The Tweezer Times

I first heard of The Tweezer Times five years ago from Pam Tocco, a product stylist I worked with in Florida. (She makes an appearance in my book, "Photo Styling" as The Staff Stylist.) Pam and I were fascinated that there was a site devoted to sharing the techniques and professional secrets of food styling. We realized the name derived from the tweezers used by food stylists for minute maneuvers. (Here's an article explaining the food stylist's use of tweezers as a styling tool on The Tweezer Times blog.)

Nothing like that sharing of styling information was going on in the realm of product or fashion styling and I was further motivated to write my book telling all about the career of photo styling, which did happen about two years later when Allworth Press accepted my book proposal. So, in the midst of my five-month deadline, a natural step in exploring the specialty of food styling was to call Lisa Golden Schroeder, the editor and creative force behind the subscription-style resource, The Tweezer Times.


Lisa became my food styling teacher when, the following year, I started Photostylingworkshops.com. She jumped at the opportunity to develop the Food Styling 101 course, write the lessons, and teach the online course until we brought Debbie Wahl aboard to teach alternating sessions. Now Lisa continues to teach Food Styling 101 while creating the next course, Everyday Food Styling, a techniques course (including video demonstrations of techniques!) which will launch in January.

I started this blog, the Photo Styling Forum, and simultaneously The Tweezer Times evolved into a free blog for food stylists. It gives Lisa an opportunity to share her vast information on the career but with less pressure to meet deadlines. And time to develop her exciting new course for Photostlyingworkshops.com. Please check out The Tweezer Times whether you are a food or product stylist; there's plenty there to learn!

Thanksgiving Turkeys

This is my favorite week of the year, when Thanksgiving, my birthday, and my wedding anniversary all occur in a week with good food and people just being together. Thinking of this holiday, I always see the steam that builds on the inside of windows and smell the aroma of the baking turkey. (And then there are the stuffing, the baked sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, arrays of side vegetables, pumpkin pie, pecan pie... )

Last night going to sleep I was thinking about turkeys, the number of them that will be cooked in the United States and beyond this week, the turkeys that have been created months ago for all the magazine stories, and the gorgeous ones presented on every culinary magazine cover. It was like counting sheep.

My favorite cover was the Gourmet cover two years ago of a cooked turkey in a roasting pan on a vintage kitchen stove. At the 2007 International Conference on Food Styling & Photography in Boston I had the opportunity to hear the Gourmet staffers who created that cover and it was such a thrill. The conference will be held again this June and I look forward to more inspiring presenters and to meeting many more of you who have been students of Food Styling 101.

I hope no matter where you are that you have a peaceful and happy week with plenty of good food.

An Ice Cream Styling Emergency

We had an order recently for Lisa Golden Schroeder's e-booklet, “Working with Real (and Faux) Ice Cream and Frozen Desserts.” Product stylist Jennifer Hoon was in a panic because she found out that she needed to style ICE CREAM the following day. We rushed the PDF of the 18-page booklet to her. Plus Lisa emailed the following advice to nervous Jen:

Critical issues for you tomorrow:
1. Is the product being held now in a freezer (preferably a chest freezer, as a standing freezer loses a lot of its cold when the door opens and closes) that is at a good tempering temperature for it? Tempering depends on the amount of butterfat in the ice cream--so the lower the fat content, the colder the freezer can be. Very high fat ice cream (like super-premium brands--Haagen-Dazs, Ben & Jerry's, other very high end products) need slightly warmer tempering (about 5 degrees F).
2. Have you ordered enough dry ice? And have a styro or other separate cooler to hold it? Don't put it in the regular freezer. Be sure to get some dry ice pellets that are easy to crush (use a canvas bag or towel, with a hammer--wear gloves, too)--this is great to use for keeping scoops cold and putting into a strainer to hold over styled scoops/desserts under camera.
3. Stay calm and don't let anyone rattle you. You know what you need to do, so even if you're nervous or worried, don't let anyone see that (:-)) Good luck--do let us know how things go!! Hopefully, if this is just a small job that needs a few scoops, you can just go for it. Best,Lisa

Well, we were happy to know that Jennifer survived her ice cream shoot just fine! And she wrote us this follow-up note:
"The ice cream was a prop so I didn't have to worry about using the real thing. I used the recipe for faux ice cream composed of ready made frosting and confectioners sugar. The results looked very realistic. I was sooo relieved when it turned out. I brought it to my boyfriend to show him the happy results and he was convinced I was bringing him ice cream. He was quite disappointed to find out it was inedible. Most importantly, the client was very happy with the look. Thanks for getting the booklet to me in my day before the shoot panic. All my best, Jen"