Being resourceful was one of the most valuable takeaways of growing up on a farm. Don’t waste anything! All of the scraps we saved for the chickens or the peels were to be turned into a stock or knobby ugly apples into apple sauce. So when I receive quite literally bagfuls of ugly, witch-like fingers and gnarly parsnips in my farm harvest box each week, I can’t bear to throw them out! Parsnips aren’t something I normally crave, but given the cooler days, I have had a seasonal craving for something cozy. A risotto was just the dish for these knobby and stringy parsnips that have taken over my fridge.

Driven by her love of nature and natural light, Australian photographer, Lean Timms captures authentic and slow moments of life through her interior, travel, and food photography. She shoots for various travel magazines, editorials, and lifestyle brands. As an explorer at heart, her work takes her across the world, documenting new places and teaching her renowned photography workshops. Her work beautifully captures life moments that evoke a sense of time, place, and with a dash of spontaneity. I am particularly drawn to her travel photography with her minimalist, yet intimate approach of capturing the essence of a place.

Black and white photography was the first impression I had of the art itself. My mom had a makeshift darkroom in our barn, The Shop, as we called it, it was both her floral workroom and where we stored the horses’ tack, saddles, bridles and such. She blacked out the windows, and I remember thinking she was doing experiments in there or something because there were all of these trays and solutions and red lights. It was a very odd sight for a 7-year-old. “Can I come in now?” I’d say in a huff if she locked us out because, as you can imagine, three eager little busy bodies always coming and coming isn’t the best scenario for a dark room.

Author and Photographer Jamie Beck is a breath of fresh air and a visionary in the world of visual storytelling. Known for her natural, romantic, and expressive style in her self-portraits and still lifes, her work is inspired by her adopted home of Provence, France and the grand masters of art such as Cézanne, Van Gogh, Botticelli and others. Her best-selling book, An American in Provence, is a feast for the senses as much as it is about the art of photography. I can't wait for her new book, The Flowers of Provence., to be published on October 23. It was an honor to have her part of this series.

Sometimes the most intriguing shots are found in unexpected places. How many times have you "packed up your bags" and called it a day after checking off your essential shot list? I know I have before only to move quickly to the next thing! Creating a compelling visual story comes from not just the apparent scene unfolding in front of our eyes, but in the subtleties and the details. It's natural to be absorbed in the moment or solely focused on the subject and forget to look around us. Real magic happens when we step outside of our comfort zone of angles and look at our subject or the scene from a different perspective.

Composition is the underlying language that creates a compelling photograph, maybe we don’t understand it right away or maybe it’s obviously spelled out right in our face we can’t miss it. Think of it as a secret language we can use to communicate our story and highlight our subject. If it’s a larger scene or full table, there’s more room to play and mix things up. We can make it as obvious or subtle as we like!

Lighting is everything when it comes to crafting a compelling visual story. It’s the paint we use to compose our scene and subject. What I love about shooting with natural light is it’s many faces, and it never lies. It always, without fail, reveals to you what is there. If you are just beginning, natural light is your best friend. It’s abundant, ever-changing, and yet simultaneously unpredictable and predictable. Shooting and experimenting in different lighting situations is crucial to becoming confident behind the lens.

Autumn has a natural way of slowing down our daily rhythm. Cool, foggy mornings, letting us linger a little longer in our cozy bed before heading out the door. I rise very early at 5 a.m., and now I find myself wanting to stay just one more minute before getting up and doing my daily rituals and taking Winslow for a walk. It’s still dark, the birds aren’t even awake yet, and it’s quiet except for the rustling in the bushes from this one very friendly deer. Tea is one of those daily rituals; I drink several cups a day. I find it calming and reminds me to relax in the present moment.

Styling for food photography is subjective. The elements that make a compelling photograph, such as the rule of thirds, balance, and negative space, are indisputable in most instances. One of the common mistakes I see food and lifestyle photographers make is being too precious with the scene, recipe, or subject. As creatives, we naturally want to influence or control the scene as much as possible to create the desired look or feel we are after.

While it still feels like August, the mornings have been cooler, thankfully. It got me in the mood to do some baking and kitchen projects to usher in autumn. Or rather pining for it more like! But just give the island a few more months, I tell myself, and it will be full-on sock and flannel weather! I have been purchasing a large harvest box of beautiful local produce from a local upcountry farm to support them after their loss in the fires, and last week, I had an abundance of aromatic herbs. So many, in fact, for just myself, I had to preserve them somehow.

