The Fed+Fit Podcast | Nurturing a Healthy Mindset for a Healthy Lifestyle
We’re back with our 46th episode of the Fed+Fit Podcast! Remember to check back every Monday for a new episode and be sure to subscribe on iTunes!
Find us HERE on iTunes and be sure to “subscribe.”
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Episode 46 Topics:
- Welcome Special Guest Caroline Potter of Colorful Eats Nutrition
- Questions for Caroline
- Colorful Eats Nutrition
- All-American Paleo Table: Classic Homestyle Cooking from a Grain-Free Perspective
- Scrumptious and Styled
- The Nourishing Buzz Podcast
I would LOVE some feedback, so feel free to leave a review in iTunes, comment below, or even give us a shout on social media!
Ep. 46: Fed+Fit Special Guest: Caroline Potter
Today, I’m talking with my friend and special guest, Caroline Potter of Colorful Eats Nutrition about her new book, how she’s come to view her type 1 diabetes diagnosis as a blessing, and her top food photography tips.
TOPICS:
1. Introducing our guest, Caroline Potter [1:12]
2. Caroline’s health story [5:40]
3. Positive mindset on body image [15:31]
4. Caroline’s food photography tips [23:12]
Cassy Joy: Good morning everybody! Today we are back with a special episode of the Fed and Fit podcast with a friend of mine who also happens to be a colleague, and she lives practically across the world. She is so talented and has all these awesome creations; the lovely Mrs. Caroline Potter. Welcome Caroline!
Caroline Potter: Hello, how are you?
Cassy Joy: I am dandy. {laughs}
Caroline Potter: In your introduction you called me Mrs. Potter; I never get called that. {laughs}
Cassy Joy: Really? {laughs} Well, now that I’m married, I’m really savoring calling other people Mrs. Because I feel like now I’m a kindred spirit {laughs} with them.
Caroline Potter: I love it. I love it. {laughs}
1. Introducing our guest, Caroline Potter [1:12]
Cassy Joy: Well good. Just to give you guys a brief overview, if you’re not familiar with Caroline yet; she is an NTP and authored the cookbook All American Paleo Table, and she’s also the brains and beauty behind the blog Colorful Eats. She has an awesome newsletter, I recommend you sign up for, that goes out pretty regularly. Caroline lives on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii with her husband, Steven, and they’re super adorable golden retriever, Libby, which you can see pictures of her on Instagram. Caroline loves all things outdoors; hot cappuccinos, and grilling on the weekends, which is probably why we are such natural friends. {laughs}
Caroline Potter: {laughs} I really do love all those things.
Cassy Joy: You do? That’s so nice. I like all those things too. Those are good ones. Well, I’m thrilled to have you on today. I wanted to bring Caroline on because; well, I really just like introducing you guys to other really great people in the industry, people that I really look up to for a bunch of different reasons. But Caroline is definitely among that. She came out this year, like I said, with her debut cookbook and it is absolutely stunning. If you haven’t grabbed a copy yet, I highly recommend it. She really took a bunch of; if you can flip through the calendar of American holidays, she really took some of those classic family favorites and revitalized them with some really great nutrition thinking {laughs} is that the best description you’ve ever heard of your book, ever? {laughing}
Caroline Potter: Pretty great. Pretty great Cassy. {Laughs}
Cassy Joy: Some really great nutrition thinking went on in that book {laughs}.
Caroline Potter: I’m going to use that one from now on.
Cassy Joy: You should. That should be printed somewhere. {laughs} Anyways, it’s absolutely stunning, and she did an awesome job. I’ve made several things from it so far; the biscuits were awesome, the burger was awesome. That bacon jam, Miss Caroline; Mrs. Caroline, has changed my world.
Caroline Potter: Um, yeah, I literally have friends who will bring me bacon, and they’ll be like, will you make me bacon jam?
Cassy Joy: {laughs}
Caroline Potter: I’m like, sure. I think I always have a jar in the fridge to just hand out to people and thank them. I’ll be like, hey, you’re awesome, here’s some bacon jam. Yeah, I had a friend who, when I was testing all the recipes for my cookbook, she loves the bacon jam and she went on this hunt to find it in the store, and I think she called every Whole Foods in the nation, and they were like, what is bacon jam?
Cassy Joy: {laughs}
Caroline Potter: I was like, no you’ll just have to get my cookbook to make it. But it’s pretty good. It’s really good.
