HATCH CHILES

I have had a passion for food, cooking and now within the past couple years a passion for food photography.
My collection of food related magazines dates back to the mid 1960's but it was not until two very hot summers ago
that I was desperate to shoot something in the cool of the house and decided to concentrate on improving my food photography.

Last year I went to Central Market (a huge grocery store in Dallas with all kinds of hard to find ingredients from all over the world) to shoot the Hatch Chile Festival.
It is about this time of year that the Hatch chiles from New Mexico are ready for harvest and delivered to the stores.
So... I wanted to get a few shots of them roasting the chiles outside of the store.
I had no sooner lifted the camera to my eye when I caught sight of a flashing light and then heard someone yell... "You can't do that Lady!"

"HUH? Was he talking to me?" Yep... I was in trouble! Caught in the act!
NO PHOTOGRAPHY!
OK... so let me get this straight. I can go buy a gun and carry a concealed weapon but I can't "shoot" the peppers?
This all seems so wrong to my mind.
Of course I apologized and quickly left the premises as I didn't want him to think I might sneak a photo of the peppers being roasted.

So this year I decide to get smart. I will e-mail and see if I might get permission to shoot the peppers being roasted.
To my surprise, within an hour of the e-mail, I get a call from the store.
After explaining what I am looking to do, the gal is very nice and asks me to send her a shot list and about how many photos I will be taking. (I had best not say 500!)
So I complied a list and she explained that there was to be no signage, no customers in the photo and that she would be with me while shooting at the store and I could shoot both outside and inside.
I was ecstatic!
I posted several of the photos to Capture Dallas and thanked her for being so kind to let me do that.

So here are some Hatch chiles before I roasted them and our dinner of Vegetarian Hatch Chili on brown rice topped with grated Cheddar cheese, Greek yogurt, and guacamole served with a cold beer.

To see more of my food photography, turn on your sound and go to: http://theinquisitiveeye.zenfolio.com/

For the recipe, please go to: http://www.pbase.com/shutterpug/image/152201804