National Avocado Month and Taking a Second Look
There was a time when avocados felt almost exotic.
Today they’re everywhere. On toast, in salads, on burgers, in sushi rolls, and transformed into enough guacamole to fill an impressive number of restaurant bowls.
For National Avocado Month, I thought it was worth taking a closer look at the fruit itself.
Most of us encounter avocados as ingredients. They arrive sliced, mashed, diced, or blended into something else. Rarely do we stop to appreciate how distinctive they actually are. The dark, textured skin looks almost prehistoric, while the interior reveals smooth green flesh surrounding one of the largest seeds found in common produce.
Photographing food often gives me an excuse to slow down and look at familiar subjects more carefully. When an avocado is removed from the grocery display, the cutting board, and the recipe, details begin to stand out. The contrast between the rough exterior and the soft interior. The subtle variations of green. The simple geometry created by the seed and the cavity it leaves behind.
Avocados have become so common that they almost disappear into the background of everyday meals. Yet they’re still one of the more unusual fruits in any produce department.
Sometimes a familiar subject is worth a second look.
More of my Commercial Food Photography, along with aviation, collections, and other ongoing projects, can be found at https://www.secondfocus.com You may discover something you’ve seen countless times before, but never really stopped to look.
National Walnut Day
Today is National Walnut Day.
And unlike a lot of modern food holidays that seem to appear because somebody on social media decided tacos or donuts needed another excuse for hashtags, this one actually became official through the United States government.
National Walnut Day was originally established in 1949 by the Walnut Marketing Board. Then in 1958, the U.S. Senate passed a resolution officially recognizing May 17 as National Walnut Day, signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
So walnuts have had an officially recognized day on the calendar for nearly 70 years.
And walnuts carry more weight than people probably realize. California now produces about 99% of all walnuts grown in the United States and roughly a third of the world’s walnut supply. They’ve become tied to everything from baking and salads to snack foods, health food culture, and holiday desserts.
This photograph keeps the idea simple. Just walnut halves piled onto a black plate against a black background. No styling tricks, no added elements, no attempt to turn them into something else. The texture, shapes, and warm tones do the work on their own.
Sometimes that’s enough.
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