AI-AP American Photography 42 Chosen Winner

What a great start to Spring with news hitting my inbox that 2 of my images were chosen winners for this year’s AI-AP Photography Contest!!! It’s always a great feeling to be picked among 6,000 entries! So much fierce talent out there and it feels good to be amongst the many. Thank you AI-AP!

Thank You to my creative crew from these 2 very different, and very creative projects. Let’s keep making great work!!

First Chosen Winner: Casino Night

Food Stylist: Janine Kalesis

Prop Stylist: Penelope Bouklas

Studio: Blue Salt Studio

Second Chosen Winner: Spring Awakening

Food Stylist: Judi Orlick

Floral Stylist: Zofi Lipton

Studio: Simple Studio

Assist: Jarrett Murphy

Wonderful Machine Best of 2025

Excited to be featured as one of the best photographers of the year from Wonderful Machine!

Favorite Photographers of the Year

To celebrate the new year, we asked some of our favorite photo editors, art producers, and creative directors to share with us their favorite photographers of 2025. We compiled that list, and in no particular order, we’re sharing them with you here!

See the list here: https://wonderfulmachine.com/article/personal-best-2025/

B.T.S. PRE Brands Photo Shoot

Another fun time with PRE Brads! It’s great to see how the creative grows with them every shoot. The ideas just get bigger and better.

This past shoot we created bold, colorful environments that mimicked the summer outdoors, game night, date night, and others! Incorporating the brand colors then matching the tones with props and wardrobe. Talent was really important because we were able to show faces and their expressions. Each scene had actions played out, so we were able to capture fun stop motion pieces as well as stand alone stills. This made for a wide range of captures for their library and various places the imagery was going to be used. So many combinations of great shots and expressions, it was hard to share just a few!

Thanks to the amazing crew!!

Izze Copeland, Conner Wall, Katie Van Dyke, Elaine Miller, Gadi Solis, Jack Goodwin, Thomas Schroeder, Cindy Melin, Nina Albazi, Karen Brody, Geoff Binn-Calvey, Dom Propizio, Reya Quezada, Franki Dupont-Madinier, Emily Alexander, The Rock Agency, Stewart Talent, Parchment Studio, Carolyn Somlo

Photo Shoot Recap Junkless Foods!

Junkless Foods is such a cool brand to work with. They have a variety of tasty granola bars we’ve been able to photograph, and most recently their new Protein Bars! So yummy! Other than helping them with their packaging photography we’ve captured some fun lifestyle shots for them to showcase their products and packaging in other fun ways. Check them out at your local supermarket.

Thanks To The Crew!

Studio: Space28

Assist: Zach Felts and Daniel Cochran

PA: Autumn Baxter

Food Stylist: Hadley Sui

Producer: Carolyn Somlo

Retoucher: DayMoon Studios

Models: Wilhelmina

B.T.S. Premier Protein Re Brand!

Earlier this year we had a jam packed, fun week of shooting for Premier Protein creating new and colorful images across their portfolio of flavor offerings. We worked with amazing creatives, talent, and crew to get the job done. There were multiple sets going all week each dialed in with unique lighting, props, and models. Our robust styling team was able to work seamlessly with the schedule for the week with plenty of time for planning ahead of our shoot. Having the best crew ever kept the shoot humming along without any issues. Having time after shoot days to go out for food and drinks with great clients made the experience even better. I love the final shots and how creative each one came out.

Just a few fun B.T.S. shots from our amazing shoot with awesome clients and crew!!

Here’s a few tears from the work out there LIVE!

IPA Photography Awards - Official Selection 2025

Very proud to wake up to the news of being a official selection for the IPA awards 2025! It’s always fun and challenging to decide which images I should enter. I really loved the concept we came up for these diner images. They have been recognized across the board for various things! Food Styling Janine Kalesis and Prop Styling Penelope Bouklas

Atkins Packaging -Splash Work!

Fun week in the studio creating stunning photography for new packaging with Atkins! Great team to get the job done!

Food Stylist: TakakoKuniyuki  https://www.tkuniyuki.com/

Digital Tech: Zach Felts https://www.zachfelts.com/

Assistant: Regina Tamburro https://reginatamburro.com/

Splash/Rigging: Nathan Destro of Performing Rigs https://performingrigs.com/pages/about

Retouching: Daymoon Studios https://www.daymoon-studios.com/

Studio: Space 28 https://www.space28.com/

Rep: Carolyn Somlo Talent http://www.somlotalent.com/

Lurzer's Archive 200 Best Photographers Edition 12

This was exciting news to receive that I was one of the chosen photographers to be in Lurzer’s Archive’s next edition for 200 best photographers! I love the diner series I shot with food stylist Janine Kalesis and prop stylist Penelope Bouklas, and I’m glad they chose those images for print!