Cassy Joy: it is really good. I would definitely give it a REALLY in all caps.
Caroline Potter: Someone told me too it was Whole30 approved, and I was like; oh! I didn’t even think about that.
Cassy Joy: It totally is!
Caroline Potter: So awesome, too, for a lot of people I know who do the Whole30 all the time, but especially starting in the New Year, you can still eat your bacon jam.
Cassy Joy: Yeah. It’s because it’s sweetened with dates, and really it will rock your world. It will change things.
Caroline Potter: {laughs}
Cassy Joy: I had leftover from those burgers I made, and the next morning I put some on my eggs. I was asking Austin, my husband, I was like, do you want some bacon jam on your eggs? {laughs} He’s not as adventurous of a foodie as I am, but after he saw how delicious mine was, he grabbed a spoonful.
And speaking of tis the season, because this episode is airing the second week in December. I think that’s where we are. {laughs} What day is it? I don’t even know {laughing}.
Caroline Potter: Sometime near December.
Cassy Joy: Sometime near December. If y’all are looking for a nice little present to give to your coworkers, or your neighbors, or the mailman, I always like to do things like that every year. One year I made hot chocolate sticks; that recipe is on the blog. Other years I’ve done truffles, which is also on the blog. But this year, maybe I’ll make everybody bacon jam jars, how fun would that be?
Caroline Potter: Do it!
Cassy Joy: That would be so cute.
Caroline Potter: So fun.
Cassy Joy: Ok, sorry. I only have you for a little while, and I’m wasting all of it on bacon jam.
Caroline Potter: No, it’s a good thing.
2. Caroline’s health story [5:40]
Cassy Joy: {laughs} It’s a good thing. Never wasted when it’s talking about bacon jam. Anyway, that’s pretty much the skinny on Caroline, but I kind of want to hand it over to you. Tell a little bit about yourself, why you started the blog, and really what inspired the cookbook.
Caroline Potter: Well, I’ll just start at the very beginning. When I was 20, I was a junior in; I was going to say high school, but no I wasn’t. I was a junior in college.
Cassy Joy: {laughs}
Caroline Potter: I was 20 years old, and I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes; very much out of the blue. It pretty much rocked my world. I think it still rocks my world to anyone that is familiar with this disease; it’s something that kind of consumes you at times, and it’s something that you have to hourly and almost down to the moment sometimes be aware of. So, pretty much type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease and it’s something that I’ll have for the rest of my life. I was immediately put on insulin, and within 2 weeks I gained 22 pounds. And for a girl at age 20, that kind of weight gain is very difficult for anyone, but especially when it comes out of the blue, and there’s nothing you can do about it. I felt sick all the time, I was practically fainting all the time. Like, full on, dripping sweat, fainting status.
The doctors pretty much told me; at the time, I was seeing some of the top doctors on the east coast, and they told me, it doesn’t matter what you eat as long as you take enough insulin to counteract it, and that’s what I was told over and over again. You know, pizza, pasta, all those things, you can eat them just take enough insulin.
After a while, I was like, nope. This is not the way life is going to be, and I’m not just accepting this. I’ve kind of always been that person that doesn’t take no for an answer. I’m kind of an independent person in my mindset, so I just started researching everything. That was kind of right around the time the book Wheat Belly came out, or at least it got popular. That book just kind of changed my life, and changed my thinking, and that’s kind of when I adopted kind of a grain-free, paleo way of eating. I definitely do eat dairy, and I do find with really good quality dairy, but for the most part keeping things grain free, refined sugar free, just kind of that mindset of eating.
I immediately felt better; I saw a drastic change in my blood sugar levels, so I pretty much was like; well, I feel so great. And I jumped in, never looked back ever since. So that’s kind of my health story, in a nut shell.
Cassy Joy: Such a cool story. I love it. You’re so inspiring.
Caroline Potter: Yeah. Aww, thank you. The blog started, actually, because all around this time, I was getting married, that kind of also came out of the blue. I met my husband and we got married pretty quickly afterwards, but he’s absolutely wonderful. It was kind of more at the beginning stages of learning to live with this disease, and I was like; you know what, on any day, I just want to be a normal girl on my wedding day. So that was something I really struggled with, because the caterer was giving us all these fabulous dessert ideas, and I’m like, well I can’t eat any of them. Not to be selfish, but this is kind of my day.
