style at home | cabbagetown

We are so excited to have the May cover of Style at Home magazine!  I always love doing shoots in the motherland and especially with the talented Style at Home crew.

How beautiful is this Toronto house?  It is nestled back from the busy city in the popular Cabbagetown neighbourhood.  We enjoyed all the pretty cottagey details and the fresh decor through out the house and garden area. Hope you enjoy some of our favorite images from the shoot.

FYI for friends in the US – Style at Home is available at the check out at most Wholefoods
If you love this house, check out the homeowner’s Instagram account Olives.Belle

PHOTOGRAPHY : Stacey Van Berkel
STYLING : Ann Marie Favot & Morgan Lindsay
INTERIOR DESIGNER : Margie Doyle-White

wall street journal | simran sethi

What a treat it was to meet and photograph Simran Sethi and her lovely mum for the Wall Street Journal recently!  Simran’s new book Bread, Wine & Chocolate : The Slow Loss of the Foods We Love came out in November 2015 and I pre-ordered it so I could have her sign it at our shoot.  If you have an interest in food (and don’t we all?), you’ll enjoy her book.  She spent a few years traveling around the world to understand where our food comes from and the difficulties the world is facing as we lose diversity to increase production.  She talks a great deal about taste and the enjoyment we derive from food and even includes some helpful resources at the back of of the book to help define our tastes.  I have been reading her book very slowly, and as I told Simran, I am literally savouring the information and thoughts in the book.

For the photo shoot we met at Simran’s family home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, to photograph her in the kitchen.  As soon as we walked in the house, we were greeted with the pungent and delicious smell of something yummy cooking.  And then the warm welcome of Simran and her mum just put us at ease.  It was fun to do the portraits and we also photographed the sweet potato dish and spices, but best of all we had to eat the food!  I adore Indian food and all the fusion foods that come from that cuisine.

More recently I was able to attend Simran’s book signing at Scuppernong Books here in Greensboro.  It included discussion and a chocolate tasting focusing on North Carolina chocolate makers :  Escasu & French Broad Chocolates   We learned to cup a small piece of chocolate in our hands and breathe in the aromatic smells before tasting the chocolate.  It is incredible when you take the time to really smell and taste food how wonderful and complex the enjoyment can be.

our state | the table

There are some shoots that are harder than others – being gluten-free is especially difficult at such a lovely place like The Table in Asheboro, NC.  Look how beautiful this bread is!  I really just wanted to slather butter on it and maybe a bit of honey and cram some on my mouth.  It took all my will power not to do it!  So instead, I tried to just look at the beautiful textures of the bread and photograph it as still life.  And besides, The Table, does offer a full menu with fabulous salads and other yummy dishes so us GF people have lots to pick from.

Dustie Gregson, the owner, is the sweetest person you’ll ever meet and has done a lovely job with all the details of the decor even down to the 1 of a kind chandelier made out of milk bottles.  So if you are in Asheboro or visiting the potteries in Seagrove, I would make a little trip to this cute and delicious restaurant!

a chef's life | behind the scenes

So fun to be behind the scenes shooting on the set of A Chef’s Life!  Vivian and her crew welcomed us to shoot them filming the confessionals and the Pea Episode shot at the Broadslab Distillery in Benson, NC.

A Chef’s Life is a fabulous award winning show on PBS created by Vivian and Cynthia Hill.  

We love the authenticity and charm of Vivian and her guests.  If you love food, you’ll enjoy this wonderful exploration of southern ingredients with a Vivian spin!

Hope you enjoy seeing behind the scenes as much as we did!

our state | vivian howard

I was joking recently that I should get an apartment in Kinston, North Carolina  – I have been there 6 or 7 times this year alone for various shoots involving the wonderful and talented Vivian Howard.  

We are so excited to have the November cover of Our State magazine featuring Vivian’s famous blueberry chicken. It’s this yummy chicken that launched Chef & the Farmer on it’s way.  

There were so many good shots from this shoot that just couldn’t fit in the Our State article so we wanted to share a few of our faves with you.  The food shots will make you want to head straight over to the Chef & the Farmer or the Boiler Room for something scrumptious – if you haven’t been . . . make it a plan!  You won’t be disappointed. 

Stay tuned for a Behind the Scenes on the set of A Chef’s Life post coming soon!

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Cover Food Styling : Susan Johnson Smith

All Photography: Stacey Van Berkel

equine bridal

Horses are a huge part of my life as you may have noticed! I just bought my first horse this July . . . So when Karen got engaged last year to a kind hearted man named Bobby, I knew we had to shoot the bridal portraits.  So, on a pretty sunny day last April we made these photos of Karen with her beautiful equine family :  Gable, Bella, Olivia & Drake.

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for the love of... Brontë

As some of you may have noticed, I bought my first horse!  She is a Percheron/Thoroughbred cross and she came into my life just a month ago.  I have longed for a horse since the day I was born so this is a big moment in my life.  We are just starting to get to know each other and I have fallen in love already.  Brontë is sweet tempered and so pretty.  She is like a fairytale horse which suits me very well.

