Mica: [00:00:00] Welcome to the 60th episode of The Savory Shot, a podcast about the art and soul of working in food photography. I'm your host with the most, Mica McCook.
I'm a food and beverage photographer based out of Austin, Texas. I would like to start today's episode by thanking y'all, the listeners, for joining me today. Especially the ones who returned after the hiatus.
I was so nervous about putting out that episode and I had no reason to be. Y'all are the best. I just want to say that I love you all so much and I'm glad that you're back. I'm glad that you're excited for future episodes. Your feedback was the match I needed to spark this fire. So thank you guys so much for the feedback. I love you. And if this is your first time joining us, thank [00:01:00] you so much for being here. Welcome to the Hot Mess Express. But y'all, I am so excited to talk about today's episode. I've been on pins and needles waiting to put this episode out. I felt an instant connection to our next guest. I know by the end of this episode, you will too. So, without further ado, I'd like to introduce y'all to Sheila Jarnes.
Y'all, we are jumping back into the world of food styling. Sheila is a freelance food stylist, prop stylist, and sometimes even a hand model. She's a master of creating beautiful scenes and has a deep love for gardening and her pups. Sheila's journey started in a completely different field, environmental conservation, but her passion for food led her to launch a food blog [00:02:00] called All Things Considered Yummy.
This venture led her to work in various restaurants and eventually as a food stylist. Today, she works as a successful freelance food stylist and works with top photographers and food brands. Y'all, in this episode, Sheila's story will inspire you to keep going even when things get tough.
You'll learn how she found her niche, how she embraced her unique talents, and built a career in the creative industry. Sheila and I talk about aligning yourself with brands whose values match your own and why that is so important to do. We traded war stories of the pandemic and how that time still has a rippling effect on our world today.
[00:03:00] When I was editing this episode, I had the biggest, cheesiest smile on my face because I forgot how much Sheila and I laughed during this interview. It was healing to my soul. But enough talking. I've talked enough. Let's start the show.
Mica: Sheila, I want to start off this by [00:04:00] thanking you so much for being here.
Sheila: Absolutely. Thank you for having me.
Mica: Yay. So I am so ready to get right into this. You have been in this industry since 2016, and your first job was at an ice cream parlor, which I do count that as styling because I've gone to Amy's Ice Cream and I see what they do.
They flip the ice cream around, they sprinkle around and they present it in a way that like, makes people go, " I'm going to like, indulge in that." But I, I want to hear about your, your early days as a food stylist. Who is Sheila in 2016?
Sheila: 2016. I didn't know what a food stylist was. It's something that just fell into my lap. I was working in this restaurant in Gloucester, Massachusetts. I think I had been there for five years. I was really interested in food in general. I basically left this government job that I had and told myself I [00:05:00] had five years to dedicate to working in food if I was still interested after five years, then carry on.
I was in the midst of that and had an agency where she had a bunch of different stylists, like food, prop, wardrobe, makeup, hair.
But I had this embarrassing food blog called, All Things Considered Yummy because I was convinced NPR would get mad at me because they have All Things Considered and then I would have to change the name, but they would have like said something.
I don't know. It's so stupid.
One point somebody was like, "Oh, Sheila does some kind of like food photography stuff." Which was just like me on my cell phone or my like crappy point and shoot at the so I was practicing cooking taking pictures and writing badly. And I had a business card for no apparent reason.
Like I don't even have business cards now, but then I did. Long story short, gave her my card and she put my name in for this job that ended up being [00:06:00] my first gig. Boston Globe Magazine. They had this weekly food column. I had just moved into my first solo apartment. Recipes written by Adam Reid from America's Test Kitchen.
It would come out every Sunday in the magazine. I would do the props, cooking, styling, and the photographer would come over to my apartment and we would shoot. That's it. I had literally no idea what I was doing. I didn't know how to think like a stylist. I really wanted to take the recipes literally, cook them exactly how they were laid out.
You want it to look like the recipe should, but this restaurant background made me like really obsessed with the food side. Instead of being like, "Oh yeah, I should separate all of the ingredients and then place them on the dish." I wasn't assisting at the time.
It was just like once every three weeks we would do this. [00:07:00] And other than that, I was working full time in a restaurant, which eventually morphed into me managing the restaurant. It really was like a side thing for a while. Every now and then I would assist on something else, which was great to see what bigger commercial shoots were like and how real stylists work.