So it was actually my husband who was like, well why don’t you come up with a cake recipe? Because I had been kind of tooling around in the kitchen with recipes and stuff. So, I pretty much came up with a cake recipe that’s in my cookbook; it’s also on my blog. It’s one of the recipes that’s on my blog, and it’s one of my most popular recipes. And my aunt actually made it, and the caterer decorated it. So we had a grain free wedding cake at our wedding, and it was awesome. Those are some of my most favorite pictures, and people didn’t realize. They were like, this is grain free? This doesn’t have sugar? And I was like, nope! So that’s kind of how the blog started, just based off that, and it’s grown ever since. All due to that wedding cake.
Cassy Joy: That’s awesome. That was, you know, that was an interesting struggle because we had; and I think I remember talking to you about this when Austin and I were wedding planning. Just off the bat, everybody tells you; well, it’s just your wedding, you might as well live it up and have the real deal.
Caroline Potter: {laughs}
Cassy Joy: And I’m not an easily irritated person, but {laughs} that really kind of got under my skin after I heard it enough. I was like, you know, grain free is the real deal. {laughs}
Caroline Potter: Yeah.
Cassy Joy: You know? And the last thing you want is to go into the start of your marriage, and we went on a honeymoon pretty much right away, feeling sick. And so, I get that, and more power to you. And folks listening, I did a small little recap on the wedding and how to make it healthy, and Caroline is another testament to that, and I reached out to her and she told me about her awesome wedding cake experience. But I did, I found a gluten free bakery in San Antonio; made the best darn cake every, and folks, it was just gluten free, it wasn’t 100% paleo, but folks had no idea.
Caroline Potter: Mm-hmm.
Cassy Joy: You know, so if you are wedding planning, or if you’re planning an event; you know, you have a big anniversary coming up, or your little baby is turning 1 and you need a smash cake, there’s no reason why you have to be pressured into getting a convention wheat flour filled cake. So, there are all kinds of awesome options out there. You can always just follow the brilliant minds like Caroline and make your own, and use the one in her book. {laughs}
Caroline Potter: Yeah, that whole philosophy, kind of like what you said, is what led me to writing my cookbook.
Cassy Joy: Mm-hmm.
Caroline Potter: And I know I talk a lot about this on my blog, as well as in the book, but I think the biggest struggle for me, or I think for most people, is always those occasions where it’s a Christmas work party, or it’s a backyard summer barbecue, or it’s even a wedding, or you’re just having friends over for like a cocktail party on a Friday night. Those occasions were always the hardest for me, just because you’re outside of your comfort zone, and you’re surrounded by people, and you can be surrounded by; if you’re at a football tailgate, you can be surrounded by a lot of temptations.
And for someone, I have to eat a certain way for more than just about eating healthy. It’s kind of for my survival. So, that’s really, I really wanted to recreate all those foods for my cookbook, so that’s kind of what led me to doing it. I mean, I think that food is something that is so ingrained in our minds. Whenever we talk about a holiday, or we talk about a birthday party or even a coffee date, all those things are surrounded by food. They really are, and it’s just so central to life. So I think food can really be fun. I think healthy eating can be fun. You’re definitely a testament to making healthy eating fun, but also at the same time, there are a lot of people with allergies or health issues that really dread events sometimes.
Cassy Joy: Mm-hmm.
Caroline Potter: Because they’re like; oh, what am I going to eat. So that really is what was on my heart to write the cookbook about.
Cassy Joy: Awesome. I know it speaks to a lot of people, and I have to tell you, it’s one of the cookbooks; I’ve got an arsenal of them, now, but it’s one of the few I like to keep on my coffee table because it’s so beautiful.
Caroline Potter: Aww, thank you.
Cassy Joy: Yeah, no I really mean it. And it’s, when folks come over and they sit down; we like to have company over pretty regularly, especially because I am cooking up a storm every single day. It’s a veritable potluck every single day right now. {laughs}
Caroline Potter: {laughs} I know that feeling.
Cassy Joy: Oh man. Caroline knows what I’m working on, and I promise I will tell you guys soon. But, when people come over, I like them to flip through books that I think are really going to inspire them, and yours has been one of them. They’re like; really? Corn dogs? {laughs}
Caroline Potter: I was just going to mention the corn dogs.
