One of the fun things I get to do for some of my books is art direct and produce photoshoots. Figuring out the best locations and teams for each book is part of the puzzle, and I've been very lucky to work with great people. We've experienced everything and anything that could go wrong, such as trees falling on rented lake house locations, blizzards, cold, rainy weather, props not arriving, and having a fashion shoot for a non fashion budget. Despite all of that, we've always managed to get a lot of great photographs that work really nicely for each of the books (the show really must go on). Favorite quote from a shoot: life long farmers at Butchering Book shoot: "ever see that happen before?" "nope". No matter what, you always just have to get the shot.

photographers clockwise from top: alexandra grablewski, stéphanie de rougé, joe keller, peter lamastro