So that was a few years where I was not treating it like a career because I was committed to the restaurant. And then we moved to Maine. At that point I was like, I have no idea how I'll be able to continue doing this in Portland, Maine, because so much of the work is in Boston, and I couldn't fathom driving and schlepping and doing the whole thing. So I continued working full time in a restaurant, that was short lived because the pandemic happened. So then I just like waffled and flailed through the pandemic trying to.
Mica: As mostt of us did.
Sheila: Yeah. And just neurotically was like [00:08:00] trying to learn how to cook a gajillion things at home because I was like, "What can I possibly do with my life?" I don't think I want to work in restaurants anymore. It doesn't feel sustainable. Is there a way I can just get my anxiety out with cooking and maybe turn it into something? I was like, "I'm gonna make candy bars and try to sell them to people! I'm gonna, I don't know how to make bread, I'm gonna, blah!" Like, Everything.
Mica: I tried to learn how to make gummy bears, and I was like, "Yeah, that, that was short-lived too."
Sheila: Yeah. How did they come out?
Mica: I mean, they came out looking like gummy bears, but they it didn't taste anything.
Like, like it was just kind of a weird consistency. And I was like,
Sheila: Yeah.
Mica: This is not the gummy bears that I am used to buying in the store.
Sheila: Let's swear. I love a gummy bear.
Mica: You mentioned the restaurant industry really taking a hit. I shot mainly for restaurants in Austin, and then pretty much [00:09:00] every like shoot that I had lined up was like canceled in a matter of days.
And then I had to transition to studio work and I was like, "This is a whole new world for me." It's just now that I'm starting to like shoot back into restaurants. So I need to know is your food blog still up? All Things Considered Yummy? Because that's just such a cool name.
Sheila: I've continued paying for the domain just because I want to be able to look back at it nostalgically but I don't want to look at it for like, another ten years, maybe? Just keep it as an embarrassing time capsule. Let's just pretend I didn't name it.
Mica: My friend Charlotte and I used to work together on a food blog named "Let's Taco About It."
It had nothing to do with tacos. I don't even know why we thought that was the best name on the planet. It turned into a literary food blog. We would create these [00:10:00] three course meals based on a book character.
It's so off putting when people see, Let's Taco Bout It. And then they go and they're like, "What's all this shit about books?" If we tell people, Oh, we have a food blog, it's called, "Let's Taco Bout It."
Like, Oh, I love tacos. It's like, so do we, but that's not what this is about. But I still have it up just for, for like what you said about your blog for nostalgia. But yeah, that, that was a fun, fun time. Something that you said that that I thought was interesting is that when you were starting as a food stylist, you didn't know like what food styling was.
At what point did you think or know, actually, this could be a career? And maybe this is something to explore and give it my all.
Sheila: Guess it must have been maybe like 2021 or beginning of 2022 when I was like, okay. It's [00:11:00] pretty recent for me that I was like really switched to be like trying to focus on this full time and make it a thing.
Just because the pandemic kind of turned me off from wanting to be full time in restaurants. I admire so much the hard work that goes into that, but after having done it for a long time, very intensely, I was ready to phase out of that if I could. And so I started more seriously assisting on bigger jobs, which was a really great learning experience. I'm still doing that kind of filling in the gaps now and there's so much to learn. But yeah, it was really like the past two years that I decided to dedicate and put all of my eggs in that basket. And it's really just this year that I've stopped working in restaurants entirely, like I had been doing it part time and trying to supplement the styling work and now I'm like, okay, all of my eggs are in the styling [00:12:00] basket.
Let's just hope this all works out.
Mica: That is so cool. Man, like, a scary leap.
Sheila: Yeah. And I'm three hours from Boston. So it's it's a whole thing. I like go down and stay with my parents who are closer to the city or with friends. But sometimes the work is up here, you know, there's so much that can be done remotely now.
Mica: What's it like when you're packing your. How big is your kit? I, I'm fascinated with food stylists kit. Like ever since I worked with the first food stylist, like you guys have like a whole kitchen that you take with you.
Sheila: It's pretty expansive, like moving to this place or moving apartments in general, it's just not fun. The kit itself, it's like a Husky wheeled thing that if it's a longer job or there's more varied foods, I might bring the whole thing with the heat gun and the steamer and all of the like sprays and whatnot. I feel like most of the time it's like a pretty light situation.
