#PutItOnTheSill

Let me explain.

My previous roommate and I coined #putitonthesill circa 2015 in our Boston apartment, because the best lighting I could get for my food photos in our smallish space was–you guessed it–on the window sill. I must’ve looked like a crazy person, shuffling from the kitchen over to the living room window with oven mitts on, carrying a baking sheet straight out of the oven, then carefully resting it on the sill right above the couch (and praying it didn’t fall over onto the couch).

Good times. 8+ years later, I have upgraded to a marble table that gives me more than 6 inches of room to work with (#blessed), but you can 100% bet that table was strategically placed in a light-filled, window-to-window corner. Since the origin of that hashtag, I had made a mental note that if I were to ever start a blog, I’d call it #putitonthesill.

I am not a professional photographer, but I love dabbling in photography (especially food and travel), as it can be such a powerful, creative outlet. Viewing the world with a more photo-minded perspective allows you to notice things and find beauty where it may have otherwise gone overlooked. I’d like to think that throughout years of working in photo-adjacent editorial environments, plus shooting photos of my own, I’ve picked up some photography know-how and established an “eye.”

Here are some of my favorites. (Select photos by Ryan Ladd.)