welcome to kimberland...

I worked with Chris Macias this time. If you're a Sac local, you've probably read some of his pieces in the Food & Wine section every Wednesday. Chris was very friendly, easy to work with, and even offered to go shopping for the ingredients himself (for which I felt strangely guilty & ghetto, but Poor Girl means it when she says she's po'). He dropped off the ingredients the other day, surprising me with organic splurges from the Safeway down the street and some gorgeous red snapper filets. Since they wanted to do a step-by-step "how to" sort of article, I used half the ingredients to prepare the ceviche for the "finished product" shot and saved the other half for the "step-by-step" shots. It all felt very Food Network-y, with some things already pre-processed for photographing, others left whole for the actual shoot. As I was pulling out the staged food, I realized - welllookatthat: I'm actually not nervous about this anymore.

When all the media stuff first started, it freaked me out. I was worried about how many extra pounds the camera would add, whether or not the bags under my eyes were huge, how my hair looked. Nowadays I'm all about how the food looks and what the final write-up will be like. Sure, I still fuss about how fat I look in photos, especially because I've been residing in double-digit sized clothes for a good 10 months now (note to self: never get chronically sick in your 30's. This prevents you from working out several times a day, which, in turn prevents you from being a size 4 like you may have once been). But it's not the most important thing anymore.

Having my work represented well takes precedence over everything else, and having a lens shoved in my face or right up by my knife doesn't distract me anymore. It seems I am no longer fazed by all the extra attention. Last year, putting a mic up my shirt and having a camera in my face was foreign and odd. Now it's part of the drill. Granted, I haven't reached the level of popularity as many other food bloggers have so I'm not dealing with the same coverage they are, but considering how "young" PGEW is, I've had a lot of positive press. It's flattering, weird, scary, unexpected and awesome, all at the same time. But if this keeps up, I could totally see myself opening up to the idea of my own local access TV or internet show, a la Wayne's World. I'm not sure that I could pull it off without stuttering like mad at some point, but it's comforting to know that cameras in one's face can actually be kinda fun. For now. :)