Olive Oil With a Blood Orange Twist
Olive Oil With a Blood Orange Twist
I recently shot Naples Olive Oil Company for the Naples Daily News . I had the pleasure of speaking with Marie Heiland, owner. It was fascinating to see the 20 varieties of olive oil and balsamic vinegars. Some of the more interesting ones were a blood orange olive oil and a pomegranate balsamic. The store is very clean and neat with tasting stations for you to sample each of the oils and vinegars and the staff is very knowledgeable about all the offerings. The oils themselves come in various subtle hues which made for some richly colored closeups.
Gracie’s Cupcakes
A new taste and a new magazine.
Gracie’s Cupcakes – Images by Erik Kellar
I recently was contacted by La Vie Claire magazine. It is associated with Claire Murray, a national lifestyle store and catalog that was founded by Claire Murray, a designer and entrepreneur who left New York City to open an inn on Nantucket. The company specializes in traditional crafts of rug hooking and the needle arts, and features crafts people from all over the world. I was hired to cover Gracie’s Cupcakes across from Coastland Mall in Naples, Florida. It is owned and operated by Grace Bolen. What a great place and a great person; we had gone to Naples High School together, not really knowing each other at school.
Anyway, Gracie’s a small cupcake and ice cream shop with some spectacular designs and specializing in decorative cupcakes for every occasion. If you get a chance, check out the images attached to this post and swing by Gracie’s.
There were a couple of things I was going for with the photos. I had this Andy Warhol inspiration moment after doing some preliminary scouting. So to give the designer of the magazine some choices I shot several combinations of cupcakes on different color backgrounds. Also, part of the directive of the magazine is to feature people’s lifestyles so I caught up with the Bolen family as they made cookies at home and then a walk on the beach.