Cassy Joy: {laughs}
Caroline Potter: I have been craving those corn dogs. But you know, like I said, that was associated with, when we were little children twice a year there would be a sale. Now there’s a sale every day, and it was always back to school and summer, and my mom would take us shopping for new clothes.
Cassy Joy: Mm-hmm.
Caroline Potter: And I grew up in a very healthy home, so things like corn dogs were not on the menu all the time. But we would get to go to the mall food court, and I would always choose corn dogs, French fries, and lemonade. So, you know, that’s in the, I think it’s the family movie night chapter, which I tried to do more kid-friendly foods. But you know, it’s associated with everything we do. And yeah, the corn dogs are good.
Cassy Joy: It is. It’s real life meeting you where you’re dietary goals or health needs are. And I think that’s awesome, it opens up a lot of doors, and it really bridges a gap between folks who will say; well, it’s just not worth it. I just don’t want to live without XYZ foods. So I think it’s a huge contribution. So thank you, on behalf of everybody who cannot verbally tell you thank you right now. {laughs}
Caroline Potter: {laughs} Oh, you’re way too sweet.
3. Positive mindset on body image [15:31]
Cassy Joy: Oh, no, it’s just you. You bring it out in me. Ok, so. I do kind of want to touch on briefly; you mentioned it and it’s something that we talked about, and I like to bring it up every once in a while on various episodes here on the show revolving around mindset and sort of resetting your own body image, body obsession, things like that. As a 20-year-old who overnight essentially was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, and then gained 20-plus pounds; you said 22 pounds?
Caroline Potter: Yeah, just in 2 weeks. It was horrible.
Cassy Joy: Yeah. I can understand that if you didn’t; if you were not necessarily, I don’t want to use the word obsessed because that’s putting words in your mouth, but if you weren’t overly conscious of your body, an event like that could easily turn that switch on, flip it on. So I would love for you to tell us a little bit about what that experience was like, and how did you ultimately learn to really be happy in your own skin?
Caroline Potter: Yeah, you know it was hard. I was in college, and I was at an internship, and it’s like you go back to college and you’re that much heavier. It’s like, oh did Caroline just let herself go? I really did not talk about my diagnosis, even a lot of my sorority sisters that I lived with senior year didn’t even know, because I was really embarrassed by it. I honestly was. I didn’t want people to think I was different, or be like, oh she ate too much candy as a child, so now she has diabetes. Because that’s not the case at all.
Cassy Joy: Mm-hmm.
Caroline Potter: And so, I think it really wasn’t until probably about the past year when I really have started sharing and opening up about it. But you know, I just realized that there’s times when my blood sugar may be a little off, and sometimes you can kind of have this, just because you’re insulin dependent, you can kind of have this rise and fall in your weight. And even if it’s only a few pounds, that’s something you notice as a person. Other people may not notice it, but I’m very conscious of that, and really trying to keep everything stable. It sometimes seems like a full time job; I’m eating this, I have to take this much medicine, etc.
But I think really in the past year when I opened up more about everything that was going on in my life, I found it so freeing. And I had people that, even though I was really close to them, they were like, we had no idea. So that was kind of cool, for sure, because I never set out to be an inspiration to anyone. I never sat down and was like, oh I want to inspire people.
Cassy Joy: Mm-hmm.
Caroline Potter: But you know, getting emails or getting comments like, oh I’m a type diabetic, or my mom is insulin resistant, I just bought your cookbook for her. All that stuff just reaffirms that everything going on in my life happened for a reason for sure. And I know that sounds so cliché, but I can see that now. I couldn’t see that at the time, I couldn’t even see that 2 years ago, but now I can see this is what I was meant to go through.
Cassy Joy: Mm-hmm.
Caroline Potter: I think as far as just body image is concerned, I think you just really have to accept who you are, what you look like, and you have to be confident in that. I may be different than other people; I may not be able to run as fast, I may not be able to eat certain foods, or may always be that person that goes out to a restaurant and has to get the bunless burger. But I think just accepting that about yourself and being confident in that really, it completely changed my mind. Instead of being like, oh can I have a side salad instead of those potatoes. Or, hey do you mind not giving me the bun with that. Sometimes that still can be an awkward conversation, but I think when you say it with confidence that really goes a long way.
