Our third cookbook: Buck, Buck, Moose

Twenty years ago when I decided to start cooking in earnest, I fell in love with cookbooks. Those that taught techniques, I studied rigorously; those that offered mouthwatering recipes, I devoured with my eyes. One in particular - The Essential Asian Cookbook (Murdoch Books, 1997) - sparked a bizarre collecting habit: chopsticks, ramekins and Asian dishware.

As a politics reporter, I dreamed that someday I'd be able to ditch nasty world of politics and write about food for newspapers (a coveted position, by the way - everyone wanted to be a food writer). But never in a million years would I have envisioned that I'd become a food photographer, and that many of the items I'd been collecting for fun would appear in cookbooks enjoyed by tens of thousands of readers.

This week marks the release of the third cookbook featuring my photography: Buck, Buck, Moose: Recipes and Techniques for Cooking Deer, Elk, Moose, Antelope and Other Antlered Things, written by my partner Hank Shaw. And I'm pleased to say it is BOTH types of cookbook that I fell in love with 20 years ago: It contains detailed and accessible instructions on technique - both butchering and cooking - and what I hope you'll find to be beautiful photography showcasing mouth-watering dishes.

There's something extra special about this book. The first, Hunt, Gather, Cook: Finding the Forgotten Feast, was published by Rodale in 2011. The second, Duck, Duck, Goose: The Ultimate Guide to Cooking Waterfowl, Both Wild and Domesticated, was published by Ten Speed Press in 2013. This one, we are self-publishing - made possible by an immensely successful Kickstarter campaign.

If you are a deer hunter, or you know someone who is, I hope you'll check it out. As someone who ate everything I photographed, I can tell you you'll be glad you did. Cheers!

© Holly A. Heyser 2016

Resurrected: My photography website

I'm very excited to unveil my new photography website - Holly Heyser Photography.

My old food photography website shut down a couple weeks ago because the hosting company, BluDomain, didn't send me a bill, ignored multiple emails I sent asking them for a bill, then shut my site down because I didn't pay the bill. Brilliant!

This happened at a pretty difficult time. Hank and I were in the middle of a protracted search for our missing cat, which thankfully ended this morning after 37 tortured days, and I was trying to finish producing an especially challenging issue of California Waterfowl Magazine (that's over now too).

As often happens, the website problem turned out to be for the best. After evaluating my options, I realized the path forward was to consolidate my food photography website, which has always functioned just as an online portfolio, with my other photography website, which has been my vehicle for selling prints of my feather photos and mushroom photos.

The "new" combined site is hosted by SmugMug, which has always had outstanding customer service for both me and for the people who purchase my photos: Prints from my site are produced by Bay Photo in Santa Cruz, and both the quality of prints and the absolutely bullet-proof packaging are outstanding. (Hat tip to my favorite waterfowl photographer, Fred Greenslade, who turned me on to SmugMug.)

As a result of this consolidation, you can now purchase my food photos, if you want to have some mouth-watering stuff hanging on your walls. Hey, ya never know.

So, please feel free to take a look around - dare I say feast your eyes on? - the new site. Its address is photo.hollyheyser.com. You can leave comments on any photos you like, and share them with any of your friends who are into food, feathers or mushrooms.

And ants. Did I mention ants?

© Holly A. Heyser 2015

My biggest photography project yet: Duck, Duck, Goose - the cookbook!

Click here to buy.

Super excited to announce the release of a second cookbook featuring my photography: Duck, Duck, Goose: Recipes and Techniques for Cooking Ducks and Geese, both Wild and Domesticated (Ten Speed Press).

As Hank Shaw's live-in food photographer, I've been doing photography for his James Beard Award-winning blog Hunter Angler Gardener Cook for years now. I also did most of the photography for his first book, Hunt, Gather, Cook: Finding the Forgotten Feast (Rodale, 2011).

But "Duck, Duck, Goose" is special to me for several reasons. First and foremost, waterfowling is my passion, and one of the primary reasons I started hunting ducks was how incredibly good they taste.

And on a more personally gratifying level: This book is 100 percent in color, unlike "Hunt, Gather, Cook." Every single image is mine, right down to the duck silhouette motif you'll see throughout the book. And Andrew Zimmern of the Travel Channel's "Bizarre Foods" gave me a nice shout-out in his back-cover review of the book. Thanks, Andrew!

If you're not a hunter, this book still has plenty for you - Hank and I worked with both domestic and wild ducks. And if you are a hunter, this is an indispensable guide for getting the most out of your birds. Some of the dishes are super cheffy, but the book also devotes a lot of space to basic techniques that you'll appreciate even if you never try the high-wire stuff.

The recipes originate from all over the globe, so if you love ethnic food, you'll find lots of ethnicities represented here. And having eaten every single dish I photographed, I can tell you they're ridiculously delicious. Even though they sometimes got cold by the time I was done shooting them.

If you'd like to meet the master, Hank will be on book tour for the next several months, and most of his events are dinners at excellent restaurants with chefs the likes of Bryan Voltaggio and Anita Lo. These events are fun because you can get dinner and face time with Hank, not just hear a lecture and stand in line for an autograph. You can check out what cities he's visiting here.

Work prevents me from joining him on the whole tour, though I will go to a few stops with him, time permitting.

I hope you'll consider buying the book. If you do, enjoy!

© Holly A. Heyser 2013