It starts with the fire, which she lights at five a.m. But really, it starts with the email that she sends early in the week. Good afternoon Breadies, Below are this week's bread choices: traditional sourdough boule, cinnamon rasion swirl, pumpkin rasin spice batard, and southern buttermilk biscuits. Of course I asked for something completely different, because Cal had liked the sample she'd given us earlier so much. Rustic white.Breads should be ready by 12- 12:30 p.m. for pick up, but can be picked up anytime in the afternoon.

The oven itself sits proudly in the backyard. A path away from the house, sitting round and proud, almost patient. Ready for the fire. It's all day work, baking the bread. Jackie lights the fire early and brings the heat up to 800º. The goal is to get the heat deep into the bricks, really soaked in. Once the coals are banked and the temperature is down around 500º, it's time to bake.

As the oven heats up and cools down, she measures and mixes, kneads and rolls the dough. It's fascinating to hear her talk about bread and baking. The dough rising too fast and being "happy." About how homes where bread is baked a lot have more yeast in the air. Bread and life are truly connected, aren't they?

The Breadies started arriving early, just as Jackie said they would. Several stayed to nibble on a doughnut (I'll be showing you those tomorrow.), and wait for some extra loaves to come out of the oven. Jackie blogs about her breadmaking here. Later, once everyone has gone, and before she puts her feet up for a much needed rest, she might throw in some heads of garlic to roast. Or the pot of beans that she'd boiled the night before. She hates to waste the heat. For her work, she takes "a small donation to the flour fund" but really, she gives so much more. It's more than the bread, which is pretty spectacular. It's about connection and friendship and caretaking. We all need more of that, I think. Bread and life, yeast in the air, and caretaking. The world needs more of that, I think.

Perhaps it's funny to have a post featuring such gorgeous necklaces (I can't take credit) be primarily about photography. That's how it goes today. Despite the fact that I've been getting good work and emotionally I'm dedicating more of my heart to photography, I can't deny that I've been feeling stuck lately. It's not, by any stretch, that I don't feel that I have any more to learn. It's more that I feel that there's so much that I don't know. I don't even know where to begin. I take workshops and a little tiny lock opens. I read an article, and another little tiny lock opens. But there are so many locks! More than that, I still don't completely know which locks are mine to unearth. It's a lot to figure out.

So lately, I've been reaching both out and in. Trying to really understand what my goals are for this work. Trying to verbalize them, if only to myself. And as I understand more deeply what path I want this journey to take, I'm trying to really, truly know what I need to do to get there. So I've been reading and pinning and planning a studio and taking classes and joining a meet-up. All good things. And yet. Yet. I realized this week that I was forgetting to do the most important thing, and that was to take the time to do the work. In my very first photography class, my teacher Jackie's (meet her and her bread here next week) most important advice for us was this: Practice, Practice, Practice.

It's that simple. I've spent too much time flying by the seat of my pants, and not enough properly planning, preparing and executing the kinds of photoshoots that I want to create. It's important to take the time. If I really want my photos to get better, I need to put in that time. So from here on out, I'm giving myself one day a week dedicated just to the practice of my craft. I'm pulling out my creative muses from Plate to Pixel to The Creative Habit and letting them be my guide. Sometimes if might be food, sometimes a still life. But there's no other purpose than just the work. Going slowly and taking the time for the work. You'll see the results here on Thursdays. I'm not sure if this is a blog series or not or if I'll give it a name (any thoughts?), but I figure sharing it with you guys will be good for me. I hope you like it too.

And what about those necklaces? Pretty spectacular aren't they? The artist is Jamie Joseph, and I did some product shots of them for Simply Selma's and oh, you know, just happened to have them lying around. (If you're interested in any of them, they ought to be up on the web site soon, or contact one of the gals and they can hook you up.) The light wasn't great, and the timing wasn't either, but it was a start. A start to paying attention. And I can't thank my ladies there for being my own personal prop closet. We'll see. We'll see where the path leads.

bread making {life}

studio work {life}