Wrapping Up 2015 With a Spicy Cocktail

With only one day left of 2015, it's time to wrap up and say goodbye to what has been an amazing year. It usually takes me days to write a blog post, so I will keep this one really short as I would love to get it finished today.

2015 has been quite a spectacular year,  filled with everything I could have ever wished for; friends reunion, new friendships, amazing people, exciting travel destinations, great work opportunities, and just when I thought it couldn't get any better, I became an aunt to the cutest niece in the world. Some of the work-related highlights of this year include shooting another 12 issues of Gurmet magazine in Prague, teaching a food photography and styling workshop with Jo and Olia or travelling to Jerusalem to photograph Taste of Waldorf Astoria. I'm grateful for everything this year has brought and taught me and I'm really excited for the next one.

So here's to 2016, a new year full of new exciting opportunities, friendships, travel destinations, challenges and more.

2016, I'm ready for you.

To give a toast, my friend Jo and I decided to do a little cocktail photoshoot, which seemed like a crazy idea at the time (just before Christmas and both of us being insanely busy) but we managed to create two drinks, perfect for the end of the year party. It was so much fun shooting these cocktails and playing with beutiful props from West Elm. I shared my Spicy Beer Bloody Mary here or head over to Jo's blog for the elderflower gin & tonic recipe.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Spicy Beer Bloody Mary 
Serves 2

4 large ice cubes
1 lime
1 tbsp Maldon salt
130 ml tomato juice
a dash of Worcestershire sauce
4 dashes Tabasco (1-2 for a milder taste)
330 ml Mexican beer
freshly ground black pepper
olives

Method
Put Maldon salt in a small bowl or plate. Rub rims of two glasses with a wedge of lime and dip each glass in the salt.
Drop two large ice cubes in a cocktail shaker, add tomato juice, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco, a pinch of freshly ground black pepper, a table spoon of lime juice and beer. Give it a stir and strain into two glasses filled with ice.
Garnish with two olives and a pinch of black pepper.


Many thanks to West Elm for providing glasses & barware for this photoshoot. 

London Food & Lifestyle Photography Workshop in Pictures

What started as a vague conversation over the most delicious Korean fried chicken, ended as a great day spent with a group of lovely and creative people. I still remember the afternoon when Jo and I were licking our greasy fingers and discussing the possibility of doing a photography workshop together. Only about a week later the planning process had started. We teamed up with super sweet and talented food stylist & writer Olia Hercules (she's just published her first cookbook Mamushka) for our intimate one-day hands on food photography & styling workshop. Being on the same page from the very beginning, we had envisioned a creative and inspiring day for a small group of food and photography enthusiasts.

Fast forward a few months, on the last Sunday in May, we were unpacking boxes of food and props at Lyle's in Shoreditch (the light in there leaves me in awe every time I visit), waiting for our workshop participants to arrive. To start the day off we covered some basics of composition, lighting, colour theory, working with props, mobile photography and food styling before it was time for our attendees to have a go and put theory into practice during three practice sessions.

Salad photos by Joanna Yee

Photo by Joanna Yee

Photo by Charlotte Hu

Big thanks go out to our generous sponsors, specifically Natoora for the most beautiful produce that we all swooned over and West Elm London for gorgeous props. We all stayed well hydrated during the day thanks to Good Beans cold brew coffee, Innocent Coconut Water and Joe's Tea. A small healthy bites were supplied by 100% Natural Foods brownies and Cereal Lovers granola. And as we all know, wine makes every event better, so even this workshop wouldn't be the same without good bubbles and wine from Campo Viejo. 

Olia and Jo checking the #sjphotoworskhop hashtag on Instagram. :)

Here's what our workshop attendee's say about their experience.
Natural Kitchen Adventures
Skillet & Shutterbug
The Little Plantation

Oh and Jo created a short video, have a look!


Food Lifestyle Photography workshop from Joanna Yee on Vimeo.

Happy Easter!

In celebration of Easter and my love for eggs, I'm sharing a few photos from my favourite feature I photographed for a Czech food magazine called Gurmet.

Have an egg-tastic long Easter weekend lovely people!