But the packout always takes longer than I [00:13:00] think it's going to. And sometimes I'm also bringing props with me. So every time I like, think that I have everything tight and buttoned up and ready to go, I'm like, Oh wait, I need this other thing and this other thing. And then the car is very full, and sometimes I want to bring somebody with me, and I'm like, there's no room in the car.
Mica: Do you, do you wanna sit on the, on the roof? I dunno where to put you.
Sheila: Yeah, it's crazy it's crazy. Because we live in this little farmhouse that we're renting, I have finally gotten a garage fridge, which is the craziest, most amazing thing to me.
It's life changing I know I'm not alone in thinking that that is the pinnacle of. It just feels so American to have a garage fridge.
But I had a test shoot here this spring, and I was like, there is absolutely no way that I can cook all of this food. And also we have our own food in the fridge and not have an extra place for it [00:14:00] to go.
So that's not, like, exactly my kit. I'm not like, you know, but it just grows.
Mica: It, it gets out of hand. Our garage, started out with mostly my husband's stuff. And then it quickly grew into my prop collection. Especially like in 2020 started shooting more at home. So I started collecting more props at home and it got out of hand. So you mentioned that you are assisting food stylist. What have you learned in general about each stylist that you've assisted?
Sheila: It's amazing seeing how people get ready for the shoot. There's just so many lists to organize. How they lay out the food for a shoot in terms of just organizing in the kitchen. Pre pro calls, you try to, ask anything in advance so you're not in the moment trying to ask a question about how something [00:15:00] should be cooked or shown. Every second is crucial on these busier shoots If you don't ask those questions and have clear answers ahead of time, that can make the day like kind of snowball and feel really challenging.
Really just seeing how different stylists like to do things. I've assisted some people who cook a ton of stuff in advance and store it in a special way that it won't oxidize or deteriorate and then other people who like it to be as fresh as possible.
Seeing the client interactions and how they deal with challenges has been great to see how other people do things. You can sort of like absorb all of it and find your own style within that.
Mica: Whenever, like I assisted, I liked seeing how the lead photographer would resolve a conflict. Some. Just their communication style is on point, and they knew how to get a point across without crossing any hairs or [00:16:00] causing any problems.
When you did your first lead stylist shoot, what do you remember from that?
Sheila: My gosh, I don't even remember what it was. Like I was starting out with some that were with my friend, Evan, who was doing remote shoots. They were with bigger companies, but it was just the two of us hanging out, so it still felt like small scale to me.
I did do a lead stylist job with Duncan that I've like completely blocked from my memory because it did not go great.
Mica: No.
Sheila: I just like, I wasn't ready for a job that scale. It was like years ago and I thought that I could just do it and I was like, Oh wow. Okay. Wasn't ready for it.
Mica: I've yet to do a remote shoot, but I'm always curious to hear about other photographers who do remote shooting. Is it usually [00:17:00] where are they on like zoom and they can just see what you're doing, like you're sharing your screen with them, or do you take a couple of shots, send them a couple of screenshots and say, how are we doing?
Sheila: I've had kind of varied experiences with it. So sometimes, I'd say more often than not, people can have a live link where they can just like see the images, not necessarily see the live camera, but see the images throughout the day or they're in a chat where you can send them along and people can text and respond. So there's been like a text chain going.
I've been on other ones where it was a packaging shoot and somebody was basically on Zoom the entire time. This was unusual for me at least like they were watching the live view and so I'm just like processing how I want to put things down and I'm not great at using live view because it doesn't like communicate with my brain the right way.
So sometimes I like, I'm like, I want this here. Oh wait, that's not where that goes because the camera is [00:18:00] flipping it in my brain. I don't know. And so she was like, that should be there. This should be there. This should be there. Like telling me as I'm moving it. So that's like an extreme example.
Mica: That is like micromanage to the max.
Sheila: I was like, I'm just trying to like place this and figure it out. And then I've had the other extreme of that where they're just like, it was a cookbook and they were just like, yeah, just send us the link at the end of the day. And they didn't need to really approve each image as it went.
There was a lot of trust there. So it's been all across the board.
Mica: While you're talking, I'm wondering like, to myself, it's like, which would I prefer? Them telling me exactly what they want or me having to make decisions for them. And then I probably would want something right in the middle, but. the, the detailed, like, oh, move that there, move that there.
It's like, don't you got something to be doing? Like what?
