Photo Shoot x 2

Photo Shoot Day #1

As you know, we're (ok well I'M) making Volume 2 of Brooklyn's Best, our cookbook fundraiser. The cover of Volume 1 is just absolutely amazing. Back in August, my sister-in-law & I got together & she snapped the best possible picture of Brooklyn for the book. Well...this makes the photo shoot for Volume 2 extremely hard! I've been stressing about it ever since I decided to do a 2nd book (which was before Vol 1 was even completed yet!) There's no way the cover can be as good as the 1st book...but it HAS to be as good so that people will know that the entire book is just as good; & so that it'll sell......if any of that makes sense. So of course I've been having some anxiety about it.

Marji (Dustin's sister) came over this past Sunday night & we did our photo shoot. For Volume 1 we accidentally did a vegetable theme. Didn't mean to...it just kinda happened. So this time I thought I'd do a baking theme. I got so much stuff...mini cupcakes, real-size cupcakes, cakes, desserts, cookies, snacks, crackers, etc. We sat her down & started "working". Well of course Brooklyn couldn't be her normal self...that'd be asking too much! She wouldn't SMILE!!!!!!!!!! UGH! But we did manage to get a few cute shots. Unfortunately though we didn't get "the" cover shot. So we decided to look them over anyways & then figure out later if we needed to have a 2nd photo shoot or not.

That night I quickly skimmed through the pictures & realized that something was missing.....color. The biggest difference between the first cookbook & these new pictures was that these were too plain. So that gave it away right there...we had to do it again. However some good news: there are some of these pictures that we'll be able to use for the back cover. I did decide to do the same format as Volume 1, with the 18 pictures on the back cover. So it wasn't a waste at all, cause we did get several great back cover shots. 

Photo Shoot Day #2

Tonight was the 2nd try at a cover shot. I pretty much had it in my head that tonight was IT. We had to get this shot or else... 

And so we began. And of course, again, she didn't smile. But the pictures aren't bad at all. We got tons & tons....there are a total of 552 pictures between Volume 1 & both shoots of Volume 2. Holy lotsa pictures! Hahaha!!! For this shoot I'd gone to the store & gotten some colorful fruit & a basket.

When we were done I sat down & "rated" the pictures on my Kodak Easy Share on the computer. I was going to rate every single picture on a scale of 1 star (*) to 5 stars (*****). * was not a good picture; ** was ok, but coudn't use; *** was usable, but not the best; **** was definite back cover options; & ***** was definite front cover options. So I started going through the pictures & realized it was taking WAAAY too much time to rate each & every picture. So I just started passing up the * & ** pictures & just rated the ***, ****, & ***** pictures. (Gosh I hope this makes sense!!!)

So I need a total of 19 pictures; 18 for the back cover & 1 for the front cover. When I got through all the pictures I sorted them by the rating so I could see where I was at. I didn't have any *****, which meant I wasn't 100% sold on any of the pictures as the cover shot. However, and this is totally another God-thing, I had 19 pictures rated at ****. Ahhhhhhh!!!!!!!! If I'd even had 1 more picture then I'd have to throw one out. Or if I only had 18, then I'd have to find another one to add in there. But I had EXACTLY 19! :o)  Yay me! I mean come on...what are the odds?!

So the famous 19 are now printed off & now my job is to figure out which one I want the cover to be. It's going to be tough. I won't keep anyone in suspense any longer...below are *** pictures, so unfortunately they didn't make the cut, but they're cute none-the-less. And yes, I'm going to be a big pain & keep all the pictures a secret until the book comes out!!!!!!!! Hehehe...  The first picture was taken tonight, the other 3 were taken Sunday.