As LPK's Culinary Creative Director my primary responsibility is to direct food photography for various brands. Making food look delicious in a photograph is tougher than it sounds, and every meal I am served, as well as every meal I cook, informs that effort, as I study those meals to determine what exactly it is that gives them visual appeal.

When I came to Cincinnati last summer to begin working on a series of projects with LPK, I made an effort to learn about the city's food scene, from Findlay Market in Over-the-Rhine, Taste of Cincinnati and Octoberfest downtown, to the Locavore movement statewide. Several groups and organizations promote sustainability, regional specialties or local chefs and there are many outstanding festivals that celebrate Cincinnati's unique food heritage and local flavors. Just as interesting is the great assortment of grocery stores here, ranging from the humblest neighborhood chain to the wild and crazy Jungle Jim's in Fairfield. After surveying the food scene here, my impression is that Cincinnatians take their grocery shopping very seriously.

A great example is the enormous Kroger Marketplace in Anderson where I am always astonished to find a full, sit-down sushi bar, a wine bar, a jewelry store, and a furniture and housewares department. That store, similar to the new Kroger in Newport, also has the wonderful Murray's cheese shop. I don't know about you, but I love finding a full service cheese store inside my grocery store! I also like to shop at Fresh Market and the posh Dorothy Lane stores where I recommend taking a break from your shopping to enjoy something from their wonderful bakery. And of course Jungle Jim's, which defies description- chock full of hard-to-find foods from all over the world, great wine shop, eclectic atmosphere . . . you just have to go.

Most of these stores are starting to stock more local, organic, sustainable, cage-free, cruelty-free, pesticide-free products, and it's great to see demand for these options rising. This time of year, it's easy to find local, organic produce at the many citywide farmers' markets, and some of them also have organic eggs, meat and poultry. But once the seasons change and the markets close, we are back indoors and pushing a cart down an aisle. Consumer demand is the only thing that will drive grocers to source products that are not damaging to the earth or cruel to the animals we depend on. Paying a little more for them now is a bargain in the long run.

And respect for beautiful ingredients is the first rule to achieving that picture perfect plate.

When we made the decision to move permanently to Cincinnati, my husband and I began to search for a place to rent, feeling like it was too early to buy until we knew the city better. Gordon is a keen (and obsessive) researcher and he found a listing for a property on the edge of town, an old farmhouse on 3 acres, surrounded by 20 acres of woods. I didn't expect to like it since it was farther from the city than I wanted to be, and didn't have window coverings or a fence for my two dogs. My realtor was skeptical too, uncertain that anything that large existed in that area just inside interstate 275 near Milford.

But we found it, and as we pulled down the long, tree-lined driveway, I was transported. The property is pastoral, gracious, a step back in time; an old white house surrounded by acres of hayfields and flanked by two enormous oaks, two charmingly dilapidated barns, acres and acres of lawn. I worried it was completely impractical since I would be there alone for as long as it took us to sell our house in L.A., I didn't yet own a car to make the 14-mile commute to my job downtown at LPK, and I couldn't be sure how to keep my city dogs from disappearing into the woods. But there was no question of walking away. I was home.

I knew Cincinnati would be different from Los Angeles but my new home is not just different, it is a complete 180 from life in the Hollywood Hills. I can't see any of my neighbor's houses. A herd of deer raids my bird feeder nightly. Turtles meander across the lawn toward the creek. Bunnies eye the newly planted herb garden. We have a bird list numbering over 40 species, including the spectacular pileated woodpecker. Foxes, raccoons, chipmunks, squirrels, coyotes. Frogs, loud ones, lots of them. Fireflies, like twinkling tree lights against the pitch-dark woods.

As far as I can tell, a home like this just another lovely advantage of living in Cincinnati. My fascination with Ohio and its beautiful landscape is nurtured here and it is such a privilege to live in this house, on this farm, in this charming city, in my new home state.

Standing in the middle of a bridge over the Ohio River watching the July 4th fireworks, I took a moment to reflect on my new hometown and how much has changed for me in the past year. The view is beautiful in every direction, and the fireworks show is spectacular, but in fact I relocated to Cincinnati for a career opportunity, not because Cincinnati was where I wanted to be. Discovering that it is such a vibrant and interesting city is the icing on the cake, the cherry on top, the gravy . . . (sorry, food metaphors come with the territory in my line of work as Culinary Creative Director at LPK.)

My previous job as photo editor at L.A. based Bon Appetit magazine meant a lot of travel between Los Angeles and New York, and ignorance about everything in between. So there's a long list of things I've been fascinated to learn and embarrassed to admit that I didn't know. Like: the Ohio River is the border between Ohio and Kentucky, and the airport is actually in, well, you know. That Cincinnati's been nicknamed Queen of the West, Porkopolis, and more recently "the Nati". The Reds were the nation's first pro baseball team. Cincinnati has an Opera company, a symphony, a ballet company and a lively theatre and museum scene. That liberals and conservatives co-exist here and even have civil conversations about politics, but not about which brand of chili is best.

As a photo director I've developed a keen eye for beautiful imagery, which this city obligingly provides. The aforementioned bridge is just one of many that grace the river and the lush landscape here provides a stark contrast to my arid former home and it's nearly year-round fire season. Spending many workdays inside a photo studio (many with no windows) makes me so appreciative of places like the Loveland-Madeira bike trail, the Cincinnati Nature Center, and destinations like Yellow Springs and Clifton Gorge. Not to mention the creeks, woods and ponds near where I live in Clermont County.

In spite of much change in my life, the new job and moving to a new city, I have found it easy to settle in. Cincinnati has welcomed me, and standing on this bridge I realize how lucky I am to be making these discoveries.