Two Days on the Homestead: What I Learned From Eva Kosmas Flores
On mountains, mentorship, and what happens when curiosity finally gets you in the kitchen. Musings of my 1:1 food photography and styling mentorship with Eva Kosmas Flores in Washington State this summer. And what it means to be a creative in the ever evolving photography industry.
Jama Finney is a brand and culinary photographer based in Louisville, Kentucky, now actively booking photography sessions in Indianapolis, Indiana.
I’m going to have to drive up this mountain.
The drive to Eva's homestead is on the border between Washington State and Oregon, on one of the most spectacular roads I have ever driven. I'm a flatlander by birth. The hills of southern Indiana and Louisville don't prepare you for mountains. Somewhere around 20 miles out it hits me. Mt Hood in front of me. The view keeps expanding. And I'm sitting in my nieces Camry thinking, oh shit, this is incredible, but I'm going to have to drive up a mountain to get to Eva's place.
And then I just went for it.
When I pulled up to the house, Eva walked outside to greet me with a huge smile. Then I stepped out of the car and said, "Hey there! That was an exciting road trip for a girl from the flat lands." We both laughed.
Why I Said Yes to This Food Photography Mentorship
I started taking Eva's food styling course during Covid, along with a lot of other photographers curious about culinary work. I blazed through the course, so impressed with the material and the gorgeous images she taught us to create. And I never went anywhere with it. But this year, something shifted in how I thought about my own business.
My branding photography business is solid. The experience is dialed in. I have a system that works, clients who trust it, and a roadmap for how we create together. I love the process. And I could have kept perfecting that same thing. Deepening it. Staying comfortable inside what already works.
Instead, I decided to open a door.
Food photography has always called to me. My background in pastry, in owning my own kitchen, in feeding people, it all threads back to something true about who I am. I have clients in product development and the culinary space who needed exactly this work. And I kept thinking about Eva's course, kept wondering what it would feel like to study directly under someone whose work I admired, to sit in her kitchen and learn not just the technique but the intuition behind it. As food is a face to face experience, I also wanted this kind of one-on-one culinary photography mentorship in person, not just through a screen.
So when I saw Eva was hosting one-on-one mentorships this year, I decided to go for it! That was a very easy yes. There was a bonus, too. I have family in Seattle, so this felt like a homecoming wrapped inside something I genuinely needed.
Inside Eva’s Kitchen
Eva and her husband built their home to be exactly what they needed. It's not just a house or a piece of beautiful land. It's a custom destination designed for their lifestyle and for her to create inside of it. The kitchen, studio and garden are the heart of it.
Light cabinetry with honey gold handles. A huge picture window over the sink facing the mountains, the sprawling garden, the Columbia River. Morning light and afternoon light pouring through, changing the whole feel of the space as the day moves. It's absolutely one of a kind. Full of luminescent light and gorgeous plants inside and out. A mixture of antiques. There's contrast everywhere you look.
On our first morning together, I asked Eva if she ever listens to music while she's cooking and doing her photography during the day. She said not really. And that caught my attention immediately because the environment is so different than what I usually create. My life is full of noise. Boys home, music playing, dogs barking. This was an escape from all of that. A quiet space. Very opposite of the noisy spaces I'm used to. And in that quiet, all the focus went on the food. On what was being created and our conversations.
I stayed in a private suite on her property, part of their home with its own separate entrance. Cozy. Warm. Filled with all kinds of personal little details and gifts. When I walked out onto the private entrance at dawn, I could see the mountains and hear the wind rustling through all of the plants and flowers. It smelled like fresh rain and soil because it had been a pretty rainy few days. Waking up there, falling asleep there, it was like being held by the landscape.
Two Days of Hands-On Food Photography Learning
We shot and created for two days straight. Hard light. Soft light. We edited video and stills in Lightroom and Davinci Resolve. We styled food using her props, her tools, things she grows in her garden, things we picked during our walks. From her studio she can literally open a window and pick dainty purple pansies. Idyllic.
