A Day In The Life......

Okay, Internets.....I thought you'd enjoy a little pictorial of my last couple of days (and I do mean little. Some of my pictures didn't turn out so hot.)

My job is always different. I like that in a job.

You know what Zuddy likes in a job? A nice, reliable paycheck. Which is something I can't seem to provide for him with my current work.

Anyhoo.......the last two days I worked in a Photographer's Studio as a food stylist's assistant. For a while I really wanted to be a food stylist, but I've come to realize that I don't have what it takes. Heck, I don't really have what it takes to be an assistant! Because a lot of the "assistants" I know? They're really food stylists masquerading as assistants.

Okay, so here it goes.............

Sunday night, I looked at all the recipes (there were six recipes) and all of the Art Director's layout sketches to see what I needed. I need to look at the layout sketches to see if anything is featured in the background as a prop. Like a bowl of veggies as a side dish or something like that.

Early Monday morning (about 6 am) I left the house to go grocery shopping for the shoot. I went to one store and bought everything. I should've gone to 2 stores because I needed some pretty green beans and the ones at the store were ugly. I had actually planned on going to a second store, but the traffic was horrendous for some reason, and I felt like I was late when I got there. Turns out? Mondays are hard and everyone was late, so I should've gone. But I didn't.

Anyway, I worked half of the day by myself and I had some "step-shots" to do. The photographer takes photos of a certain step of the cooking process. They let me "style" those because on the finished product, they will be tiny little pictures and not much detail is needed.

The rest of my time there, I continue to prepare food for the food stylist who came in for a half-day to style for 2 shots. The food stylist's name is Melinda. Melinda cranked out both of those shots and we got to go home at 4:30. I got home at 5:15.

Tuesday I left a little later......about 7 am. I had to go to the grocery store again. I went to the one where the stinky people shop. They always have nice-looking stuff and I needed some beautiful chicken pieces.

This store is a little chi-chi foo-foo. And, as I've mentioned before, there's almost always a fellow shopper who smells like they haven't washed their hair.

Today was no exception. I think smelling unwashed hair is my "super power".

I don't like having this "super power".

Anyway, I digress.....Look at the lovely warm lighting of this store. Soothing, huh? Look at the copper ceiling. Pretty, right?

Oh, I also had to take a photo for Lisa of Take 90 West. It's the Velveeta. Right where it should be, huh? In the dairy aisle.

But, is Sunny Delight supposed to be there, too? I don't know......maybe.

Anyway, Melinda wanted a couple of HUGE boxes of instant mashed potatoes for a shot. And not for what you'd think (tee hee!). The first store didn't have HUGE boxes here, so I had to go to the big cheap grocery store:
Argh!!! The lighting, the lighting! Hurts my eyes. But I found what I needed.

So, I hop back into my car and head to the studio. Oh I forgot.....I took a picture of the city on my way to the studio.

Because I'm a reeal careful driver like that.

Do you know what all of that haze and steam means?

It means its freakin' cold, people, that's what it means. -4 degrees kind of cold.

Oh! Look! We're here!

I'm the first one here, so I go into the building and wait. Oh! Here's my bag and some of the things I carry for a day of work:

A microplane, a sharp chef's knife, a scoopy-outy thingy. The potatoes I bought, and an apron.

Sometimes? I just bring all of my kitchen tools in my new tool holder:

I love this thing. LOVE it. Even though it's ugly. And guess what? This studio happens to do the photography for Pampered Chef!! So they have a lot of their products there. Like my new favorite little thingies, their prep bowls:

They're so cute they make me want to cry....they look like a wee little batter bowl. I'm totally buying these the next time I have to go to one of those dumb parties.

Okay......Moving on.....here's the kitchen I worked in:

They have about 4 kitchens at this studio. They're all large kitchens for 2 people to work in at once - the food stylist and the assistant. They have 2 ranges in each kitchen and 1 or 2 fridges.

This is the worst picture ever, but here's a set with a stove for one of the step-by-step shots. Maybe you can see better if you click on the picture.

Okay, I need to quit now, because, Dudes.

It took me forever to load all of those pictures in. I'll continue this story tomorrow.............