Eco-Friendly and Beautiful, Too

I shot this image back in September. I figured it'd run between Halloween and Thanksgiving, so I played up the fall color palette. Pleasant surprise to see the image on the cover. See the whole magazine here.

The items pictured are all eco-friendly, in a store chock-full of other beautiful items that are made from recycled materials. When I was assigned to do a photoshoot at Practically Green, in Ridgefield, CT, I figured it'd be a burlap-and-brown-bag fest. Not at all. The friendly staff there proves that what's good for the earth can be good on the eyes, too.

Technique note: Shooting with windows in the background can be tricky on a bright sunny day. The only way to tame the light -- and avoid blown-out windowpanes -- is to use flash to control the light on the subject. That lets you control the light coming through the window with your shutter speed. I used the technique here because I wanted to make sure the green color outside would read well in the image.