For over 40 years Lürzer’s Archive has been curating the very best in commercial creativity. Beginning as an archive of the best in print and video campaigns, we now encompass the ever growing gamut of creative commercial output.

B.T.S. Spring Awakening Series Shoot

This personal series has been brewing for awhile. I wanted to create these sculptural images that incorporated raw ingredients and flowers. I wanted to shoot this when fresh fruit, vegetables, and flowers were peeking in season. This allowed us to have the flexibility to source some stunning options! My stylist did not let me down. I got to work with food stylist Judi Orlick and Florist (and ceramic artist studio owner!) Zofi Lipton on this shoot. I was so excited when they were on board to help bring this vision to life. We narrowed down the ideas and left room in the day to just explore and play around. I wanted the lighting and propping to be dramatic. Once the food and flowers touched the surface the vibrant colors and interaction of the two things just came to life in the shot. Beside minor dust spotting and creative rigging these are true to what we captured in studio. It was great to shoot at Simple Studio, the perfect still life studio with a view! Assisted by Jarrett Murphy

AI-AP American Photography 41 Chosen Winner!

It was such a nice surprise to get an email from AI-AP that I was a Chosen Winner in this years contest! It’s such a great contest to enter with the various judges, and fun party at the end of the year to help celebrate the artists! There’s so many amazing shots by so many talented photographers it’s great to be among them.

The chosen shot was a fun favorite from my personal series Diner Food shot and styled with Janine Kalesis and Penelope Bouklas. Our minds together create some stunning work! The whole series from this which is on my website/blog is great to look at as a whole. This particular shot of the cherry pie is so graphic and certainly was a sketched out idea from the shoot.

B.T.S. PRE Raise The Steaks Campaign!

I really got to flex my creative muscle with this project! Lots of planning and prepping led up to this fun filled shoot directing and capturing stills for PRE Brands and their “Raise The Steaks” Campaign! The project was filled with bold, bright colors that weaved through their own branding. We got to work with a talented crew and group of models in studio to capture a bright day grilling and chilling. Each setup incorporated a bold color and we were able to pair it with a recipe. The grand finale was an overhead outdoor vibe in a group setting showcasing an array of the brands offerings. This is a product you want to cook at your next summer get together! I love how the final piece came together, and all the amazing stills we captured from each setup. Teamwork makes the dreamwork!!

Carolyn Somlo - Producer/REP

Gadi Solis - DP

Collin Breimeier - DIT

Thomas Schroeder - Gaffer

Emmanuel Terrell - Grip

Cindy Melin - Food Stylist

Arden Kelley - Food Stylist Assistant

Dominic Cordilla - Prop Stylist

Geoff Binns-Calvey - Special Effects/Grill Fire Guru

Izzie Copeland - PA

Shot At Parchment Studios

International Photography Awards Contest Honorable Mention

This was such an honor to be an official selection, then continuing in the judging process to have my images selected as Honorable Mention! So much talent in these categories. Another reason entering my work into contests is so important. The judges did not have an easy task.

My Twizzlers series received Honorable Mention in the Professional Advertising Food and Beverage Category and my Leftover series received Official Selection in the Professional Fine Art Still Life Category. It’s so nice to be recognized for all the hard work put in over the years. Thank You IPA!

APA Chicago 10th Annual Artist’s Perspective Exhibition Selected!

Excited to be a selected photographer in the 10th annual APA Artist’s Perspective exhibit!

APA Chicago, “Natasha Egan, Executive Director at the Museum of Contemporary Photography, has completed judging our 10th Annual Artist's Perspective Personal Work Exhibition. We are pleased to announce that she has selected 47 images from 42 artists to be featured in our one-night exhibition on Friday, April 28, at Fulton Street Collective. Our celebration includes drinks, food, fun, a photo booth, and more - please join us.”

Fri 28th Apr, 2023
7:00pm–10:00pm

Fulton Street Collective
1821 W. Hubbard Street
Chicago, IL 60612

Free Admission

Link to event and all photographers to be in the show:

https://chicago.apanational.org/events/entry/10th-annual-2023-artists-perspective-exhibition/

B.T.S. - The Not Company Shoot

NotCo What a fun brand to work with! It was so exciting when they reached out to work together on shooting new photography and video for their NOT chicken patties and their brand new NOT MILK product line. The vibrant colors in the brand were used in the background as well as table settings. We had a variety of set options for the recipes we shot. Tiffany Schleigh food stylist created indulgent dishes for us to capture. There were a variety of recipes that used plant based cheese, yummy sauces, and layers of goodness. When I tried their chicken patties and nuggets I coulnd’t belive it wasn’t actual chicken! They were so good!!

