In October I was contacted by Emily Alhadeff, the editor of the new magazine Jewish In Seattle, about a feature shoot highlighting the best of Jewish Washington. She and Neomi Rapoport, the art director, envisioned a spread containing several images depicting Jewish objects and foods, all photographed in a clean, graphic, colorful and conceptual style. I had worked with Emily before on projects for Microsoft, and was delighted that she thought of me for this one. If you're familiar with my work, you probably know I'm not a product photographer. But clean, graphic, colorful, and conceptual is exactly what I do, so it was great fun to apply those sensibilities to altogether different subject matter. I spent a day in the studio with Emily, Neomi, and Jonathan Kruger (my right hand on many projects), creating as many unique images as we could think of. Here are a few of my favorites below, as well as scans of the final magazine layout (apologies for the quick and dirty scans—you know how it is).

I thought the above image would make a dandy cover. You know, best of Jewish Washington, bagel is iconic, finger doing the "number one" thing...

I was really quite happy with this idea. I like the way the round mirror echoes the bagel's shape, and it's just...delightfully weird. I love quirky. For this one, I shot a couple images and stitched them together in order to keep sharp focus throughout. If I were a product photographer, I'd have a tilt/shift lens for that, but I'm not. So I don't. No big deal.

This one was Emily's and Neomi's idea—little jewels standing in for capers. Very fun, very sparkly and happy. And I particularly like it because if you think about it, it's a jewel caper. So, you know, it works as a visual pun as well. Here again, due to depth of field, I shot several arrangements of beads to hold sharp focus front to back.

Love this one. Idea from team Emily/Neomi. I forget how long we spent placing candles so they were spaced correctly, but...it was a while.

Three different loaves, replicated and patterned in Photoshop.

This, I think, is my favorite. To be honest, I was having a hard time coming up with a conceptual idea for the sandwich until I started to think about that toothpick that holds a sandwich together, and what might take its place. Receipt spindle!

And now the magazine! Again, apologies for the rough scans—they don't do the magazine justice.