I am primarily a self taught photographer. I’ve taken my fair share of CreativeLive courses, online classes from various incredibly talented photographers and attended a few in person photography events, but overall I have spent most of my time fiddling with my camera gear, consulting YouTube and practicing, practicing, practicing. For the first time in my career, I invested in a 6 day long photography retreat that was specifically focused on photographing food. I’ve spent most of my 15 years career in the photography industry focusing on weddings, families, newborns and headshots and this newfound passion for food photography has ignited excitement about another avenue my career can take and a new challenge. I have always prided myself in having a very diverse portfolio and I feel very comfortable behind the camera in a huge range of settings from large groups to intimate moments. Working with food offers a whole new opportunity – a chance to practice color theory, to manipulate light in new ways, to hone my styling skills and train my eye to see shapes and shadows in a different way. It’s exciting and I wanted to intentionally use this retreat as a way to dive head first into the food community with other foodies and photography loving people!
The retreat was led by the incredibly talented Sam Adler and Roberta Dall’alba and took place in Italy in the small town of Massa Fermana, about 2.5 hours NE of Rome. There were eight fabulous women in our group and Sam and Roberta were the perfect retreat hosts – creating such a welcoming and inclusive environment for everyone to feel heard and seen. We stayed in a lovely villa overlooking the Italian countryside. We could hear the sheep wandering the fields each morning, enjoyed incredible meals designed specifically for our group by the incredible Chef Tatiana Accarrino every day and immersed ourselves in talking about business, photography and life. Between the educational parts of the day and our food photography practice sessions, we fit in so many off-site adventures like a private pasta making class and an olive grove tour, tasting and lunch. It was a wonderful balance of education, socialization and adventure. Each and every person in this group showed up so authentically and thanks to those open hearts, this retreat was so much more than just a business trip, but an opportunity to meet other like-minded people from all across the country who face so many of the same struggles in their businesses and personal lives as I do. I was able to relate with other create minds in a safe place, to talk about hardships and goals, wins and losses and our lives without reservation. How freaking special is that?
The villa was the perfect home base for our time together offering several large common spaces and large eating areas for us to gather for our long meals, great conversation and plenty of laughs. It offered such glorious, sweeping views of the countryside and a small town just across the valley. Waking up here and watching the sun set over the hills are things I won’t forget. I have to admit that I was a little nervous to head off on such a long adventure not knowing anyone, but everyone was so welcoming and we all seemed to fall into a comfortable, easy-going place together fairly quickly. We took some time to wander the property throughout different times of the day and even did some branding photography of one another while we were there!
When we weren’t filling our brains with branding tips, lightroom hacks and pricing knowledge, we spent time practicing our food photography with the guidance of our fantastic hosts. Sam and Roberta are both incredible photographers and have very different styles, offering all of us a glimpse into their minds and how they would approach scenes differently. We talked about colors and light, shadows and highlights and how to tell a story. I loved watching all these creative brains compose scenes and appreciated the collaboration the occurred throughout.
The excursions away from our villa offered even more opportunity to practice our skills and I loved watching every single person in our group pull out their camera to capture the moment. It was heart warming and encouraging to be surrounded by other people who feel the same creative pull to document and create as I do. We wandered the vineyard and truffle fields at Ramuse before sitting down for our pasta making class and an incredible lunch of handmade pasta and freshly shaved truffles. We photographed the pasta from every perspective we could think of, naturally.
When we visited Agriturismo all Solagna, one of the owners guided as around the varies parts of the property from olive groves to plum trees and told us about the different growing seasons and crops before we made our way up to the elegant outdoor dining area for an olive oil tasting an incredible six course lunch.
I am so thankful for this experience, the relationships I made and the new knowledge and skills I brought home. I can’t wait to put it all to good use back here at home as I continue to grow the food photography side of KMP! Want to see some video from the trip? Be sure to check it out in my Instagram page!