There is no doubt that color plays an integral part in visual storytelling. Color is life. Can you imagine what the world would be without color? A very dismal place indeed, one where I would certainly not want to live. Sometimes, I feel like a butterfly or honey bee instantly drawn to any brightly colored dahlia or basket of strawberries. Color can be so intoxicating, soothing, and invigorating. I remember in my color theory class in fashion design school; I was astonished by how serious the professor was about color. No laughs here. She was strict, observant, and wildly metaphysical in her theories.

There is a shift in the air. Summer’s lightness slowly waning like the blue moon. My body can feel it in the early morning. It’s ever so subtle here on Maui, but I can feel something changing, shifting with time. An internal shift of sorts too. Maybe it’s due to the recent tragedy on the island. But either way, it’s a knowing that change is on the way. Welcome September, a glorious month of harvest, preserving, a gentle turn towards the introspective months ahead. I had seasonal figs and blueberries on hand and thought hand pies would be the perfect bridge into the baking season using summer’s last hurrah of fresh fruit.

“Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.” - Pablo Picasso

All big dreams start from a thought. All of your past work and future work has and will begin with inspirational thought. Many of those ideas have been tried and done many times before, but never in your way, through your eye, your lens. That’s what’s so beautiful about honing in on your craft and your story as a creative. Have you been to a photography workshop before or a styled shoot, and some people can capture the same scene, but the photos feel and are wildly different?

There are no words to describe the past few days on Maui. It's been extremely challenging in so many unforeseen ways for everyone. I've been glued to the news and stories that flood in every day, and it's taken such a toll on everyone emotionally. The psychological healing from the island's trauma hasn't even begun, yet each day feels like we are further down a darker hole. There are different waves of emotions, rolling in one after another in its wake. We all hold this island so dear to our hearts. As an empathetic and highly sensitive person, it's been so difficult not to drown in tragic news stories.

Catia Lemmi, a photographer, brand stylist, and concept developer based in London, approaches her work from a sensitive and reflective place. She was born in a small, medieval town in the beautiful mountains of Garfaganana, Tuscany, Italy. She also is a clinical psychologist, which she balances with teaching workshops and brand concept development. Her unique way of capturing the softness of natural light has an introspection quality to it which I find so calming.

Less is more, more is more? So which is it? How we style a scene says everything. After there is that old adage that says a photo is worth a 1000 words right? Overstyling a scene can be a trap for many beginners; making that strawberry sit just so or the glass be just to the left...but sometimes those images can feel tight, cloistered, buttoned up. And unless it’s done naturally, it can easily feel contrived.

I discovered Kate by chance online while passing through her home in Gloucestershire in the English countryside. I was immediately drawn to her work and her sensitivity to beauty. As a fellow flower lover, her floral photography transports you to another place and makes you realize the importance of slowing down to notice the beauty of the little things. Her work is grounded in nature and comes from the heart and soul. She is also a creative business coach for photographers and creative entrepreneurs.

The first interview in my visual storytelling series is with Valentina Hortus, a photographer, blogger, and photography teacher based in beautiful Tuscany, Italy. Her blog, Hortus Cuisine, won Saveur’s Best New Blog in 2014. Her work has a sense of moody romance from times past, a Renaissance painterly quality to it, which I find so inspiring and unique. I love how everything she creates is with intention and a clear story. You can feel how deeply aligned she is with the soul of her work. I hope you will be just as inspired by her work as I am!

I was on a long run in crisp October in Vermont on the dirt backroads, the kind where every step is crisp and crack. I was a few miles away from home, my breathing deep and visible in the cold air. But something stopped me mid-stride. I heard odd noises in the bush up ahead. Ears perked I thought it couldn’t be anything that dangerous, but you never know out there, there are bears and catamounts (supposedly). I took a few steps forward only to realize, to my relief, a loose cow was munching away contently at the grass with a white-eyed look of “Yes?” I started laughing only then, seeing the whole picture of the setting. I peered through the leaves and brush only to see the rest of the herd. Wild Child, Baby Carrot, Maple…

One thing that can be very overwhelming when you’re just beginning as a food or lifestyle photographer is the feeling that you need to have a huge studio or a large prop cupboard. Seeing others work online can make you feel like “ooo I need that too” or “I’d like to try that surface, “ and then the next moment you know your list of things to buy or find is long and scattered. I certainly have little to nothing when I began experimenting in my cottage.