The Hemingway Diaquiri: My new favorite cocktail {link love}

Last Monday I tweeted that I was up early shooting a cocktail in my home studio for a cover story for the newspaper and how said cocktail will be THE drink of my summer.

The story published today and this is the completed page. Staffer Robert York wrote a sweet story on Hemingway and how this recipe became the author's favorite. You can read the entire story here. 

How did I get here?

I will admit it right here to all of you (in case being a casual reader of my blog hasn't already clued you in): I am a control freak. Yes, yes I am.

But they say, the first step to recovery is acknowledging there is a problem.

But I ask, is it a problem? Seriously?

Because those times I am in complete control of my creative process – from deciding on the most visual recipe to reproduce, recreating that recipe in my own kitchen, shopping for props and then art directing the page design in my head while I am shooting the image makes for a real sense of freedom and creative satisfaction. And let's face it, with the economy pushing companies these days to consolidate in a quest to cut down costs, where individual talent is often thwarted under the guise of efficiency, having a day when you are satisfied with the outcome of your efforts is priceless. Well, almost priceless, anyway. If it fails, I fail alone. If it sings, however, everyone is happy and I have the satisfaction of a job well done.

I started prop shopping two weeks before my planned shoot weekend. This included buying new wood for a fresh off-white background, deciding on the right "shade" of white (which took three trips because I was being indecisive), painting it and then finding the right tray and V-shape cocktail glass (the shape of my martini glasses were really shallow and I wanted glasses with a nicer profile that would allow me to show off some of the color).

I tracked down the liqueur needed, bought the fruit and shot the recipe the day before I needed the final shot. And as is my usual control freak way, I stopped shooting when I realized I wasn't getting the shot.

I slept on it. Woke up super early the next day – which was of course the Monday I was to start design on the page – and re-shot it. 

I find sleeping on it always helps. I discovered that in art school where I pushed my deadline all the time because I wanted time for ideas to "gel" in my head before attempting them and then gel some more after my initial efforts.

I'm just weird that way.

Here are some outtakes:

Until next time,

Ani