I think it’s just something that hasn’t come easy for me, and it hasn’t happened overnight, I’ll be honest with that. But I think finally I really have just accepted who I am, what I look like, and who I am as a person. And I’ve just become really confident about that. And everyone is different. I know that also sounds so cliché, but we all are really different, and we all bring something different to the table. You never know how a really difficult life changing experiencing that you go through years down the road can really help and change someone else’s life. I know I say sometimes that I’m thankful for living with this disease, and I truly do mean that now. I wouldn’t have been able to say that 4 years ago, but that’s truly how I feel now.
Cassy Joy: That’s beautiful. I mean, it really is. And I think that clarity and that perspective speaks volumes about your purpose on top of that. To be able to have that perspective speaks to the reason why you’re supposed to be doing what you’re doing. You’re supposed to be telling your story, and folks that can identify with it, maybe it helps them along the way, are going to piggyback off of that. So I think that’s awesome. It’s beautiful.
I had my transformation, so to speak, 5, 6 years ago, and you bet your bippy I was not thankful for it {laughs} while I was going through it.
Caroline Potter: No!
Cassy Joy: I was like, nothing is working, I felt like a failure, I felt like I didn’t know which end was up and just dumb when it came to food and working out, like nothing was working. And it was such a defeated feeling. And it was, I mean, I tell people it took me a year to really right size my health following a paleo type lifestyle with mixed fitness, and it was a full year for my body to heal and get back to a state. I went down the 10 dress sizes, and I only lost about 10 pounds. There was a lot of inflammation going on. My pain went away, so a year for that to happen.
But like you said, to be completely honest, the mindset and not being upset with my body, and loving it for what it is took a lot longer. And oftentimes, that’s the biggest piece of the pie left that you shouldn’t ignore if you really want a true lasting happily ever after. So I think the more people are honest, just like you are about your story, the more I think the world at large is kind of going to relax a little bit and let it be. Whatever it is, love where you’re at, because that stress is doing more problems for your health than good.
Caroline Potter: So true, and you have to accept yourself. Like you said, stressing about something impacts your health so greatly, and I think just accepting who you are and loving yourself takes a lot of that health struggle away, to be honest.
4. Caroline’s food photography tips [23:12]
Cassy Joy: Mm-hmm. Totally. Amen sister. Ok, awesome. {laughs} I don’t think there’s anything I can add to that. So really quickly, I want to wrap up with a total left turn {laughs} from the previous conversation. So you have, since starting the blog, I remember looking back through your recipes. You always seemed to have had an eye for photography, and I’ve watched your photography skills blossom as time has gone on. And the book is just beautiful, I can’t say it enough. And I know you put together an eBook, a photography eBook, Scrumptious and Styled, that folks I think can find online.
But there’s a lot of bloggers that listen to the show, and are aspiring cookbook authors, nutrition consultants, NTPs, a good plethora of folks and oftentimes when we’re trying to take our work, we want to communicate healthy lifestyle transformation methods to our clients, we have to visually display that. So a lot of us nutritionists, Caroline and myself included, I feel like we accidentally stumbled into needing to be a photographer also.
Caroline Potter: {laughs}
Cassy Joy: {laughs} Or at least that’s how I felt. I had to all of a sudden take pictures of this food I was cooking so I had a picture to post with the recipe I was putting online. And oh my goodness, I left them up because I want people to see where you can start from {laughs} but my first recipes are online, feel free to scroll back through the archives and laugh at me.
Caroline Potter: It provides; I was just going to say, it provides some great laughter, because you’re like; wow, I posted that. {laughs}
Cassy Joy: For sure! I’m leaving them up. My team was like; “Cassy, should we go ahead and rephotograph these?” I said No! We are leaving those up! {laughs}
Caroline Potter: No!
Cassy Joy: So that people can see, I just feel like it’s much more authentic. But anyways, things evolve very quickly, but I really think that your style and your touch is top notch, and I would love to know if you have your top tips, photography 101 for aspiring food bloggers, cookbook authors, etc.
Caroline Potter: Practice, practice, practice.
Cassy Joy: {laughs}
Caroline Potter: I am going to say that 20 million times. That’s probably my biggest tip. It doesn’t come overnight, it honestly doesn’t. But I think it’s really cool to see how quickly you can actually get better at something when you take the time to practice. There’s times in the morning when I’m just hanging out in the office, and I just take pictures of my food, and I get so excited about it, and I’m like, oh now my breakfast is cold.