Eva doesn't just tell you how to do something. She shows you, step by step, hands on, walking you through every decision. She was making our lunch on that electric stove too when she showed me how to prepare lemon garlicky chicken pasta and style it into bowls to be photographed. I watched her hands move. I watched how she thought about placement, about balance, about what the camera would see. She didn't hand me instructions. She handed me her process. I’ve made a version of that pasta 2x now since I’ve been home.
She showed me how to prepare different foods to be photographed. How to set up baseline backdrops and lighting so you have consistency. How to know when to bring in natural elements from the garden and when to strip it back. It was an anchor of that kitchen, that stove, that moment.
We also enjoyed all of our meals together. Breakfast was kimchi and eggs, the kind of meal I wish I could eat every single day. Lunch was gorgeous salads and soups. We took walks and saw nature in her backyard. Baby deer with their mama. We talked about life and business and what's possible. What's working and what's moved on in our industry.
It was a complete utter reset. Exactly what I was looking for.
What Actually Shifted
The photography industry has been a bit unsettled this past year or so. Some clients are looking for alternatives. Some are turning to AI. Budgets have tightened. Not everyone is shooting and some are leaving the industry. I've watched a lot of people in my field scramble, trying to figure out what comes next.
I could have stayed inside what I know works. But staying comfortable felt like the opposite of moving forward and actually serving my clients, and myself.
What Eva gave me, learning in her studio for two days, was validation to hit that reset. To open the door to possibility. To recognize that things work in cycles, and right now the cycle is asking me to expand instead of deepen the same line.
The Styling Piece
I think I had over complicated it before. That was my realization.
What Eva showed me is that there's a real flow to food photography. And there's a formula too. Prep the food thoughtfully. Have your baseline backdrops. Know your go-to lighting. Build consistency from there. Then let intuition and what feels right in the moment guide the rest. This is where your own style lives.
And here's what surprised me. My structured planner brain, the thing that makes my branding work so tight and intentional, that same skill translates directly. I don't have to unlearn who I am to do this work. I get to bring all of me to it. The planning. The precision. The eye for detail. All of it serves here too.
What Comes Next for My Food and Culinary Photography Work
I'm building packages. Offerings. A clear way for clients to work with me as a professional food photographer, not as a brand photographer who also photographs food. There's a difference. One is a specialty. One is a side thing. If you're curious what that looks like right now, you can see where things stand on my food and culinary photography page.
I'm reaching out. Educating clients on how I'm expanding and how we can work together to help them expand. Creating a go-to simple setup that lets me produce variety and personalize without reinventing every single time. Moving forward not by abandoning what works, but by expanding what's possible. Opening my eyes to projects that pique my interest.
The drive up that mountain didn't stop me. It invited me. And I'm still going.
About Eva's Mentorship
If you're considering a one-on-one mentorship with Eva Kosmas Flores or her online courses, here's what to expect. She is hands-on. She doesn't teach from a distance. She shows you her process, walks you through decisions, lets you learn by doing alongside her. The mentorship is active, involved, intimate. It's designed for photographers ready to level up their food and culinary work with someone who has genuinely built an extraordinary creative life. If that resonates with you, I highly recommend exploring.
Click here for Eva’s workshops →
Curious what it would be like to collaborate with me on your next food, product, or culinary portrait photoshoot? Click below for details and to set up a time to chat about your upcoming project.
All images taken on the Flores Homestead during my 1:1 Mentorship with @evakosmasflores in June 2026. Eva teaching the hands on styling and techniques while I captured the final images and the editing. True collaboration bliss 🖤
© Jama Finney Photography 2026
About the Author
Jama Finney is a Louisville-based portrait, branding and food photographer known for creating editorial-style imagery for entrepreneurs, creatives, and founders. Her approach blends professional branding photography with portrait-led storytelling, capturing the authority, humanity, and essence behind the people she photographs.
Jama works with clients across Louisville, Indianapolis, and beyond who want branding imagery that feels layered, powerful, and unmistakably like themselves.
When she isn’t behind the camera, she’s usually traveling, observing human nature with curiosity, or writing about the fascinating ways we move through the world.
Interested in working together? Explore branding sessions or get in touch here.
