Captain Geech and the Shrimp Shack Shooters
This is Captain Geech. His buddies, The Shrimp Shack Shooters, are still in the fridge...waiting for their photo opp...and for dinner. They may get a reprieve today, as Loretta and I have had an urge to make Carne Asada tacos instead tonight.
I have been very remiss with my food styling photo projects. I love to take pictures of both prepared and unprepared food items, it’s one of the things a photographer must do on a regular basis. Well...it is not a must-do thing, but for me...I should be doing it more often. It all goes into a huge file called Stock Photography. Someday, those images will begin to sell to Stock Photography “houses”. Each individual photo isn’t worth much, but as a collection, they can bring in steady source of income.
Back to food styling. Jenifer and Roth are coming here the end of this month, flying down from Seattle. They’ll spend Thursday and Friday nights with us here in Salida, then we will all load up and drive down to Pismo (actually Nipomo I think) for the wedding of a long-time family friend. While speaking with Jenifer and Roth on the phone last night, we talked of making a "bitchen" dinner on Friday night. Roth, my chef son-in-law, will do most of the cooking this time (I think Jen has revealed this little ditty to him already). And I, Mr. Skip Hansen, photographer, will set up the food styling studio.
Of course, one of the fun parts to entertaining and cooking is the planning of the meal. We have almost a full month to do that. The other fun part (at the other end of the process) is actually eating it! But that is only a small, almost anti-climatic step in the scheme of things. Since I have been doing relatively well on my Sonoma Diet effort, things have changed quite a bit in this area. I not only don’t eat as much, but what I fix has changed dramatically. Geeze I miss the cream sauces, bacon double cheeseburgers, fried foods, and Jack Daniels. No big deal...at least I am seeing some results.
Back to Captain Geech. A couple of weeks ago I was on a mission to find some large shrimp “still looking at you”. Good luck. Since we don’t live in Seattle, finding shrimp that are still intact with all their parts was not easy. I went to several markets to no avail. Most of the people just gave me a mystic stare when I said, “I need some shrimp that are still looking at you”. No sense of humor for the most part I guess. A couple minimum wage meat and seafood counter types may not even have known that shrimp have eyes...or that they possess body parts beyond a meaty tail.
So, I finally found a friendly and helpful person at O’brien’s Market in Modesto...an upscale, somewhat expensive supermarket that has an extensive meat and seafood department, closely resembling a butcher shop. The seafood counter girl managed to find a box or two of frozen, large shrimp. In the business, they are called 3-4’s...those numbers representing the number of shrimp per pound. The scampi-type shrimp are usually 25-30. The small shrimp cocktail shrimp: 50-60...that I affectionately call Sea Monkey Shrimp.
She brought out the box (that she had torn open for me), and presented me with my choice of eight, large, frozen, completely intact shrimp...at $9.99 a pound. I opted for three “good ones”, ie, antennae not broken off, legs still attached, and all “still looking at you”. Voila...Captain Geech and the Shrimp Shack Shooters, a referrence to a scene in one of our favorite movies, That Thing You Do. To explain: the 60’s musical group in the movie (written by and starring Tom Hanks btw), The Wonders, got to play Captain Geech and the Shrimp Shack Shooters in a beach party style movie. Yes, both groups are mythical and only resemble musical groups from that bygone era. My Captain Geech? He is much more than mythical, he's a real crustacean...waiting to headline our Labor Day BBQ!
Anyway, Captain Geech sat very still for an hour or so of studio shots. His buddies eventually made in into the spotlight, accompanied by The Cilantros, the Gilroy Garlic Boys (a jazz ensemble), and The Limeliters (I couldn’t resist that one) for a photo jam session.
The rest is photo history.
I have been very remiss with my food styling photo projects. I love to take pictures of both prepared and unprepared food items, it’s one of the things a photographer must do on a regular basis. Well...it is not a must-do thing, but for me...I should be doing it more often. It all goes into a huge file called Stock Photography. Someday, those images will begin to sell to Stock Photography “houses”. Each individual photo isn’t worth much, but as a collection, they can bring in steady source of income.
Back to food styling. Jenifer and Roth are coming here the end of this month, flying down from Seattle. They’ll spend Thursday and Friday nights with us here in Salida, then we will all load up and drive down to Pismo (actually Nipomo I think) for the wedding of a long-time family friend. While speaking with Jenifer and Roth on the phone last night, we talked of making a "bitchen" dinner on Friday night. Roth, my chef son-in-law, will do most of the cooking this time (I think Jen has revealed this little ditty to him already). And I, Mr. Skip Hansen, photographer, will set up the food styling studio.
Of course, one of the fun parts to entertaining and cooking is the planning of the meal. We have almost a full month to do that. The other fun part (at the other end of the process) is actually eating it! But that is only a small, almost anti-climatic step in the scheme of things. Since I have been doing relatively well on my Sonoma Diet effort, things have changed quite a bit in this area. I not only don’t eat as much, but what I fix has changed dramatically. Geeze I miss the cream sauces, bacon double cheeseburgers, fried foods, and Jack Daniels. No big deal...at least I am seeing some results.
Back to Captain Geech. A couple of weeks ago I was on a mission to find some large shrimp “still looking at you”. Good luck. Since we don’t live in Seattle, finding shrimp that are still intact with all their parts was not easy. I went to several markets to no avail. Most of the people just gave me a mystic stare when I said, “I need some shrimp that are still looking at you”. No sense of humor for the most part I guess. A couple minimum wage meat and seafood counter types may not even have known that shrimp have eyes...or that they possess body parts beyond a meaty tail.
So, I finally found a friendly and helpful person at O’brien’s Market in Modesto...an upscale, somewhat expensive supermarket that has an extensive meat and seafood department, closely resembling a butcher shop. The seafood counter girl managed to find a box or two of frozen, large shrimp. In the business, they are called 3-4’s...those numbers representing the number of shrimp per pound. The scampi-type shrimp are usually 25-30. The small shrimp cocktail shrimp: 50-60...that I affectionately call Sea Monkey Shrimp.
She brought out the box (that she had torn open for me), and presented me with my choice of eight, large, frozen, completely intact shrimp...at $9.99 a pound. I opted for three “good ones”, ie, antennae not broken off, legs still attached, and all “still looking at you”. Voila...Captain Geech and the Shrimp Shack Shooters, a referrence to a scene in one of our favorite movies, That Thing You Do. To explain: the 60’s musical group in the movie (written by and starring Tom Hanks btw), The Wonders, got to play Captain Geech and the Shrimp Shack Shooters in a beach party style movie. Yes, both groups are mythical and only resemble musical groups from that bygone era. My Captain Geech? He is much more than mythical, he's a real crustacean...waiting to headline our Labor Day BBQ!
Anyway, Captain Geech sat very still for an hour or so of studio shots. His buddies eventually made in into the spotlight, accompanied by The Cilantros, the Gilroy Garlic Boys (a jazz ensemble), and The Limeliters (I couldn’t resist that one) for a photo jam session.
The rest is photo history.
posted by James | 7:45 AM
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