Escapes Food Photography & Styling Workshop, June 2018
Photography by Bea Lubas and Aysegul Sanford
“The magic happens when you stop photographing food and start photographing light.” Aysegul Sanford
In early June, a group of food bloggers, photographers, and stylists gathered for the inaugural Edible Escapes Food Photography and Styling workshop, sponsored by Edible Green Mountains. For four days, we roamed the picturesque grounds of the Hill Farm Inn in southern Vermont, enjoying a bucolic farm experience infused with luxury touches. The setting made us feel pampered, relaxed and inspired. And definitely well fed!
“You have three seconds to grab someone’s attention. That’s where color and composition come in.” Bea Lubas
The intensive course was taught by internationally-acclaimed food photographers and stylists Bea Lubas and Aysegul Sanford. “We’d been friends through social media for several years but this was our first opportunity to collaborate in person,” Bea said. Ayse added, “It was a dream come true! Our goal was to provide a week’s worth of instruction and confidence in one weekend. This experience surpassed even my high expectations.”
“If you style the food well, the photography should be easy.” Aysegul Sanford
The class met each day in the event barn, a spacious post and beam structure suffused with natural light. Bea and Aysegul, both passionate teachers, assembled a stimulating curriculum that covered camera and equipment basics, exposure and manipulation of light, color theory, guidelines for composition, and pro tips on food styling. We had plenty of hands-on opportunity to style food and photograph our own compositions, using products generously donated by Vermont Creamery and other sponsors. JK Adams contributed handsome wooden cutting boards.
“It’s not about having loads of props and backdrops. It’s about using what you have. Having fewer props makes me more creative.” Bea Lubas
For four days, we immersed ourselves in food and photography; creative juices flowed as we encouraged one another and learned together. Our confidence increased by the hour as we gained practical experience and developed our unique styles. And at the end of each day, everyone was able to dip into those luscious cheeses boards and desserts we had carefully styled and photographed!
“The difference between a good and a great photo is in the details.” Aysegul Sanford
Hill Farm Inn threw open their doors and made us feel so welcome and at home. Kate Pace and her team were gracious hosts, providing delicious meals (including a proper afternoon tea time) and anticipating our every need. It was pretty hard to leave the cozy comfort of this quintessential farm house inn, with its beautifully appointed rooms, deep porches and Adirondack chairs, panoramic vistas of the Green Mountains, and walking paths through the meadows and along the Battenkill River. But we all departed with enhanced confidence in our skills and felt sparked to take our creative work to the next level.
Hill Farm Inn
Sunderland, Vermont
The classic white farmhouse was originally built in 1830 for the Hill family who farmed the 48 acre farm, growing crops and raising cows and sheep. Another family bought the property a decade ago, envisioning it as a Vermont retreat for fishing and canoeing the Battenkill, hiking, biking and skiing. In 2010, the family hired an architect and designer to convert the historic grounds into the Hill Farm Inn, which opened in 2013. 44 acres have been conserved through the Vermont Land Trust.
“The design team brought in some of the top craftsmen and artisans from southern Vermont who added gorgeous aesthetic touches like a hand-carved billiards table, a bespoke bar, and all sorts of other beautiful elements,” explained Kate Pace, the Inn’s general manager. “Our guests describe the experience as ‘upscale unplugged,’ or an authentic and unpretentious Vermont immersion.”
The gleaming tractor that greets you when you roll into the gracefully curving driveway sure sets that tone! Sink into a thick-cushioned wicker chair on the wide porch and watch sun and shadows play on the gently rolling Taconics and Green Mountains. Wander into the barn and make friends with the alpacas, sheep and Milo the Maine coon cat. Kick back at the crackling fire pit and contemplate the billion stars in the clear night sky. The Hill Farm Inn will feel like your home away from home – or the Vermont home we all dream of!
What Nourished Us
Friday evening’s casual supper was a trio of wood-fired pizzas from Depot 62 in Manchester, thin-crusted beauties topped with wild mushrooms, pepperoni, and classic margherita. A tossed green salad with edible flower blossoms kept the meal light. As our meal drew to a close, a dramatic June thunderstorm rolled through, thunder booming off the mountainsides and lightning crackling the purple evening sky. The storm lasted half an hour and blew down the valley, leaving crisp air and sparkling stars in its wake. We raised our glasses and toasted our good fortune to be together in Vermont and eager to get started the next morning.
The talented Hill Farm kitchen crew serves breakfast daily, building classically simple dishes with local seasonal foods: some of Vermont’s finest artisan cheeses, wood-fired breads made a couple miles up the road, herbs from the inn’s kitchen garden. One of the staff brings fresh eggs daily from her own laying hens! All the scones, muffins, cookies and biscuits are from scratch.
Breakfast one morning featured ethereal lemon-ricotta pancakes with a compote of rhubarb, ginger, mint and maple and crunchy strips of thick cut bacon. The next day brought an apple-cheddar frittata and sausage links, toast with Vermont Creamery cultured butter and soft goat cheeses. A sidebar held bowls of fresh fruit salad, yogurt, and granola. And carafes of hot rich dark roast from Vermont Coffee Company. The same attention to local is evident in the adjacent diminutive bar, where a handful of Vermont beers and hard ciders are on tap, along with craft spirits.