Along with the creative team we were able to work with the super talented kid model Miles @milesandre_14 He had fun expressions and excitement with each dish as well as the NOT MILK Chocolate Milk and regular Milk products. So much fun tossing things in the air.

We got to work with one of my favorite studios, Space28. We were able to shoot table top imagery as well as use their kitchen to shoot other dishes and Milk drinks.

Can’t wait to see all the shots out in the wild. You can find their products at a variety of stores like Whole Foods, and Giant Food Stores.

Thank You 2022! Hello 2023!

Wrapping up 2022 with a full heart and many thanks to go around! So many new clients this year that trusted in me and my team to bring their concepts to life. It takes a village for these projects to come to fruition and every year that village grows. Every project this year was unique. I can’t pick one that was better than the other. Also each project comes with its own challenges, but we always find the light at the end of the tunnel and finish with amazing work. That’s why I think it’s really important to wrap each shoot with a blog post and some B.T.S. because what might look like a simple image or video from the outside, takes a lot of planning, and various stages to go through to get us to that finish line.

Again thank you for helping me grow my business in 2022 and look forward to seeing you in 2023!

Stills - Beyond Meat Commercial Shoot

This was a really fun shoot in Los Angeles at the end of the summer. I got to work with the best, Chuck Studios from Amsterdam and my favorite Table Top Director Olaf van Gerwen. Food really does get famous here. It was a real treat to be with a fun, creative team. Olaf was capturing the beautiful video work with food stylist Joseph Celis. After the scenes were wrapped I came onto set to work with the stylist, and models to capture various stills of the Beyond Meat Product and the recipe that went with it. It was great to capture the natural moments and real expressions of the talent. Of course we highlighted the food and showed how appetizing it was! It was a really great product to work with. The Beyond Team was there for the shoot and loved everything we were able to capture for them. It was a busy 2 days at the various spots on location. We captured a back to school scene, friends at their apartment, and a outdoor BBQ scene. It really takes a village to get these projects off the ground. I’m so glad I was able to be apart of it! You can see the work out now.

Go buy Beyond Meat, it is soo good!!

Personal Series: Leftovers

This concept has been on my mind forever! A kitchen staple that is so versatile it was the perfect vessel to capture food. I came up with common uses we use aluminum foil that leave residues, grease, colors, and burn marks. In a normal situation we would crumple this up and throw it away. I wanted to capture the beauty in essentially this piece of food trash before it made it’s way to the can. A fun part of this project was how easy it was to manipulate the foil and it hold it’s shape created. There had to be a feeling of movement as if it was actually dancing in mid air. The lighting and rigging on set was really important to me for this project to get the idea across. I used muted backgrounds and surfaces so the colors of the food really stood out.

What else do you use foil for??

National Pizza Month - Pizza Promo

October is National Pizza Month! Of course we need to dedicate a whole month to our favorite food group. There are other pizza holidays throughout the year, but this is the big one. I’ve always wanted to do a fun over the top printed promo and this was the perfect opportunity.

This month was not just about any pizza, but a great way to showcase my shoot I did overseas for Domino’s PIzza! Get right to the heart of the project and show the tasty, beautiful, cheesy pizzas we shot over the month. YUM!!

To make this promo really fun and creative I worked with graphic designer Amanda Stringer on a concept of a pizza box with my branding and a photo booklet to go with it. In addition to the booklet to make it run and interactive I had a QR code made that would take you right to my website and the BTS Video from the shoot. Also I found this really cool pizza frisbees, and build your own pizza stickers!

The promos were sent to a super targeted list of pizza brands across the country and their coinciding agencies that also work with them. I sent out for the month of October my newsletter highlighting the pizza shoot and talking about the promo.

Fine Art Food Friday

This was a fun creative exercise exploring simple foods and viewing them through fresh eyes. Working with my medium format system allows me to explore products under a close view without obstructing the quality of the image output. The color spectrum I was able to produce with these images made for a magical photograph! The play with light and shadow, and shallow depth of field turned the food into abstract objects allowing you to immerse yourself into the photo.

Understanding this really helps with creating packaging photography for my clients which is one of my Favorite things to shoot! I love those super tiny details and how the light is shaping the product.

B.T.S. Violife Foods Photo Shoots!

I love what I do because you never know where your next food project may take you! The Violife brand 100% Vegan is a fun, tasty, and fresh product hitting the shelves in the USA! I’ve been working with the T&C team creating colorful social assets featuring their products used in recipes. Each month we have been shooting different recipes that may correlate with an upcoming FOOD holiday or special event. The recipes are tested and concepts are sketched out for each recipe. Lisa Russell helps with styling, art direction and sourcing props for each setup. Each recipe gets a hero still image and a supporting stop motion. So fun to watch these shots come to life. Make sure to follow along @violifeus