Sheila: Yeah, I was like, I'm not done.
Mica: So I looked at your website. I love that on your website [00:19:00] you have a section for hands. And I was like, of course, why don't we have a portfolio for the hands?
If you can't envision yourself eating it or making it, then it's hard for you to really connect with it. Why do you have a whole section for hands? Why is that important to highlight in your work?
Sheila: Yeah it feels like it's something that comes up a fair amount. Maybe a client wants hands in a shot. All of the ones on that part of my site are my hands. It was just trying to show like, if you need me to throw my hand in the shot, this is what it will look like. It has come in handy where if someone does ask me about that, I can just be like, look at this part of my site and you'll know what my hands look like.
Mica: I hope you're charging for hand modeling expenses.
Sheila: Yeah. I'm gonna probably need a manicure, so.
Mica: Make sure you include that in the statement. What's Whenever you see your work in print what thoughts and [00:20:00] feelings go through your mind?
Sheila: It's usually a lot of excitement at first because it's just like, so fun to hold it and see it. Also just a feeling of like, how cool is it to do a job like this that's creative, where I get to merge all of my interests. Delicious food and drink and presentation and art and color and share it and have it like something I'm holding that I just remember all of the work that went into creating it and what that day felt like. And then I start noticing like, Oh, they should have tucked that little piece of lettuce in, or I wish they went with this other version where I did tuck that piece of lettuce. But yeah, a lot of the time I'll, I would be super psyched about seeing it and then processing like how should I have done this differently and what can I do to make it better next time and then I have to put it down and not look at it.
Mica: I get with, like, the analyzing. It's like, oh, [00:21:00] my God. There was one shoot that I did. It was a cookbook shoot and at the time everything looked gorgeous, perfect, everything. The author sent me the book and I was just so proud of it. We flipped on one of like the closeup shots and like, there was, it wasn't, it was just like an ingredient.
It was like a pea or something. And I was like, I really wish that I had like, checkered more peas than this.
I was like, ah. And it was all I can think of and I was like, shots ruined.
Sheila: No!
Mica: Not enough peas.
Sheila: Oh my god. It's so funny because like I go back and forth with this where I'm like oh my god nobody is gonna notice that blah blah blah but then at the same time this is like why we obsess over detail because people who don't work in this will look at something and they will know if it works or if it doesn't work.
They won't be able to say that lettuce should have been different or that we needed another pea. But [00:22:00] they're like, there's like a thing.
Mica: They can't verbalize like what's off about the photo, but there's something not quite clicking.
Sheila: Yeah. My mom has always been a painter and it wasn't her main career, but she's really talented and she will have an oil painting on the wall for like decades and then she'll just look at it and be like, oof, and take it down and start changing something about it. So it just feels like it's never finished. It's fun to look at something in print, but then it's also like, I need to do something better and different the next time.
Mica: What's it like working with photographers on a on a shoot? What type of energy and dynamics do you usually find on set?
Sheila: Generally it feels like a fun, roving circus. I feel like when I first started it was interesting to be coming from restaurants with a very specific kind of [00:23:00] creative wanderer personality that attracts restaurants.
I was in that world of working with different people sometimes, it's always like meeting the people in the restaurant. And it was wild to see a different side of all of these creative people coming together. There's always a bit of anxiety if it's a new job or a new crew and seeing how people interact but it's so important when people can feel centered when they walk in. It's such a team effort and everyone comes together.
So I just bring up restaurants in the sense that it. it feels similar you're all working really hard and fast at something that bonds you faster than anybody working in an office would. People bringing each other up. Like energy is contagious.
We all need to kinda hold each other together through the day to feel positives.
At least for me, to like get in my head about stuff. But if we all stay centered, then we can like rise together.
Mica: Love that. That's so [00:24:00] true. For like new photographers who are coming in to this industry and they finally get the chance to, to work with the food stylist, what are some things that a photographer needs to know so that the two of you, like, accomplish this goal together? What do you need from the photographer to make that happen?
Sheila: I think it can be helpful to know what kind of lighting the photographer is working with. Just like what is the general gear that they're using and the style of photography that they like to work with. You can always look at someone's website to get a feel, but if it's the first time they're working with a stylist, it's probably a little bit different than what they are showing as their portfolio.
So I think a conversation of like, what is your flow? How do you like to work? Telling the photographer as a stylist, what you plan on bringing and just being [00:25:00] clear on how you envision your role.
