I’ve actually agonised quite a lot as to whether I should write this blog entry because the last thing I want to do is criticise how people make their living (particularly photographers and chefs!). Sponsorship is an accepted reality for anyone in the media spotlight, not just for celebrity chefs. However, some recently launched ad campaigns featuring Marco Pierre White has really got me thinking about how pictures can be taken out of context years later.

In a previous lifetime, I was extremely fortunate enough to meet, and spend a half day, in the studio of photographer Bob Carlos Clarke. Bob was looking for some sponsorship support for an upcoming exhibition. That single day stands out as one of the most amazing of my working life, Bob’s absolute, and I mean absolute, passion to the artistic integrity of what he did was mesmerising. And I can genuinely say, with no intentional pretentiousness, that that meeting, and his work, had a profound effect on what I now do now. During the course of our meeting, the conversation turned to how a household name photographer had “sold out” by endorsing, shall we say less reputable photo technology, (for those of you old enough to remember, there was a big TV campaign at the time) and Bob was so visibly distressed by this concept, that the industry (which was then in it’s very early stages of digital) could sell out in such way. I remember being quite taken aback at the voracity of his response.

Bob’s book “White Heat” about Marco Pierre White is one I frequently cite as being the starting point of my inspiration. Having done a number of photo shoots in working kitchens myself, the gritty intensity, heat, rush, buzz, adrenalin is so wonderfully captured by him, and to my mind spills out of the book. And it’s tandemed by visually capturing the ferocity and intensity of the young Marco Pierre White. I have never personally met Marco, but judging by Bob’s pictures, I’m pretty sure that they were kindred spirits.

As a commercial photographer (and a marketeer), I genuinely believe every commissioned picture should have a purpose, as the opening page of my website says “a picture speaks a thousand words”. For me, I explore artistic interpretation in my personal projects, but when you are shooting for a client the commercial brief always needs to be met. Today I received this sponsored marketing message which tipped me over the edge in favour of writing this blog entry.

I’m pretty sure that these pictures weren’t used without licence for such a high profile marketing campaign, but I can’t help wondering what Bob Carlos Clarke would have thought. For me, seeing one of his most iconic pictures with a commercial logo on it, made me feel very sad.

Troedyrhiw – go on, for all you non Welshie’s that is your pronunciation challenge of the day! Its significance? It’s the name of the village in a South Wales valley where my grandparents lived, and where I spent many a weekend, school holiday and new year.

Today I suddenly had a desire to make some welsh cakes, the first batch in my twenty years of living the wrong side of the Severn Bridge, and it really struck me how many memories can be evoked from a humble food.

My nan used to make the BEST welsh cakes in the world and it really was standing next to her in her kitchen that ignited my love for baking. My nan and I had the same sweet tooth so sweets, cakes and bakes were a common love. Today in my kitchen, I was thrown back into my 7 year old self, desperately trying to rub butter into flour to make it look like breadcrumbs; it always seemed to take AGES and my little hands used to ache from the amount of effort I put into it. I can remember splitting the mixture in half so we could add fruit to one lot and leave the other plain so you could always choose which welsh cake you wanted, with “bits” or “without bits”. Nan used to roll out the mixture and then I’d jump in with a glass, ready to cut out the mixture into rounds ready for baking.

Her bakestone for cooking the welsh cakes was always a source of envy, a great big heavy cast iron thing which used to be her mums, and it took ages to heat up on her electric cooker. It was kept in the cupboard under the stairs which was screened by a curtain of plastic strips (you could plait the strips when no-one was looking!) and even though I could just about reach the bakestone, it was always too heavy for me to lift.

Even the cooking utensils are vivid in my mind, she used to turn the welsh cakes over with an old palette knive, it had a turquoise handle which was cracked and broken at the top. My job was to cover the welsh cakes with caster sugar once they were taken off the stone and still warm, and I used her sugar shaker; I think it was a victorian one and it was made of pink glass and had a silver top with holes big enough for the sugar to come out. I took my job VERY seriously. You can’t rush baking welsh cakes, if the bakestone is too hot, they burn and the mixture doesn’t cook through, too cool and they lose all their moisture. You are also limited in the number you can cook at any one time depending on the size of the stone. I surprised myself today by re-igniting a familiar sense of impatience and annoyance at waiting for them cook!

As I got older my nan and I struck up a deal when I’d go and stay. It didn’t matter how hard I tried I never managed to make welsh cakes that tasted anywhere near as good as hers, but I had perfected the art of making Victoria Sponges which she could never master. So she would send me home with batches of welsh cakes (much to my dad’s delight) and I would make sponges which she would put in the freezer, and then defrost and claim them as her own whenever she had visitors.

Welsh cakes always make me think of my dad as well. When my parents used to call me when I was staying with my grandparents, he’d ask what I’d been up to, and I could hear the grin on his face down the phone when he knew that I’d be coming home with welsh cakes in a tin. In latter years he would go down “the front” in Penarth (seaside and pier) every morning and would order, without fail, a cup of coffee and a welsh cake.

Sadly neither my nan and my dad are around now, but it’s amazing how such a simple cake can bring back so many vivid memories and make me smile.

Oh, and to my nan, if she’s watching from somewhere beyond; my welsh cakes are still nowhere near as good as yours!

Great article about us in this weeks Bucks Herald. Click on the picture to read in full!

Imaging Essence in the Bucks Herald 16th Feb 2011

Article by Sally Dorling at Marketing Foods, photograph courtesy of Jay McLaughlin

I was delighted to have been invited to be the official photographer for the third annual Thame Food Festival last Saturday, and spent the most fabulous day snapping lots of local food producers and suppliers, entertainment, cooking demonstrations and interesting food talks.

Considering the weather had been pretty grim leading up to the Saturday, the day, whilst a chilly start, proved to be glorious. So much hard work by Alison Isherwood from Thame Council , Sally Dorling from Marketing Foods, Sally from local foodie haven What’s Cooking? and Sonja Francis from thamenews.net really paid off. A huge visitor turn out resulted in the overall feedback from all the stall holders about how busy and successful the day had been for all.

Thame in Oxfordshire is such a lovely market town and is surrounded by all sorts of independent food suppliers and restaurants, all getting involved in the festival. Particular highlights of the day were not only the talks in the Stable at the James Figg public house but also the hands on cooking activities for the kids, including Whoopie Pie making, cake decorating at the Aga Shop, pasta making in the Town Hall and “Tortoise Dough” making at the Cottage Bakery.

A few highlights of the day and the full pictures can be seen at www.imagingessence.co.uk/thame_food_festival

Just a little update, a video from scissorspaperstone.tv about the Thame Food Festival with the highlights, look out about 1 minute in for a comment from yours truly!!

So, on Monday this week I was lucky enough to win a box of brownies from @gowercottage on Twitter. Firstly, I was shocked as I never generally win anything, secondly I was delighted as I happen to have the sweetest tooth, thirdly it was a really good reason to fall off the January Weight Watchers band wagon.

Today, my box of Brownies arrived as promised, and I have to say I was altogether so impressed with the packaging of them, that I was prompted to share with the world my chocolate brownie “Out of Box Experience”.

Sooo…here goes my photo account of the steps leading to sticky chocolate heaven – hope you like!

Today's arrival of Gower Cottage Brownies

The front view of the box

Useful info on the back

First glimpse in the box

The Gower Cottage Brownie story

First glimpse insided the wrapping

Beautifully tied package appears

At last, the Brownies themselves

What's in the middle?

On closer inspection...

Who me? Take a bite?