Cassy Joy: {laughs}
Caroline Potter: {laughs} But just that practice is something you totally need. I remember I was gone for like a month and I didn’t have my camera with me, then I picked it back up and this was just a little while ago. And I was like, oh, what do I do?
Cassy Joy: {laughs}
Caroline Potter: And this was a few months ago, even, so definitely practice. I would say other than that, when you’re actually taking the photos, the biggest thing is you’ve got to have a lot of natural light. You can never have too much light, because you can close a curtain, or you can put a board up or a diffuser up and kind of block some of that light. But a lot of natural light. I’m really thankful the house I live in has two huge windows, so I get a lot of natural light.
When I first started, and even some of the pictures that I still love to this day were taken in my tiny little apartment that you could barely move in, and I would stand on the bed to take photos. I’m not sure how clean that was, but you know, you do what you have to do. I started in a tiny little apartment with one tiny little window, and I knew that the light came through for like an hour and a half every day, and that’s when I would take the photos.
So I don’t think you have to have; I’m thankful now that I have the little bit bigger space, but I don’t think you have to have that. So, you just have to figure out when the light comes in. I was actually talking with someone the other day. They were like, well what’s the best time to photograph? And I was like, well I can’t tell you that because I don’t know where your house is, where you’re located, the seasons play a huge role. I know it’s always something funny that when daylight savings time happens, everyone talks about it on Instagram. But the seasons, times of day. I prefer to shoot in the morning, because the light is a little bit more blue and you can always warm it up. But one thing that really bothers me is those yellow looking photos, and so the afternoon light, at least where I am, is very harsh how it comes in my windows and it’s very yellow looking. So I don’t really like to shoot in the afternoon, I’d rather shoot in the morning timeframe.
And then I would say you’ve got to bring life into your photo. Instead of just taking a photo, let’s say we’re taking a photo of pizza or eggs Benedict. Instead of just standing over it and snapping a photo of it, I think you really have to think; why am I so excited to eat these eggs Benedict for breakfast, or why am I so excited to eat this pizza? What really makes me excited about that? What’s the feel I’m trying to create? Just, maybe think about that for a moment before you actually take the photo. I think that goes a long way. Because then you, you really can put emotion into a photo, and you know, if it’s a breakfast thing, maybe make your photo a little bit lighter than if it’s a cozy winter weeknight dinner, maybe make that a little bit darker to kind of go along with that emotion.
So I think really asking yourself, why am I excited about this? What is the point of this? I think that can definitely help your photo. And you’ve got to have props. I love prop shopping.
Cassy Joy: {laughs}
Caroline Potter: I always say I go to Anthropology, and one of the girls always laughs at me because I’ll go in and buy like two little things, and I’ll always have my coupon, or it will be on a sale day. And then I come home, and my husband’s like; do you every buy anything for you? I’m like, no, I bought this cute plate, though.
Cassy Joy: {laughs}
Caroline Potter: But I think just; I really focus on the quality. I know I talk about this a little bit in my book, but I would rather spend $20 on this beautiful white plate that I know I’m going to use over, and over, and over again, that you probably see in all my photos, than $2 on a plate that really has no character to it that I’m never going to use again. And I have some of those $2 plates that I bought just because they were $2, and they still have the tags on them, and I’ve never used them because they don’t make me happy, I guess.
So I think when your prop shopping, pick one or two things that really speak to you that you can see yourself using over and over again, instead of just buying something for the sake of buying it. You don’t really have to have a lot. You’ll see in my photos, I sometimes use the same linens over and over again, but I just love the way they look, so yeah. Choose things that really make you happy, and that you want to photograph.
Cassy Joy: Brilliant advice. Oh my gosh. That’s beautiful.
Caroline Potter: {laughs} Now I want to go prop shopping. {laughs}
Cassy Joy: I know! You know what prop you have that I need to find; it’s the basket that your morning butter biscuits are in. that’s so stinking cute.
Caroline Potter: You know, that was one of those things, like I said, that I just saw at this little French antique store in San Diego, when I was home for like one day, and I remember getting it back to Hawaii, I was so worried that it was going to break and everything. But you know, it’s just one of those things that I stumbled upon, and it’s something I use over, and over, and over again. So, you know, when you see those things that you’re like, ok I know I’m going to use that. You know, that’s when the time to get things and invest in your props.
