In all fairness, my soul smiles with so many things.  And there lies the problem. Well, not a problem per se but I could swear I have heard many of my friends and family members repeat in many occasions that I am crazy.  Here is the main issue:  I like way too many things. So let’s look into this:  “Estela, do you like a light and airy style for your newborn and baby photography work?”. Yes, definitely.  I think it goes amazingly well. It is creamy, timeless and it is just the colors I envision when I think about little toes, pouty lips and chubby cheeks.  And I really think it is an amazing color for moms and their bellies on a maternity photography session.   “But do you also like dark more moody pictures?”. Like them?…. I love them!  I think colorful contrasty tones go so well with so many things, from food photography to travel memories and oh those black and white images of our everyday life!  I think we can for sure say my soul smiles with photography.

But wait… there is more.

My mom used to say I had ants running all over my body as I could never stay still.  I always had to be doing something or, in many instances, some things.

… and so my soul smiles as well when I play the piano. Not that I am very good at it. I am actually pretty bad. But I had been taking classes for 10 years and sometimes I do get to practice 30 minutes a day so I can play some complicated pieces but I forget them a week later.   “Ok so well, that is not bad. You love photography and piano.”  Yes, but I pretty much love tons of other instruments so years ago I signed up for saxophone which I don’t play, I bought a flute, which I don’t play and yesterday I pretty much went into a music store and with no plans, came out of it with a Cello and my first cello class scheduled for next week.  And then I crossed the street and got into the library and found a couple of Intermediate courses in Italian and then I came back and I worked on my Cooking Menu for the week. All new recipes as usual, all from the 1001 cookbooks I collect, in part for their authors and in part for the beautiful photography in them.  I have also tried pottery, watercolor, oil painting, wood burning, patchwork classes, and I just cannot even remember the other thousand things I choose to do all because I like it all.  I wonder sometimes if I seriously have issues or if there are a lot of people out there like me. I know my husband, for example, can have the same breakfast everyday and he has been for decades playing golf and training for triathlons exclusively.  I would probably need a good set of 5 other activities to satisfy my soul.

Once I find a good cheese making class, it will be next on the list. What do you think?

So for now, here are some images from a Food Photography Workshop I took not too long ago. I am only including a few here but if you want to see more, please head out to my Personal Projects Page by clicking here and you will see many more images.