Seeing my photos in editorial pieces, especially cover shots, gives me pretty much the same feeling as I remember from being a kid at Christmas. Or when I order a book online, get busy doing other things and forget about it, only to jump in joy at the sight of the Canada Post delivery person coming down my walk way.

This Early Spring cover of GardenWise magazine was no different. Photographed last Summer, it was a pleasure to spend time with Terri-Lyn Storey in her East Vancouver community garden and it was so clear how proud she was of it. And check out her adorable red garden shed inside the magazine, which may have been my favourite part; yes, I have serious garden shed envy as mine is far from adorable!

I photographed several more Vancouver and Victoria community gardeners who will be featured in the coming issues of GardenWise throughout Spring and Summer 2011~ also a great resource if you’re wanting to go see some of the amazing things people are growing in these cities.

Pick up your copy of this Early Spring issue on newsstands now!

~~~

I’ve written about this book project here numerous times, but I just can’t help it - I love it!  This time though, you can participate instead of just reading about it here: Barbara Jo’s Books to Cooks is hosting a launch of Sugar Snaps and Strawberries: Simple Solutions for Creating Your Own Small-Space Edible Garden. The author  Andrea Bellamy and I will be there and we’d love for you to join us!

This beautifully photographed guide is an inspiration to those wanting to grow veggie patches on balconies, patios and the tiniest of urban plots. Filled with practical tips, pointers and problem-solving ideas, Sugar Snaps and Strawberries is a great guide for growing edible landscapes in any small space.

See the event listing here and call Barbara Jo’s Books to Cooks at 604-688-6755 to RSVP/for tickets.

Andrea and I hope to see you there!

~~~

Here they are, from the one and only Andrea Bellamy of Heavy Petal. She dishes on design secrets, and whether your tastes are for formal design, or informal. I lean towards the haphazard and wildness of informal gardens, but probably because of my Type A personality, I was totally wowed by the organization of this particular garden I photographed (below, and in the article)!

You should also consider this a sneak-peek into her book, Sugar Snaps & Strawberries with photos par moi.

Enjoy!

~ j

Change is something I relish. I always have. I think I adapt through all sorts of change more easily than most people; moving cities, a rigorous spring cleaning, or something unexpected (ie.-”Oh my gosh, we have to do what now?”).  Though admittedly since graduating to an age with a 3 in front of it, adapting is becoming a touch more challenging. But just a touch.

Somewhat scary at first — we are talking about the unknown here — but when the excitement and thrill overcome everything else, it’s the best feeling in the world. Plus, I’m quite an impatient person so when I decide I want to do something, I want to do it right now, and I usually do.

So what’s the change happening at JCP? Let me tell you!

First, in an effort to make it very clear what I photograph and who I photograph it for, book publishing&editorial and imagebanks&stock are my 2 simplified areas of focus. Imagebanks are custom libraries of images (some good info here about this on Heather Morton’s blog). As for stock, I’m continuing with FBFA and have signed on with Toronto-based stock photography agency FirstLight. Food&beverage, food lifestyle and garden photography will remain my subject matters of choice, but expect to see the garden photography ramped up with some projects shot over Summer 2010 being published very soon.

Second, I will no longer be taking on new restaurant clients. JCP is at a fork in the road and I’m hangin’ a left. But existing restaurant clients don’t fret! I will happily continue to work with you whenever you need me ~ your return business and valuable relationships are important to me.

Third, I’ve stepped down from my Mentorship and Programming positions on the Board of CAPIC Vancouver, our very important, Canada-wide photography and illustration organization. It’s been a blast working with these folks on the Board, these folks as sponsors, and these wonderful folks at events, but after over 2 years it’s time to let someone else have the experience of organizing these two aspects for the chapter. Graham and Linda will be great in their new roles and I look forward to attending events and continuing to support the work they do for copyright and the industry.

And last but not least, JCP’s website is getting a (mini) facelift! Zboya Design Inc. will be working on this website in the coming weeks so it will reflect all of these changes. You’re going to see new galleries on the portfolio page including a ‘New Work’ gallery; a focus on garden images on the rotating home page image set; and of course regular blog posts keeping you up to date on new projects and exciting news.

