we came across one another. We chatted, Bethany then offered me the great opportunity to reach out her Valley readers by posting a weekly recipe and food photo, and I gladly accepted! Since the flattering intro post there, every Friday you’ll find a photo+recipe combo from me as part of their weekend round-up.

Some of the recipes and accompanying photos included on Comox Valley Dwellings so far have been  harissa prawns, Vikram Vij’s burttermilk pakoras, and red potato salad.

To keep up with Comox Valley Dwellings:

• • follow Bethany
• • become a fan on the CVD facebook page
• • Sign up for their emails

Bring on everything home reno and decor  in the Comox Valley ~ including food!

At the start of the Summer I was hired to shoot food photography for a pretty great book. You may recall that I’m from Vancouver Island, and if you’ve read any of my blog posts before, you know that I love making food look delicious on camera, to say the least.

So, when the chance came to shoot the food for a Comox Valley based book that promotes local chefs, local food, and the people who live on the Island that grow and produce this food..’Sign me up’ I said!

Here’s the cover and some shots from the book…I hope you enjoy them.

The book is available for purchase on the North Vancouver Island Chefs Association website.

I have come to the conclusion that the saying “be careful what you wish for” really is true. In the Spring, I told myself (and the Universe apparently) that I should spend more time on Vancouver Island. My family still living in the Comox Valley is certainly one reason for this, but I also have been working with some new clients in my hometown (I promise to write more about that soon) and want to become more involved there. Funny to me how these things end up materializing, but in this case it was all a good thing.

So I put it out there, and as I look back over June I’ve spent over 10 hours either on or waiting for a BC Ferry to get to Vancouver Island. But it has been worth every minute.

Taking full advantage of the sun this month, we organized family BBQ’s that included seasonal fruits, rhubarb cake and a to-die-for locally made salsa; my sister and I tested a new veggie burger recipe (full post with recipe to follow) as part of a larger project; and a few of us went boating to Tribune Bay. All in all my June travels turned out to be a healthy mix of work and play.

Why does everything taste better barbequed?

This was the only shot of the rhubarb cake...it went that fast.

Chrome Island Lighthouse Station

Tribune Bay, off of Hornby Island

July has some great things in the works: a cookbook local to Vancouver Island, a vegetable gardening book with a fabulous local gardener and blogger, food photography for a new Vancouver restaurant, a trip to Calgary, and a birthday. Looks pretty darn good to me.

Table Champetre translates to country table, and being that this local food experience is held in a field, with food from the area farmers prepared by one of the Comox Valley’s newest Chefs, there’s no doubt the title is quite appropriate.

The event will take place at Tannadice Farm in Courtenay, BC on July 26th, with food prepared by Chef Ronald St. Pierre of the Valley’s very popular Locals Restaurant. Tickets are on sale now, so if you plan on being in the Comox Valley at this time, or considering a Summer Island excursion, this might just be the perfect dinner event.

I photographed some of Chef Ronald’s creations this week as part of a larger project (exciting details to come soon!) and I don’t think I’ve ever met a chef with a more outward sense of humor. During the shoot, he literally brought out a 4′ long painted ceramic fish and, holding it up towards me, asked “Shall we put this in the background of the gazpacho?” His humour, combined with his culinary skills and the local food scene in the Comox Valley will surely make this event a success.