Last Friday my three blog friends and colleagues Louise, Elin & Annie came out here to Ingarö for the weekend. Remember we did a blog workation earlier this winter at Annie’s summer house? Well, now it was my turn to host. Last week was quite crazy in terms of work, so I wasn’t totally up for working all weekend too. But, I needed the hang outs and closeness of my online friends that I don’t see very often irl. So I decided that I would take it super easy, cook lots of nice food for my friends and focus on having a good time.
Always when I’ve had one or two really productive and intense work days, I experience a backlash of zero concentration or discipline. By now I know myself well enough to anticipate when this is gonna happen, and this weekend was a clear example of that. Can you also recognize this pattern of being really high performing, followed by a phase of complete inability to focus? Before I would probably blame myself for not being able to keep up a stable level of productivity all the time, but now I realize how unrealistic that is. Balance to me does not mean constant equilibrium, but a healthy wave of ups and downs. I’ve definitely been on the down curve the last couple of days, and that’s totally fine!
Unfortunately I didn’t photograph much during this workation, so you will have to make due with some boring nature photographs to accompany my writing ;-)
Instead of producing lots of content, I’ve cooked sweet potato soup with gluten free focaccia for my friends on Friday and crispy thai wok with tofu, noodles and peanut butter red curry sauce for Saturday. Plus a pretty *awesome* nice cream for dessert (recipe coming!). It’s not often I get the chance to cook for someone else than myself & Hannah (and the blog), so it means a lot to be able to test my recipes on actually people haha. Annie’s face when she tasted the nice cream was enough proof that I need to blog about this recipe asap :D
There’s also been plenty of wine and lingerings at the dinner table this past weekend, with conversations about everything from relationships to business ideas. Also a serious trip to Nostalgia on Saturday when we binge listened to all the old pop hits! :’D
It was actually the first time I met Louise irl, and she was so sweet and smart and just like I imagined she would be <3 Have you seen the interview she did with me over at her blog? It’s about being a highly sensitive creative (and it’s in English ;-) I talk about when I first realized I was different, how I felt when I found out about HSP and what happened in my life after that.
In the photo above she was all happy because she had just seen a beautiful bird that she stood and watched for a long time. I love that such a simple thing can bring so much joy when you’re highly sensitive <3
Sneak peak of my new service
Today I can finally tell you a little bit about the service I’m developing for you guys! Most of the details are finalized, I just have some practical setup to do before launching.
Soo, for a couple of weeks now I’ve been working on a private coaching package for all of you food photographers out there! Especially those of you who are quite new to the craft and perhaps have taken my email course in food styling already.
I’m greatly fascinated by images and I love analyzing how certain light qualities effect the ambiance in a photograph, or how a slight change in styling can create balance and harmony. The purpose of this coaching is to bring your photographic expression closer to what you’re envisioning. To “close the gap” between ambition and outcome, so to speak. It enables me to work closer to some of you and really learn about your struggles and your artistic vision, in order to provide you with valuable advice and tools to improve you food photography.
If you are (more or less) just starting out as a food photographer and have a clear vision of how you want your photographs to look or feel, but no idea how to get there, then this coaching package will be perfect for you.
Since I know many of you are students and freelancers and probably not able to invest in anything too hefty, I’ve set a reasonable price for the coaching. So that as many of you guys as possible can enter.
The pre-launch will happen through my email club, so make sure to sign up there if you’re interested. Any remaining spots will be announced later on the blog. I will only accept 10 clients though, so it’s first come first serve :-)
To Do, week 10
- Today I’m working a full day at my old job, covering for a colleague (that also happens to me my brother. He’s on skiing vacation). So I won’t have much time for blog work this day. If you happen to be in Stockholm and the Södermalm area, stop by the Saltå Kvarn store to say hi! :D
- Tuesday is also dedicated to Saltå Kvarn for most of the day. In the evening, Hannah & I have plans to go see the Ziggy Stardust movie at Bio Rio :-)
- Wednesday is office day in town! I’ll be working with finalizing the coaching and writing blog posts. I have a lazy but delicious one-pot recipe waiting for you guys. Perfect for lazy weeknight or Sunday batch cooking for the week ahead! I’m also gonna go to a friend’s lunch yoga class this day.
- Thursday is Saltå kvarn again, so I’ll be up suuuper early to open the store. I really enjoy working there ever now and then. Especially the morning shifts when it’s quiet and half empty. Then I have plenty of time to chat with customers, serve coffee, restock shelves and listen to my favorite music :-)
- On Friday I have a later shift in the store, so I’ll spend the morning working with the coaching.
- In the weekend I have plans to go to the BANG fest in the city. It’s a feminist magazine that holds their annual party, and last year it was *amazing*. SUCH good vibes and awesome people! Aside from that I just wanna take it super easy. Go for a coffee in town perhaps, have long breakfasts and start a new book (any suggestions?). I still have soo many photos to go through and editing from our food photography retreat in Italy, so perhaps I’ll take some time to do that as well.
What are your plans for the week? :-)
xo Agnes
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Hi, I love DB and the Ziggy Stardust movie is such a great one!! Never seen it on a big screen, because I have the dvd.
