Food Props on Sunday part 9-Guest Blogger Giulia from Juls Kitchen

Food Props on Sunday goes on, will it never end you ask and the answer is yes it will and it will hopefully end with a bang called Show Us Your Food Props! Write about and show us your own food props in any way you please, it can be only photos, you can tell us which ones are your favourite ones or just give us useful tips about how to find or make great food props! Blog it, link back to any of the Food Props on Sunday posts here on Lucullian and send it to me at luculliandelights AT gmail DOT com with your name, the name of your blog and the url to the blog post and I will include you in the roundup that is planned for the 11th of July because I have yet another guest blogger next week with a different angle! Please remember to put Show Us Your Food Props in the subject line so that I don’t spam your email.

But now over to something not completely different but more directly interesting, this week’s guest blogger Giulia from Juls Kitchen, she is one of my absolute favourite Italian food bloggers, she is full of energy and is endlessly organizing events and social gatherings with other food bloggers. I want to let you in on a secret, we are organizing a thing together that hopefully will take place in late September but we will get back to this when we have dates and place securely fixed, I can only tell you that it has to do with photography and that it will be fun! Until then, here’s Giulia in person:

Really?? Me? Do you want me to write a guest post about props for you? Ilva, I’m flattered! Go figure, Ilva from Lucullian Delights asking me to write a guest post for her!
The first moment was pure and genuine enthusiasm. Then, a sudden and subtle fear not to be good and confident enough to deal with prop issue. What do you do when you need to find inspiration and self confidence? I look back at memories!

Mum, can you give me a bowl for the soup? Which one? One, there is any difference! This was me almost one year ago, when I was not a food blogger but a simple yet passionate foodie.

Mum, can you hand me a bowl for the soup? Which one? Let me think: my soup is green, I could use the light blue bowl, and a striped colourful napkin… or let me have a look at the cupboard: look, the old Tuscan bowl, it could give an appropriate feeling of rustic and hearty food, and if I match it with an antique spoon it can perfectly represent the mental image I have of this soup! This is me now, when I try to find the right prop to shot a photo to present my recipe.

As I have learnt from Food Blogger Connect in London, from Jamie, Jeanne and Kerrin talk, you can have different approaches when you write a post. You can choose to stress the recipe aspect, you can love mostly the story telling moment or maybe you can enjoy the most when you shot pictures of food.

After more than an year of food blogging, I have understood that I love when my post conveys a whole experience , a sparkle of real life.
To do that, I think that it is important to pay attention at each level: obviously the recipe, since it is a food blog and it is all about food, then the story behind , because a story places your experience into a narrative and detailed world, and, last but not least, the photographic and stylistic aspect.
Props, together with the right light and style, in my opinion, are essential to make a picture from being nice and well studied to being interesting and emotionally appealing.

To enforce my apparel of props, I started digging into my grandmother’s cupboards in search of old dishes and cups, cutlery and napkins.
What I couldn’t find, was to be purchased. Now, the problem: I can’t afford fancy ceramic objects, stylish pieces of furniture or ethnic tissues and table clothes.
Flea markets are a good solution, even though not so easy to find where I live. One of my favourite manners to buy nice and fancy props is to go shopping with one or more than one foodie friends, to share with them not only passion and laughs, but costs as well!

Packs of stylish paper napkins, colourful spoons and cutie cups can be shared: actually you need just one or two pieces per time in a shot, don’t you?
My props are just a few pieces gathered together by now, but their number and variety increase day by day: my friends and relatives (are you reading? ) know that my favourite gifts for Christmas or birthday are cups, dishes, napkins, glasses, trays…
whatever, the important is that it can shine and give a warm touch to a photo.

There are few pieces I really love: a little pottery jug bought in Scotland, for example. While there on holidays, we found by chance a fabulous shop with hand made pottery, everything from tiny spoons and animals to large trays, dishes and jar. It was quite expensive, but I wanted a little souvenir to bring home with me. I choose the tiniest jug, with poppies and leaves: something utterly useless, I reckon, but perfect to give a lovely touch to a photo.

Next to this little jar, I can name a light blue pot, bought with Carolina in Florence: it is absolutely Donna Hay style, stylish and simple. I could imagine a range of infinitive recipes to be made just to fit perfectly with this little pot!
Napkins and table cloths are my passion, a love inherited by my mother, who’s addicted to everything made of fabric, especially if thought for the kitchen or the bedroom: they can change the atmosphere of a photo by adding flashing colours to a way too white and plain composition, or they can warm a photo, giving a glowing and sophisticate touch.

Finally, inherited props, maybe the more interesting. I found a few old pieces, belonging to my grandma’s grandparents, which are really precious, not for their monetary value, but for the bunch of memories and dreams and expectations related to them.
Handling an old silver sugar cup it’s like crossing time layers and touching the same surface polished with love by your grand grandmother, feeling her love and attention, the respect for that precious item: use one of this props into a photo and I assure you you’ll have an old cosy feeling lingering into your shot.

Thank You Giulia for taking the time and sharing your props with us!

Food Props on Sunday, part 1
Food Props on Sunday, part 2
Food Props on Sunday, part 3
Food Props on Sunday, part 4
Food Props on Sunday, part 5
Food Props on Sunday, part 6
Food Props on Sunday, part 7
Food Props on Sunday, part 8

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