Mica: If they're feeling nervous about working with a a food stylist, what advice would you give to photographers?
Sheila: I would say that the stylist is there to help things just run smoother. And not to say there's no reason to be nervous, cause I'm nervous all the time, just part of the joy of this. It's growing.
Mica: If someone tells me to relax, I'm like, you need to get away from me, because that does not exist over here.
Sheila: Exactly. So not to say no reason to be nervous, but more there is a shared purpose and we are here to support each other and create something together. If either person has any question before or during that, they should feel comfortable to just ask and work on the problem together.[00:26:00]
Mica: What's the saying? Teamwork makes the dream work. I mean, I know that's such a tired cliche thing to say, But like, it's so true. It's so, so true. Teamwork makes the dream work.
Sheila: Yeah. You only have so many arms, two. Getting multiple brains together to like, all of the people who have their strength is how you make that beautiful photo.
Mica: Absolutely. I compare it to working in theater. Everything to put on a show. With the director is going to do it all like they're going to run the sound board, bring up the lights, they're going to act on stage, they're going to do the cut. Like, no, it takes a whole community to bring this show together.
Sheila: Yeah, there's, there is the energy to it.
Mica: Oh, for sure. In college, they have like a theater competition and we would have an hour to set up, and then an hour to tear down. I remember the college that we were [00:27:00] performing at, the director there had his students come and watch us. He's like, I want you guys to see like what an actual tear up tear down, looks like.
That director was fascinated with how we set up and tear down.
Everybody had their jobs. We We went and did our jobs first and then once we were done doing what we needed to do, then we looked around and see, okay, who needs help?
And we would like switch jobs so that everybody knew how to do everybody's job. I'm not saying it's like that with food styling, but that communication was right there and we communicated with each other verbally. We communicated with each other just by seeing like what their body language was. So we'd often finished our set up and tear down in under an hour and it was so efficient.
What it boiled down to is that we just were so in tuned with one another that it's like, we didn't even need to ask each other. We just knew what the other person needed. And [00:28:00] I try to channel that same energy with my team. Everybody has their jobs and we trust each other to do the job. I'm not going to micromanage you and tell you how to do your job because frankly, I'm not a professional, like it's not what I know. So I'm going to step back and let you do your thing because it'll go by faster if I let you.
Otherwise I should just do it myself. Like, a lot of it is based on trust.
Sheila: Totally.
Mica: It's kind of hard to build that trust when you just met, but that's what test shoots are for to, to figure how the other works out.
And And how you guys get along and everything. Yeah, so I'm, I'm rambling on that point, cause I'm just so big on having stylists on set, having a team on set. It, it really does take a team to, to bring something wonderful. And I just want people to talk to, like, I don't want to work by myself.
Sheila: Yeah.
Mica: That was like the hardest thing, like going into freelancing. It's like, I went from having [00:29:00] coworkers to like no coworkers.
So you are freelancing completely. What has that journey been like from having coworkers to being solo?
Sheila: Uh, I mean, It's also just coincided with moving to this town of 700, so.
Yeah so, it can feel a little isolating at times, like when there are lulls in between jobs, and sort of like Okay, it's fine.. .
It's summer. I'm on this beautiful property and we can farm and we can explore and go canoeing and whatever.
I think I lost my train of thought because I started thinking about canoeing.
Mica: We were talking about what it's like going from having coworkers to solo work.
Sheila: It is interesting, like there's these extremes where I'm like here at home and like seeing friends around but also it's like [00:30:00] very quiet if I'm just home, but then I really do get a sixth of like intense burst of direction where I'm like with a bunch of different people.
Like I could have a week where maybe I'm doing a couple different shoots in Boston and so I'm seeing like a couple different groups of people and I might be seeing my parents or a friend that I'm staying with or other family members. So it's like fitting that all in that kind of spreads my socialization out through the week sometimes. But there are definitely times where I'm like, Oh, I just miss being around people at work that you can see on a more regular basis and just like, how was that thing that happened the other day? Like those small conversations are so valuable.
So I do miss that sometimes.
Mica: Oh, yeah. I, I, I missed the office gossip.
Sheila: Yeah.
Mica: It's like, I don't want to know the drama. What's going on? I'm, I'm like more engrossed in my friends, their co workers drama. I'm like, tell me the [00:31:00] tea.