Sad he is gone!! I wish you a lot of fun at the movies!
Yeah it’s sad! He’s music has been a big part of my life <3
I’m a bit jelly with your good planning! Just joking, but I’m impressed when I read about what you’re up to!! Well done with developing photography courses and coaching. About the work focus, I’m in cycles, always need some unstructured times every few days when I have a deadline in sight, can’t just go full speed ahead… This week, is full of book work for me, working on the second book now. I’m going to exercise every day and at the moment I’m also extra attentive about drinking enough water through the day. If I get a spare moment I want to read more of Amy Chaplin’s book, it’s a thickie with lots of reading passages that are interesting. That’s my week! xoxo
Haha, but seriously! You just published a book and are already writing another one?! I’m just making all these things up because I’m bored and impatient! ;-) No but seriously, when things are moving slow on the commission side I try to figure out things I can create myself that will serve the readers. I would also love to create a cookbook in the future, but right now I don’t think I’m ready. Smaller projects such as courses and workshops suits me better :-)
Love Amy Chaplins book! It’s my kitchen bible :-)
Åh vad jag tycker om att läsa dina inlägg. Så fina foton på gänget! Och Louise blick alltså! Så ser nog jag också ut lite när jag ser en fågel :p HSP är helt klart en fördel! Mina stjärnögonblick är ju verkligen en produkt av det börjar jag mer och mer förstå. Trodde att alla såg de där små detaljerna i livet och blev förundrat uppslukade av dem, haha. Och åh vad roligt att du tar steget till coaching nu! Det kommer göra många gott. Speciellt det där personliga fokuset är ju så viktigt. Om jag var inne på mat hade jag bokat dig direkt.
Precis, dina stjärnögonblick är verkligen ett typexempel på detta <3
Ih, så spänd på coaching! Är supernervös. Hoppas att folk är sugna på att jobba med mig! Tror verkligen att jag har massor att ge där. Det blir ett fint komplement till skrivandet!
I so love reading your posts. Ever since I discovered your blog in Tuscany it immediately became one of the very few I actually enjoy reading. And I love your outdoors shots, so please more of those!! :)
Oh wow, I’m so happy to hear that! I don’t have many blogs that I read either. It truly takes something special to stand out from the constant stream of information and inspiration. Your latest post really made an impression on me for example <3 Hehe I feel like I do outdoor shots all the time! Glad to hear that at least someone appreciates them and that they're not (yet) taking over this blog entirely ;-)
Loving the photos Agnes and the story as well. So exciting you are going to coach! People will be so lucky with you as their mentor. Miss you and hope to see you soon! xx (Oh and that inspiration thing, tell me bout it. Drives me crazy sometimes!)
Ih, so nervous about this!
Omg yes. It would be so much easier if we could just set ourselves above nature sometimes. To push forward with constant stability. But that’s now how humans work and definitely not how nature works. I get so frustrated sometimes when forces outside my control are affecting me and my work flow, haha.
I totally get the days with no flow, I have it from time to time and I call it my little vacations. I also love the idea of blog workation, it has to be inspiring, you just need to find a good crowd you feel comfortable in and I can see you found it.
Great idea with coaching sessions, I am so curious.
That’s a nice way of seeing it! Perhaps I should also learn to just let go and take the time off, instead of trying to work a little here and there. I mean, some things you just have to get done, regardless of inspiration or not. But often these phases happen after a very intense work period, when it is probably wise to slow down and rest.
Very exciting plans – your pupils will be very lucky to have you as a coach! I wish I were as organised as you are but plans for the rest of the week is meeting a couple of writing deadlines, book publicity work and finally publishing that blog post that has been sitting in the drafts for far too long! x
Aw thank you! Sounds really exciting with writing a book! I assume it’s a cookbook? Soo much fun!! But incredibly hard I can imagine. I know exactly what you mean about those blog drafts just sitting there waiting to be finalized hehe… #relate
Congrats on starting the on-line course. I’m sure you’ll get lots of interested and eager students.
The weekend with your friends sounds pure bliss, though it loooks rather cold :)
Thanks for sharing
I hope so! :D
Haha yeah it’s still harsh winter here, although some signs of spring are starting to show :-) We had a lovely time, I love doing these kind of casual workations!
I can so relate to what you mentioned! If three days in a row I work too much and then the forth day, I am bound to achieve zero. None of the to-do list would be checked :D I would just sit with a glass or wine, and watch TV, some silly show! Congrats on the on-line course, I love your work :)
Exactly! I also just wanna watch silly tv shows on days like that. I’m starting to think that those days are actually paramount to my professional success ;-) Yeaah I’m so excited about the coaching! Just finalizing the details now and will launch as soon as I’m ready.
Alltså den där glassen!!! Jag har gått och tänkt på och längtat efter den hela veckan. Jag kommer att göra den på studs när receptet är uppe. Kan förresten inte förstå att den inte var gjord av rent socker? Så grym.
Åh underbart!!! Bästa betyget ju! :D Ska göra en till batch i veckan så att jag är säker på att receptet är flawless ;-)