The big moment job of naming my first horse left her nameless for a couple of weeks.  I did agonize over what to call her but in the end I chose a name that meant something to me and spoke of my heritage and love of 19th century British novels.  Bréagha (Bree-uh) Brontë – Beautiful Brontë.  The Gaelic for my Scottish heritage and of course Brontë for one of my favorite writers, Charlotte Brontë.

I have had very little time to spend with her because at SVB Photo we’ve been swamped with work this last month.  So unfortunately I haven’t been able to photograph her much or ride her either.  But the other day I drove out around dusk and these are the few shots I was able to take.

for the love of... beatrix potter

Author & philanthropist, Beatrix Potter, often visited her Uncle Fred and Aunt Harriet’s rambling Welsh estate at Gwaenynog Hall.  I had the privilege of visiting this idyllic property a few years ago on a shoot for Canadian Gardeningmagazine. Gwaenynog Hall is a 2000 acre estate located near Denbigh whose beautiful walled gardens inspired Beatrix to write her charming Flopsy Bunny books.

Janie Smith, Beatrix’s great grand niece, showed around the gardens – she and her daughter Frances have worked tirelessly to restore the gardens back to what they might have looked like when Beatrix visited.  The garden’s were was so lovely even though we visited in the fall – ivy was still crawling on the walls, ruby red apples ripe on the trees, purple thistles blowing in the wind, iron gates opening up to secret gardens and horses peacefully grazed in the fields –  I really could imagine Flopsy & Mopsy, Cottontail & Peter hopping through the flower beds looking for a nibble, can’t you?

On a visit in May 1895, Beatrix Potter wrote in her diary . . .

“The garden is very large, two-thirds surrounded by a red brick wall with many apricots, and an inner circle of old grey apple trees on wooden espaliers.  It is very productive but not tidy, the prettiest kind of garden, where bright old fashioned flowers grow amongst the currant bushes.”

for the love of... fox hunting

I can’t even really describe the feeling that still wells up in me so many years after photographing the Blessing of the Hounds Thanksgiving hunt in Southern Pines, NC.  I still get shivers thinking about the beauty of this spectacle that has it’s roots in mediaeval times.  I can still hear rhythmic beat of horses galloping off in the distance and remember seeing horses & riders emerge from the thick mist.  There were a thousand cinematic moments.  Truth be told, I cried as I ran through the wet fields with photo gear in tow.  The beauty of the moment overwhelmed me. . .

Please understand that I am not a lover of hunting per se – but I am a fan of the equestrian sport where a scent is dragged through the fields for the hounds to follow.  Remember my undergrad degree is in 19th Century British History & literature so it just make sense that I  love the idea of galloping through fields dressed in a tweedy coat & jodpurs.!

As you look at these photos, I hope you can hear the call of the bugle and the pounding of hooves!

cdn home & country | national mag gold award

One of the highlights of my life and career was winning a National Magazine Gold Award for this cabin story!  It was a very special project because not only was it was shot in my beloved Nova Scotia but my whole family was a part of it as well.  My brother David built this cabin when he was a teenager to have a place to hang out with friends.  But, in recent years, it had fallen into decline and one day while walking by, the idea hit me to do a renovation.  David was kind enough to allow us to refurbish it to make a painting retreat for my mother.  I pitched the idea to Canadian Home & Country magazine and they accepted.

I am an extremely sentimental person & each piece placed in this cabin has a memory attached.  The door is from my grandmother’s farmhouse and it is painted my favorite color – turquoise.  Some dishes are from dear family and friends & the pretty little stove is from my cousin Janine’s old farmhouse.  The peonies are from the farmer’s market and the lupins came from my parent’s property. My Dad & I built the little stone path from the shale found on his property and my mom helped me to plant the flower boxes.  It really was a labour of love for my whole family . . .

Hope you enjoy story!  I have included a couple of before photos at the end so you can see where we started!

Photographer:  Stacey Van Berkel
Art Director: Josephine Woertman
Stylist: Ann Marie Favot
Styling Assistant:  Leigh Elliott

BEFORE:

Even before this “before” photo, my brother David and my parents had to first rip out all the yucky paneling and insulation to strip the cabin down to the bare bones.  Many mice and squirrels had been enjoying the cabin but we needed to clean it up to start the transformation!

My Dad and I put in another window at the back to let more light in and then we had the whole cabin sprayed with paint – it was a whole new place with light and a blank canvas to create on. . .

garden & gun | asheville on tap

I am very lucky to live pretty close to Asheville, North Carolina – the rising beer capital of America . . .   We loved getting this assignment from Garden & Gun magazine.  I mean who doesn’t love touring breweries & restaurants and staying in nice hotels?  I was really impressed with the young brewmasters and their enthusiasm for their craft.  And even though I am gluten-intolerant, I admit I had a few sips of some beers they worked so hard on!

We’ve included photos from the Wicked Weed, the Wedge, and Highland Breweries but these are only a few of the 40 + craft breweries located in Asheville!

We stayed at the Grand Bohemian, a beautiful hotel with the rustic feeling of a European hunting lodge mixed with old world elegance.  The have an excellent restaurant, a gallery & spa and have been named one of the best hotels by Travel + Leisure and Conde Nast Traveler!