The world of Christmas is colorful, magical, and sugary sweet. Photographer Nicole Hill Gerulat perfectly captures the essence of this kid-friendly holiday, in all it’s vibrant greens and reds, with the wide-eyed excitement of children on Christmas morning. On behalf of Nicole and all of the Big Leos, we wish everyone a very happy and safe holiday. May 2012 bring joy, success and possibility. HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
In this week’s episode of ‘Keeping up with the Purcells,’ Andrew and Carrie are faced with their greatest challenge yet – there is no more sugar left in the world and all their recipes need to be rethought in a newer, healthier light. Enter Truvia. The seemingly daunting task was far easier than anyone could have thought as mastermind Carrie developed a whole new crop of recipes. And the verdict? Super sweet. And by sweet we mean gorgeous!
I don’t know about you guys but for me the best part of this last Thanksgiving weekend was the morning after. Probably the only time all year when tradition calls for dessert first – pie for breakfast! Carrie Purcell styled this scrumptious story for Rachael Ray, shot by the all star Jose Picayo. With that gluttonous holiday out of the way, from now until the rest of the year, we’re only doing posts on salad (probably).
Kid-friendly photographer Nicole Hill Gerulat spent a hectic couple of days shooting 19 toddlers with mountaineering stylist Ed Gallagher, for the new Aquatopia line. The production on a shoot like that is always so much work – finding the right team as well as great kids, it always takes more time than the shoot itself! Big Leo’s own Karen Tighe wrangled the whole group of artists and children (same skillset – also includes cats) to bring the whole project together. So many shots that day, and it turned out super sharp! Check out more over at Nicole’s blog – and for all your full service production needs, Big Leo is ready to rock!
Out now, Jörg Meyer‘s images for the Morgan and Milo fall campaign are full of energy and color. Kids fashion is always tough to shoot because you just can’t stop for an instant lest you lose a moment, but these turned out so well. But the one I don’t understand is sneakers with no laces. If you’re going to make a slip-on, why put eyelets on the shoe? Is that some kind of cool thing with the whippersnappers now? Does it really have no practical value? Could somebody please get those kids off my lawn?
I wonder if places like Whole Foods track the most popular salad ingredients that people choose, and keep an eye on how the salad bar fares as a profit center. There are a lot of ways that you can save money there – in this story from Food Network shot by and styled by Andrew and Carrie Purcell, you can see how different ingredients are more or less expensive compared to the produce on the shelf. Of course, you could always take it to the extreme, but I’m not sure how a salad composed entirely of bacon bits and sun-dried tomatoes would taste. For more ideas there is an extra chart from the NYT.
In this month’s issue of Health, Carrie Purcell and Sarah Cave team up with the inedible Quentin Bacon to bring readers the best pizza ever. What qualifies a pizza as ‘the best?’ How can you even begin to approach something so subjective? I mean, there are situations where even mediocre pizza is elevated to ‘life-saving,’ like this one time when I was in college… but I digress. Certainly an argument could be made that this is the best looking pizza ever. That little swoop of arugula, the shapes of red onion and texture of cheese… I bet if you ate the page it would still taste pretty good.
Gilt Groupe has been steadily expanding – Gilt City for local deals, Jetsetter for travel, and now their newest venture, Gilt Taste. The new site is chock full of the most amazing cuts of meat and hard-to-find culinary ingredients. This isn’t about getting a deal, it is about spending money to have the best of the best; they should know, they hired Ruth Reichl. So it only makes sense to bring on the best food shooters that money can buy. See: Andrew Purcell.
And the extravagance extends to food stylists as well – this spread of fine meats and olives was brought to life by Carrie Purcell. When it comes to the finer things in life, you can count on Big Leo artists for same day delivery. And free shipping!
This Sunday, celebrate the matriarch in your life by cooking up a taste of the old days. If I had to choose one of my mom’s dishes it definitely be the 1929 chocolate cake recipe that was passed down to us from grandparents – but of course I always butcher the fudge icing because it is so fickle and can turn rock solid in an instant. We may just stick to pancakes this year.
Food stylists Carrie Purcell and Mariana Velasquez each worked with the masterful Hugh Stewart for the May issue of InStyle magazine.
Carrie cooked up Ooey Gooey bars for Neil Patrick Harris. Since she made such huge batch, she sent him home with a bag of extras (mostly the edges, since those are his favorite).
Mariana said that after her shoot was finished, Blair Underwood, his mom, and the rest of their family all sat down to eat the casserole that she prepared. They told her: “It was so good you just put your foot in it.” That’s as good as it gets!
Here’s a nice little story from The Nest – notable for the Big Leo synergy of Hector Sanchez‘s photographs, Scott Horne‘s styling, and Carrie Purcell‘s food styling. The story is ’meals under 5 bucks’ – but I just know all the drinks that go with these are going to put it over the limit. Because if we’re saving money on the meal, we can get some really great wine.
