Sometimes dinner is delayed because the vegetables take a detour through my studio. One minute I'll be sharpening the knife to chop up a bell pepper, and the next minute I'm holding it up to the light, admiring its deep red color and sinuous curves. I usually have the camera and tripod set up for fast action, and since my studio is only a hallway away from the kitchen, it takes no time at all to be transported into the place where color, form, light, and shadow are my ingredients. Or pattern and negative space, as with these purple French beans I picked from the garden, intending them for a tasty paella. How can I bring structure to a supposedly random pattern? How can I use other colors to reinforce the arrangement of the purple and green in the beans? The problem is mesmerizing. But it's dinnertime, and it’s the vegetable flavors I need to discover, so I work quickly. Then I carry the beans back to the kitchen to cook as intended, grateful for the nourishment of both my eyes and my stomach.