Chava

Oropesa

It’s the season that pumpkin takes over!

It seems that everyone waits on pins and needles at the beginning of the Fall season for when the Pumpkin Spice Latte drops across most coffee brands and bakery shops.

In preparation for this seasonal classic, I put together a shoot creating hero images featuring coffee drinks. Color backgrounds and warm wooden textures help convey the message. I also wanted to use prop elements that brought a different color palette to the classic orange and brown Fall colors. Introducing the purple props makes the image more contrast and adds visual interest.

This year in celebration of Negroni week I decided to create this image with the elements that help create the cocktail.
I have a special love for this cocktail. I decided to use the bottles and the colors in the background to contrast and also harmonize with the other elements. The light creates new color hues playing with the liquid transparency giving the image a luminous quality.

Not sure what started my love for Negronis, but I think I had a predestined attraction.

You see, Campari has been a liquor that has been a staple of my family’s household since I can remember. My mom was a woman of very specific likes and dislikes, and Campari on the rocks was her drink.
I have this memory of my dad asking her what she would like to drink and she would always reply “Just a little Campari on ice” (if you have a Mexican friend, you know everything is referred as "little” in a term of endearment: tamalito, sopita, vasito…)
The deep red color was always mesmerizing, but when I was of drinking age and tried it for the first time I could not understand why she would drink that!

I guess it’s true that with age comes wisdom, because now I absolutely love it. I’m still not as hardcore as my mom to drink it just on the rocks, but in good company of Gin and Vermouth to make what many have called the “perfect cocktail”: The Negroni.

About the image

I had been thinking about playing with light painting for a while and how it would look integrated with some food element, I decided to use the Campari bottle because I imagined the glass would give great reflections and highlights in color, and because red is my favorite color.

Batard style loaf of bread, flavored with potatoes, bacon, chives, sour cream, and cheddar cheese.
I decided to play with the shadows and shapes of the napkin against the backdrop to give the overhead image depth.

The Lucille Bluth breakfast. I took this photo as one last cheers to comedy icon Jessica Walter after her passing away. I loved every second she was on screen and enjoyed every perfectly timed line she delivered. She was the best part of Arrested Development.

The image was inspired by this scene:
Lucille: “Get me a vodka rocks.”
Michael: “Mom, it’s breakfast.”
Lucille: “And a piece of toast.”