What's going on? What's going on? Is she doing that? Like, I don't even know who this co worker is. I'm like, that hooker. You know?
Sheila: Love it.
It's like being an aunt. Because you don't have to like actually be responsible for the drama. You just get to visit it and then be like, Goodbye!
Mica: Yes. Yes. You just like drop little nuggets of like, here's how we can do this. And then you just step away and you're like, Oh no, no.
Sheila: That's so funny. That's so funny.
Mica: So, I want to take it to your creative process when you're styling a dish. What's the first thing that usually comes to mind when you're prepping a dish?
Sheila: Going back to the briefing document and trying to see what is the vibe of the story we're trying to tell? And who is the person that would envision themselves [00:32:00] in the scene? Who's the audience? Is it something that is like maybe more of a commercial product where it needs to be like really clean and no little bits of mess around, or is it like a more interacted with food that like somebody just stepped away from the table and you can immerse yourself in that scene. So try to think about what the client is envisioning the story being. If I were about to eat that dish like what would make it look the most appetizing to me.
Mica: Whenever you get the brief, are you like starting to form like shot ideas or styling ideas? Or do you wait until the shoot itself and then make decisions at that point?
Sheila: I mean, usually we'll have a shot list, like maybe I'll get the brief and it doesn't have a fully formed shot list, but it's starting to talk about what the general concept is, [00:33:00] and then usually there will be a pretty planned out shot list. Whether that's provided by the client or if it's something that like the photographer might make or maybe we work on together. I just like to have most of it going into the shoot. So many things can get away from you that if you don't know like this is generally how I want this shot to look like. I'm not doing like paint by number where you're just showing up and doing exactly what you might have laid out but at least having like, this is, overhead and we're probably going to do one or two plates and this is the color scheme that we're thinking of and the vibe having those guidelines is really helpful and then obviously you see it on camera and it might not be be communicating the message that you want so then you'll change it in the moment, but it's nice to have it set ahead of time.
Mica: Preparation is key. You prepare, you prepare, and then you prepare [00:34:00] some more. Is it a different vibe whenever you're doing like test shoots when you're a dish during test shoots?
Sheila: Yeah, it's interesting because I've done some where they've just been like a friend and I just being like a little bit looser and experimenting and seeing what we come up with and then going in a direction of like trying to have it more planned out.
And it's, it's cool to see that process applied to a test.
Like I did one this spring with a couple of friends here at home. And that was like the most magical thing to me. Because it was like where I live with all of my stuff and like food, I would actually eat and my friends were the models and it was really fun.
Generally I'm trying to be more mindful about the plan.
I have one later this week and it's a whole thing to like, produce quote unquote, the shoot instead of just getting together with a friend and being like, let's just make something pretty. [00:35:00] Actually we have goals of who we want to be targeting with this and what kind of work we want to get from it.
My friend, the photographer, found some models for it. So I'm like, anytime there's more people added to it, I just don't want to waste anybody's time. I'm always so scared of wasting people's time and energy. It's such a precious resource that we've just been like chatting every day about Okay, what are we going to do for this?
And what is that going to be? And mapping it all out.
There's going to be things that you're like, Oh, that's really pretty. Let's like go capture that, but definitely having some sort of a plan. So none of us, myself very much included. Don't just like get carried away and then end up forgetting something. Like maybe there was a shot that we really wanted to get and we're like, ended up being excited about this thing and forgot about the thing that we really cared about.
Mica: The biggest takeaway that I've learned about test shoots versus portfolio shoots. I used to think that portfolio shoots were the same thing as test [00:36:00] shoots. I would create these really beautiful, fine art esque photos that were gorgeous, but they weren't bringing in clients. It was hard for the client to envision their product in this shot. So like learning what my test shoots, it's like, okay, we're actually targeting a brand. We're actually targeting an agency or something like that. My question for you is with your test shoots, type of clients do you usually find yourself targeting?
Sheila: This is still newer to me, but, well, this past weekend I had a minor epiphany where I've realized that I want to try to be targeting companies and brands that produce food in an ethical way. Studied environmental conservation and I've felt what is the connection with what I'm doing, right now. Because there's this industry that is always full with food, and it's really breaks my heart every single [00:37:00] time that we just end up having to throw food out. We try to save a lot of it, and give it away, and whatnot, but long story short, I'm trying to find clients that might have values that align with mine, that can hire stylists and photographers, and still put on the kind of shoot that I want to be working with. I'm trying to find that kind of company to work with.