The key to all of this: simplify, simplify, simplify.

Meet Brooklyn. She is the beautiful child of a dear, dear friend — and let me tell you, she embodies the word ‘adorable’.

These two graciously spent a few hours with a fellow photog and I at Vista D’Oro Farms for some fun in the garden. It was a day of firsts for the little one: first play in the dirt, first feline sighting, first view of a horse. Pretty cool to be witness to those experiences I must say.

Enjoy.

~ j

It’s finally here. I haven’t spoken to the author about it yet, but I have a sneaking suspicion she’s doing her happy dance in her living room. And so she should be. I know I did!

I’m incredibly proud to have my photography included with her brilliant words in this project, and incredibly amazed at the number of hours she’s put into this book (think LOTS)…she deserves every piece of fan mail and blog commenting and re-tweeting you can send her way.

I hope you pre-order yours today, and learn all about gardening in your small space.

Enjoy,

~ j

This is a general call out to all gardeners who have a particularly photogenic garden and would like to see photos of their garden and it’s creations in the Vancouver-based GardenWise magazine. I’m looking for 2 types of gardens to photograph this Summer:

1. Vancouver Community Gardens ~ this is pretty self-explanatory; looking for a wide variety of people and ages who have plots in Vancouver community gardens. You don’t have to have the best garden in the group, more interested in capturing a variety.
2. A bountiful, spacious home garden either in Vancouver or on Vancouver Island ~ specifically I need a ‘well forested’ area to set up a scene, colourful garden furniture and decor, porch with container gardening (definitely with florals and edibles could be included as well). You may be ok with being photographed in the background, and may have a dog or cat that wouldn’t mind being included as well!

If you have anything listed here, please email me or call me at 1.866.964.8066.

Thank you!

Today is beautiful outside, in stark contrast to the weather of the past few days (we’ve had boats wash ashore, roofs damaged, ferry sailings canceled, all due to the high winds). Yikes.

I’m going to try and get outdoors today, because I will be in my kitchen all weekend recipe testing and photographing. I’m going to be making:

• • tomato, basil and goat cheese bruschetta (I watched Julie & Julia last weekend and can’t get the image of Amy Adams & the dude who plays her husband eating the most delicious looking bruschetta out of my head…and of course it looked delicious, it was styled by this woman!)
• • a new soup (I love soup!); the recipe I’ve found is for a tomato & red pepper soup…maybe tomatoes will be my theme this weekend. (This is the answer to my dilemma: “What do I cook for 1 vegetarian (me), 2 people who will eat anything, and 1 who doesn’t like fish?)
• • quinoa, but I’m still trying to find different ways to spice it up…this is in progress.
• • my sister gave me this recipe for Golden Trout which I need to shoot as part of a new project, so I might give that a whirl.
• • and apparently kale is something I’m supposed to be paying attention to…I feel like I’ve been seeing it everywhere. Ok, 2 sites doesn’t count as ‘everywhere’, I realize this.

And here’s a little something I’ve been working on for a few weeks now…it’ll stay a secret for now, but I’ll be able to share more info soon.

Happy Weekend everyone!

~ j

This was pretty much a dream day of shooting for me…except that I had to forego my breakfast with these three lovely ladies. But duty called, and I hope they will forgive me when they see what fun I had, and the teeny tiny, crust-less sandwiches I got to shoot!

I hope you enjoy these shots from Afternoon Tea at Shangri-la Hotel in Vancouver. And then I hope you go for tea! And invite me with you!

~ j

I love team efforts. There’s not much else more satisfying for me (the collaborative type) than to work with other creative, brilliant, talented and FUN foodies.

This article was written for the Winter 2010 issue of Chefs Quarterly by Simon Ogden, Lead Bartender at Voya in The Loden Hotel (and my other half, and yes, all talented bartender AND writer), featuring cocktails made by the fabulous Lauren Mote of The Refinery, and photographed by yours truly. What a team!

I’ve also included some of the other shots we photographed that day (above and below)…thank you to Simon and Lauren for a nice little afternoon.