I took the picture for this tasty apricot salad dressing after my first day at the Food and Light Photography Workshop that I attended here in Boulder, Colorado. I came home, made dinner and decided it would be good to put some of my newly acquired skills to use.
The instructors at Food and Light were amazing. Jen from userealbutter.com organized the entire affair and taught a wonderful section of the workshop on basic photography skills, which some of us –namely me, really needed to learn. Suffice it to say that I had no idea how to take a photo without the automatic settings on my Nikon D200 DSLR
. Now I know, thanks to Jen!
And thanks to Christopher Cina of ccina.zenfolio.com for teaching me how to take the camera off of those automatic settings. Yes, Christopher literally showed me which dials to turn and which buttons to push to get the old camera working without auto. Christopher was just another participant, though you would never know that by looking at his website –his food photography is of professional quality.
We were also treated to instruction on photography and food styling by Helen from mytartelette.com and Diane and Todd from whiteonricecouple.com. What can I say, other than, amazing! Be sure to take a look at those two websites if you’re looking for food photography inspiration. The work of these folks is pure genius.
And of course, check out Jen’s site too. She is amazing in every way both behind the camera and in person.
Apricot Salad Dressing
Ingredients
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 whole fresh apricot, pit removed
- 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
- 7 drops stevia
- ¼ teaspoon celtic sea salt
Instructions
- Place all ingredients in a vitamix and blend on highest setting until smooth
- Serve over fresh garden greens
- Enjoy!
Equipment
Another highlight of the Food and Light workshop was sitting next to Lisa of lisa-is-bossy.blogspot.com (another amazing photographer) and Anita of dessertfirst.typepad.com, and the author of the Field Guide to Cookies
. And finally, my favorite part of the workshop was that I was able to take it with my 10 year old (younger) son. He often steals my camera in the middle of a photoshoot and goes wild taking photographs around the house. I thought he would enjoy taking this workshop with me and learning about photography, though was not sure if he would be able to sit and pay attention with adults for two full days –he did! We had a delightful time together and totally bonded over something we both love.
Finally, I know summer has truly arrived since All Star Baseball has begun. Thankfully, both boys made their respective all star teams. We really weren’t sure if our younger son would make it this year and had begun planning all kinds of alternative special activities for him to assuage any disappointment/jealousy that might have arisen over his older brother getting to play. No need, after all.
Now the baking begins as I will be making healthy treats for each of their teams for every game. Wish us luck, their tournaments start on Tuesday.
What are your summer plans? Anything exciting, or are you tied down to home like us given sports or other commitments? The upside of this? Constant gardening (see salad above) –hooray!
Christopher Cina says
Thanks for the kind words, was a pleasure to meet you and Ethan at Food and Light, looking forward to watching your photography progress! Maybe we can shoot some food together next time. Make sure to stop in the restaurant some time, I do GF pretty well.
C-
Toad says
I just tried this on a large primal salad today… it was awesome! I am going to quadruple the recipe next time so I can enjoy it over and over again over a couple of weeks. I did not have dijon mustard and thus just used plain but it was still awesome!
Misty Faucheux says
I heard a lot of good things about the Food and Light Photography Workshop. I’ll have to attend one of those some time. And, the photos look beautiful.
Meghan (Making Love In The Kitchen) says
Looks amazing- just the right light ;) I actually just made almost an identical recipe but I used 1 cup of my fresh picked raspberries.
marla {family fresh cooking} says
Elana, it was so nice to meet you at Food and Light. I wish we had more time to get to know each other, but we were all so busy learning new skills. Glad to read both of your sons are enjoying baseball this summer! xo
Katie says
I’m always looking for yummy dressings since I usually eat at least one salad a day. I will have to pick up some apricots tomorrow! How do you store your dressings? How long do they keep?
Thanks Elana!
Freedom says
Hi Elana,
I for one always thought your photos before were amazing!
The real reason I am commenting though is that I have an idea for a post. Over the weekend we went camping and while I was eating fried potatoes heavily coated in bacon grease(which I absolutely LOVE, and is the biggest thing I look forward to when camping, even though I know it is horrible for me lol) I soon starting feeling awful and it got me thinking that I need to find some delicious camping recipes that are versatile yet healthy. Does your family enjoy camping? If so maybe you have some recipe ideas that you could post in the near future? I would be very grateful for any ideas you might have and look for to seeing them!
Primal Toad says
You are kidding me… I went to the farmers market a few hours ago and saw apricots for the first time. I was super close to buying them but decided against it because, well, I went there to only buy eggs. Grrr… I will have to buy some on Saturday when I pick up some bacon!
Alta says
What a lovely salad dressing! I might have to try it with the bounty of peaches around right now. Sounds like you learned a lot at your class! I need to take one soon – I’m still relying on a lot of automatic settings too!
Heather says
The class sounds like so much fun. I’ll have to look for something like that in my little town. The beautiful photos are always favorite parts of others’ blogs. I’m envious.
I just ate two, soft, fresh organic apricots from my organic buying club. I ate them straight up. It never occurred to me to make something delicious with them. I’ll have to remember this recipe.