August 8, 2011 | Salads, Vegetables
I can’t think of two more iconic summer vegetables than tomatoes and cucumbers. Okay, maybe corn and zucchini too, but I’ll save those for another post. Here in Colorado, it’s been a slow start to tomato season, and many friends report that their plants look anemic like mine. So far the only ones ripening for me are the Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes. They’re delicious, but honestly they never even make it inside as I eat them in the garden while I work. Fortunately, in my CSA bag this week was the very first tomato from the farm. The newsletter said there weren’t even enough for everyone to get one, so feeling privileged, I carefully carried it home and promptly made my favorite summer salad for dinner – a simple combination of diced tomato and cucumber tossed with a splash of balsamic vinegar and sprinkled with some sea salt. You can add olive oil if you like, but it’s not really necessary.
And then I spent the next 30 minutes trying various food styling options and practicing my newly learned food photography skills (sneaking in a bite of the salad on every take, I might add). One thing I learned in class is to use tile for a backdrop for texture – so in these shots you see just about every kind of leftover tile I found in the basement from when we built our house 3 years ago. In the end, I liked the simplicity of the lead photo for this post. But what about you? Does one of these photos appeal to you visually?