Mica: You touched on something that's also near and dear to my heart. I'm part of the Buy Nothing community. So like, if there's dried goods, then I give what I can away there, but there's also like they call them like community fridges around Austin.
There's like two that are near my house and so I'll drop off what I can, but there's a lot of hands touching food. So like, nobody's going to be eating that.
But I try to. At least for my test shoots and my portfolio work, I tried to pick things that my husband and I are going to eat in the house. So it's like, this is now part of our meal plan. [00:38:00] This is what we're having for dinner. Just because I don't want to waste anything. Like I feel wasteful that I'm buying this food specifically to photograph it. And then it's just tossed aside. So I, I love that that mission of yours that you wanna work with food brands that are more in tune with how, you know, what impact they're making on the environment.
Sheila: Yeah. So this is my new journey of trying to find those companies and see where our tastes can overlap and if we are a match hoping that something works out. I don't expect every brand to align with everything that I believe in because it's not the world we live in but I really want to go more in that direction because it just it just feels more true to what I'm wanting to do.
Mica: Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. I'm, I'm right there with you. Off the cuff question, what's your least favorite dish to [00:39:00] style?
Sheila: Hmmmm. Sometimes pizza. Like, I recently had a shoot where it was a roundup of restaurants and they had to deliver the pizza the day before.
And they wanted it to look like a nice fresh pizza and it was a day old. So I had to like, essentially just add more sauce and cheese and use my hand tool to broil, melt it and make it look like it was fresh and okay, it's not gonna, I don't know. So that it's just like cheese pulls can be so finicky. And day old pizza can be finicky.
Mica: Hmm. Mm hmm, mm hmm. Yup, and like having to dump like twice as much cheese, and then.
Sheila: Yeah.
Mica: You have to do it all over again, you're like, keep eating. I agree,
Sheila: [00:40:00] Yeah, I'd say like generally melty cheese is probably feeling the trickiest. Especially like I had to do something else where it was a remote shoot and we're like waiting for approval. And I'm like, It's dying!
It's dying! Help!
Mica: We gotta do this now! Like, my least favorite food to photograph is chili. I've said this so many times before, but I'm like no. I
Sheila: Yeah, I've had to do meatloaf a couple of times, and then I had to do this lentil nutloaf, and it had dried fruit and all of this stuff in it, and it just. That was, I would rather do anything else, actually.
Mica: Yeah. Yeah. Brown foods in general. I guess that like cuts barbecue [00:41:00] out completely. I love barbecue, most Texans do, but I don't think I, I don't know if I'd ever be okay with like photographing it cause it's just brown. So I want to finish out today's interview with one last question, what's exciting you these days as a food stylist?
Sheila: Ooh I am really inspired by all of these cookbooks that are coming out, just really diving into different cuisines around the world. I'm so psyched to see so many different cultures being represented and getting to learn about them and the family stories that go behind them and the different ingredients that I'm not familiar with and techniques and then there's also this book um, I think it's, You And I Eat The Same. And so it'll be like all of the overlaps of okay, all of these cultures are based in rice or different kinds of flatbread or different ways of grilling meat and [00:42:00] how you can see all of the interactions between different cultures and detective red string between all of them. And I'm just really inspired by learning constantly. There's so much that there's more that I don't know, by far, obviously, than what I do. And so it's just really cool to see so many interesting cookbooks come out.
Mica: Sheila, if there's one piece of advice that you could give to a photographer right here, right now what would you say to them?
Sheila: Yeah, I would say just keep your curiosity strong. Practice as much as you can, whether it's in photography or food styling. If it's food styling, just absorbing as much information you can, asking all the questions, cooking things that you're not comfortable cooking, and forcing yourself to go outside of your comfort zone in that way.
And expanding the different realm that you can. Be comfortable. And if you're [00:43:00] like, oh, I don't bake, then try baking because you never know what's going to be thrown at you. It's also just like a good life lesson to try to do the things that you're not comfortable doing. And this work is a constant reminder of having to be okay being uncomfortable.
Mica: Be okay with being uncomfortable. Thank you so much for, for being on the show. Where can the listeners find you and admire your amazing work?
Sheila: I'm on Instagram at Sheila Jarnes and my website is SheilaJones. com.
Mica: Oh, all right. You heard it.
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