Annie watched me, confused. Why was I setting up a card table on the deck and covering it with a tablecloth? Why was I carrying out dishes, silverware, cloth napkins, and a candle? And hey, why was I putting her bowl on that table, where she couldn’t even reach it?
I was doing a “photo shoot,” trying to create a cover picture for my poetry collection, Dining Al Fresco with My Dog, coming out next year from Moonpath Press. Turns out it’s not as easy as it looks.
For years I marketed that book as Bully Wind and pictured a woman standing outside in a storm, defying the weather. My editor vetoed that title. This one is more fun anyway, but here I was fighting the Oregon coast wind to set my table.
For the first try, I used one of the tablecloths my mother embroidered sixty years ago for her canasta club, my blue Currier and Ives plate, Annie’s silver bowl, and one Oregon Coast Aquarium commemorative wine glass. I filled my plate with raviolis and an artichoke and put kibble in Annie’s bowl. I took umpteen photographs, trying not to get too much of the hot tub, the chain link fence, or the defunct yellow wheelbarrow I plan to turn into a planter someday.
I left the wine glass empty because wine conflicts with my meds, and I don’t actually drink much. Once everything was set up and photographed, we did indeed dine al fresco. It was delicious, although the raviolis were a little cold. However, in the photos, the food looked disgusting.
There’s an art to photographing food, and the pros use a lot of tricks that make the food look good. Check out this site about styling food for photos. You won’t believe the things they do. For example, that “syrup” on the pancakes might actually be motor oil, and there might be glue in that cereal instead of milk.
I sent photos of the table without food. The editor liked the concept, but said Annie needed her own wine glass, silverware and cloth napkin.
Okay. This time, waiting until the sun wasn’t blasting the shooting area, I used my good white tablecloth, my red Depression dishes, and Annie’s fancy bowl with pictures of dogs on it. I found two wine glasses without writing on them and poured red wine in them, taking a few sips as I went along. I didn’t bother putting food in the dishes because, ick.
This time the editor liked the shots, but she said the dog’s bowl and silverware weren’t completely in the frame and I needed to reshoot in high resolution, something I knew nothing about. There’s a setting for that on my phone? Turns out there is.
I will be reshooting again tonight. Dinner is leftover stir fry for me, Purina’s “vibrant maturity” kibble for Annie. There will be wine in our glasses, but I promise Annie won’t be drinking any.
This time of year, dining outside is wonderful, but it feels odd doing it alone. I miss the family barbecues when it was too hot in the house, so we took everything out to the patio, sat around the picnic table, and dove in. Hey, there’s a poem about that in the book.
I have set up many pictures for this blog. Usually it entails plopping some object on a plain surface, taking its picture and uploading it to WordPress.com. I also purchase art from 123rf.com and use free art from pexels.com.
Is it common for an author to be asked to provide her own cover image? Not so much, but it happens. In the best cases, you have an artist or photographer in the family or already own the perfect picture. Otherwise, it’s time to get creative.
I have had good and bad experiences with book covers chosen by others. The original cover of my novel Azorean Dreams, which was supposed to show a romantic couple in the Azores Islands off the coast of Portugal, actually showed a scene from Italy. When I complained that the guy was missing my character’s mustache, they drew one in. Worse, after the book was published, I saw that picture on the back cover in magazine ads all over the place.
It gets worse. I published a book titled Freelancing for Newspapers years ago. (It’s out of date, but still has good advice. If you want a copy, I’ll send it to you for free). The publishing house decorated the cover with a stack of folded newspapers. Makes sense. But on one of those newspapers in big, legible type is the word “genital warts.” Embarrassing!
For a book cover, you need more than just a great picture. It has to be eye-catching and appealing. It has to be a unique high resolution vertical shot, and you need to think about where the type will go, what colors will be prominent, and who owns the rights to the “image” you’re using.
You can’t just rip off a picture from the Internet. You can, but it’s wrong. There are agencies that sell photos, artwork and images created by artificial intelligence, like the one pictured here with the checkered tablecloth from 123rf.com.
The editor preferred to go with an original. So I’ll be setting the table tonight when the light is right. Then Annie and I will dine in style.
Have you ever set up a scene for a photo shoot? Tell us about it in the comments.
Does anyone have a dog who actually sits at the table to eat?
Unleashed in Oregon 