We gathered on the porch for Saturday afternoon for a lunch of curry chicken sandwiches, cucumber and grape tomato salad with a light vinaigrette, and crostini with a pair of Vermont Creamery goat cheeses, peppered and blueberry-lemon. Sunday lunch was an array of cold salads from Al Ducci’s, a beloved Manchester Italian delicatessen. Wheat berries with arugula, roasted beets and pumpkin seeds, tender cannellini beans, and grated celeriac in a mustardy-garlic vinaigrette.
Each afternoon at 4 pm, Kate delivered a proper English tea to the barn/classroom. Pots of tea, shortbread butter cookies, one with lime zest and one with pink peppercorns. We also savored slices of Ayse’s almond flour cake with strawberries and whipped mascarpone. The next day was rhubarb crumble served with slices of juicy watermelon.
The highlight meal (though each was bloggable and Instagram-worthy!) came Saturday evening when we traveled over the mountains to Peru, home of the incomparable J.J. Hapgood General Store and Eatery. Chef Vanessa Davis and owner Juliette Britton welcomed us on the white marble terrace where they had set out a mouthwatering spread of hors d’oeuvres. We filled our glasses with salmon-hued chilled rose and sat at French café tables under a wisteria-covered pergola, sampling Maple Meadow deviled eggs with saffron, Dijon-infused mayonnaise, and bits of slab bacon; a rustic vegetable tartlet with asparagus, fiddleheads, carrots, mushrooms, and feta; a platter of Jasper Hill’s Bayley Hazen blue cheese and Mount Mansfield’s Tres Amigo, Fortuna truffled salami, pickled shishito peppers, raw honey in the comb, and grainy mustard. And that was just the kickstarter…
Inside we filled a long country table and reveled in a four-course feast, each flight paired with a specific wine. We began with Bromley Farm greens, roasted beets, sliced radish, Maple Brook marinated mozzarella. Juliette poured a crisp and dry French Muscadet. Next came rabbit tortelloni, soft pillows of pasta filled with soft shreds of braised Wannabe rabbit, accompanied by parsnips, spring peas, and wood-fired carrots simmered in chicken broth. A glass of Vernaccia di San Gimignano added lush balance. Juliette brought out sumac-marinated Adams Farm lamb chops for the third course, accompanied by fire roasted tomato chutney, fingerling potatoes roasted in lemon duck fat, and asparagus spears. Grilled chunks of baguette became vehicles for spoons of an airy garlicky radish green pesto and herbed olive oil. A deep red Barbera d’Alba was the perfect pairing to this grilled dish. And though we had no more room, we did manage to make our way through a fluffy Hapgood biscuit split open to soak up luscious strawberries and a dollop of whipped cream. A small taste of Newhall Farm Ice Cider was the perfect send off into the balmy June twilight.
For Sunday dinner, we took to the grill! While sipping drinks and happily disassembling the cheese boards that had starred in the afternoon photo shoot, we fired up the charcoal grill and threw on foraged wild ramps, fat white bulbs yielding a sweet garlicky kick, pink and green stems and leaves melting to soft deliciousness in their olive oil and kosher salt bath. Then came an array of sizzling sausages from the a local butcher in Manchester (Jamaican jerk, tandoori chicken, lamb merguez, porky bratwursts, jagerwursts, and kielbasa). We also sampled five different kimchi flavors donated by Fin Allie Ferments of Vermont. The lemon tart topped with raspberries, star of the morning photo shoot, provided a welcome sweet finish to the meal.
And then, because we can sleep when we’re dead, we headed out to the fire pit and sunk into the Adirondack chairs, lazily dreaming into the fire and tapping our inner kid with a round of s’mores. This was sleep-away food camp for grown-ups!
A Few Quotes From Participants
Jenn, a food blogger from Nashville: “I came here to see where I go next with my brand. I picked up new techniques for dynamic styling and shooting. Now I have more confidence to pursue this as a career.”
Lara from central New York: “I’m early in my journey and wanted to learn camera basics and how to manipulate light. This workshop fed my soul and intensified my passion.”
Ursula from Brooklyn: “I currently work as a photographer and manage and create content for my company’s social media. This workshop has inspired me to dig deeper into food blogging and photography.”
Thank you to our sponsors.
Hill Farm Inn | @hillfarminnvt
Vermont Creamery | @vermoncreamery
JK Adams | @jkadamsco
Fin Allie Ferments | @finallie_ferments
J.J. Hapgood General Store and Eatery
Bea Lubas | @bealubas
Aysegul Sanford | @aysegul.sanford
Depot 62 | @depot62
Vermont Coffee Company | @vermontcoffeecompany
Bromley Farm | @historicbromleyfarm
Maple Brook Farm | @maplebrookfarm
Al Ducci’s
Mount Mansfield
Fortuna