You really honestly don’t have to have much. I know there’s people out there that they’re whole job is to just pick plates for a cookbook, and I secretly want to do that. {laughs}
Cassy Joy: {laughs}
Caroline Potter: But sadly, that’s not my job.
Cassy Joy: Yet! You never know who’s listening. You don’t know who someone could be!
Caroline Potter: That’s so; who is writing a cookbook out there, and I’m going to pick out all your plates. {laughs}
Cassy Joy: {laughs}
Caroline Potter: No, but seriously, I know people that do that. I’m like, oh my gosh! Well, I follow them on Instagram, I don’t actually know them.
Cassy Joy: {laughs} Oh, that’s funny. No, that’s brilliant advice. I really like your tidbit about butting some personality into it. That’s something, I’m working on a big project, like I mentioned, and it involves a lot of recipe photos, and when you’re shooting 5-6 sometimes 8 different recipes in a day, it can almost feel like you’re just on a conveyer belt of food. It’s done; ok, take it to the window table and take a picture. And I’m never happy with those photos. And I have to stop and look at it, and think, if we had guests over for dinner, what would I do to this dish to make it feel like home. And that makes all the difference in the world, and I think that’s great advice, and I hadn’t really thought about it that way before.
Caroline Potter: Yeah, I mean you have to, I think so much of what we do is you put your heart and soul into it, and you do it because you’re really excited about it. I mean, anyone in this industry can relate to that. It’s a lot of heart, so you’ve got to put that in your photos, for sure.
Cassy Joy: So true. So true. Oh, man, Caroline, this has been a treat.
Caroline Potter: I know!
Cassy Joy: It has been my blogger Christmas present, podcaster Christmas present to myself. {laughs}
Caroline Potter: Now if only Gus and Libby could be friends like us, it would just be complete.
Cassy Joy: Oh my, they would love each other. I think…
Caroline Potter: It would be so much fur and tail wagging, it would be hilarious.
Cassy Joy: Oh my gosh, talking about standing on your bed, you don’t know if that was healthy; you should see the number of times I have to pick hair off of food that I’m about to take a picture of. {laughs} These white tuffs just float in my house; it’s so nasty. I’m sorry if that grosses you out. It’s the reason why I’m so hesitant to give food away. {laughs} But, it just…
Caroline Potter: No, there was this one cookbook photo that did not make it into the cookbook that was absolutely one of my favorites. I should go back and find it. And no matter how hard I tried, and I had some people that are really good at Photoshop try; there was this one Libby hair.
Cassy Joy: Oh no!
Caroline Potter: And it was, I think it was a picture of egg yolks or something, and it was just so perfect, and we couldn’t get the Libby hair out.
Cassy Joy: {laughs}
Caroline Potter: And yeah, I need to find that photo now, because it was a beautiful photo.
Cassy Joy: Oh man. You should find that. I had; well, I also decided that I think I need a new prescription because sometimes I’ll post photos, and other people will bring Gus’ influence on the dish to my attention. {laughs}
Caroline Potter: {laughing}
Cassy Joy: That I missed. Oh, man. Anyways, well I won’t keep you any longer. Folks, I hope you enjoyed.
Caroline Potter: Thanks for having me.
Cassy Joy: Oh my gosh, thank you for coming on, it was a real treat. Remember that you can find Caroline; I’m going to give you the quick rundown, and remember I’m going to link up to all of this stuff online, so you can find everything there. But you can find her at her blog, ColorfulEatsNutrition.com. She has her own podcast, which you should definitely check out, the Nourishing Buzz. Her book, All American Paleo Table, which I’m clearly in love with, would make an awesome Christmas present, I’m just saying! And if you ordered it on Amazon, I bet you could have it in time. And her eBook, Scrumptious and Styled, if you’d like to learn more about her really brilliant food photography tips.
Caroline, thanks again for coming on.
Caroline Potter: Thank you so much.
Cassy Joy: Oh my gosh, such a treat! Good luck with everything going on. I know you and I will stay in touch. I consider myself very lucky to have such a friend and kindred spirit in this industry. So you guys, also have an awesome week. Be sure to check out the show notes for a transcript of everything if you wanted to recap on anything that Caroline said, and to get links to everything we talked about. We’ll be back again next week.
