Eat & Greet Part One: The General Mills Photography Studio and New Friends
Thanks to General Mills and Coyne PR, I had the amazing opportunity to travel to Minneapolis to attend the General Mills Eat & Greet with 50 other bloggers. I can’t put into words what a fabulous time I had, and I learned so much. It was an invaluable experience. All the bloggers were spoiled throughout the trip with gifts and top notch treatment. Check out the sign above. There were tons of signs like that all throughout the General Mills facilities, and it made all of us feel quite special! One of my favorite parts of the event was meeting new people. I would have to say that meeting HungryGirl was one of the highlights of my trip!! She was hanging out in the photography studios working on her food photos. 
I also had the chance to meet the Trix Rabbit and Lucky the Leprechaun. The two other lovely ladies in the photo are Jenny from Picky Palate and Angie from Bakerella. I am so lucky to have met these amazing ladies. I spent the day with them as we toured the facilities, and we had a blast. It wouldn’t have been the same without them.
Part of the tour of the General Mills facilities included a trip to the photography studios. I could have stayed in the studios for hours just watching the photographers and food designers work their magic.
These awesome pictures lined the hallway leading to the studios. Every picture involved a General Mills food product.
A chess set made with Chex
A purse made from Fruit Roll-ups
A charm bracelet with Lucky Charms marshmallows and a Cheerios nose ring 
Before going into the photo studios, we took a peek in the prop room. I was so jealous! I would be in heaven if I had this many choices of dishes, bowls, glasses, and pans to choose from when plating my food for pictures.
These dishes were ready and waiting to appear in front of the camera.
On to the photo studios next! Check out this amazing camera. I wouldn’t mind having one of those!
The photo studios were amazing! I would love to have a job there!
Here is some pasta getting ready for a moment in the spotlight. I was amazed at all the tools used to make the food look just right for the photos. The food stylists use some interesting tools including glass cleaner, tweezers, q-tips, paint brushes, bamboo skewers, spray bottles, and eye droppers.
The photography group took time to give us hints on how to work with color schemes, lighting, and food styling when taking pictures for our blogs. Jenny, Angie, and I were lucky enough to spend some time with the photography group. Their jobs sound fascinating and fun. They told us stories of having to get pictures just right to represent the food accurately. For example, when a chocolate chip cookie picture is taken, it can’t have too many or too few chocolate chips. It has to be an accurate representation of what the consumer will get. A chocolate chip cookie picture could be the result of a full day’s work and a batch of 100+ cookies. They also told a story of having to dig through a large bag of Lucky Charm marshmallows to find 6 “perfect” rainbow marshmallows.
The photography group spoiled us by giving us a bag of goodies including a pot pie recipe book, a fill card for our food photos, a food photography tip book, and stationary with General Mills food photography. General Mills supplied all the bloggers with Flip video camcorders, so I was able to video some of the tips shared by the food stylist! Enjoy!
Come back tomorrow for more trip highlights, including the Betty Crocker kitchens and some tasty new products!
What a great trip! I agree, their photo studio would have been where I wanted to stay the day! I mean, a fruit roll up purse? crazy!!
What a great experience!
That looked like sooo much fun! Thanks for sharing your experience.
What an interesting trip!
You could actually capture quite a long clip with that Flip video camcorder! Thanks for sharing… Glad I found you through Bakerella’s blog. =)
Megan this is great! We’re so proud of you. Glad you had a good time. Thanks for sharing the pictures.
The photo studio (and the prop room) look wonderful!
What a fun trip. Thanks for sharing
What an amazing opportunity!!! I would love to learn more about food styling and photography! fun fun
can’t wait for the rest of the recaps
What an amazing opportunity! that would have been so awesome! Meeting hungrygirl makes me so jealous! yay for you!
What a wonderful opportunity, Megan. Thanks for sharing it with us. Love the video of the food stylist!
Are you going to be at Food BlogHer in SF? I will be!
Thanks for sharing the video! Great tips! Lucky girl!
You are so incredibly lucky!! Thanks so much for sharing!! Love it!
such an awesome trip!!! I’m jealous!
WOWIE! What a fun place to visit!! Thank you so much for sharing!!! I love the chessboard made of Chex!!!
Sounds so awesome! Glad you had fun!
awwww Meg..this is fabulous & couldn’t happen to a sweeter person…i’m so thrilled that you got to go..your blog is one of the best!!
I think that would be one of my favourite parts of the tour as well. I love photography, and any hints I can pick up to help make my photos better, I’m all over that.
And that is one sweet camera – if only I could afford a bad boy like that.
This looks like the most fun day out ever!!!
Those brownies looked amazing.
I was laughing to myself when the lady said a serving was an inch. lol. I would have eaten the entire thing
Oh! However did you get on the A-list to be invited?! It looks like SUCH.FUN
(Not to mention meeting and greeting Bakerella and Picky-Palate’s Jen. It was through them that I found your website. So glad for the discovery!)
Happy Day!
Is it envy? Is it awe? Probably a combination of both is what I’m feeling right now
Haha, Meg it looks AMAZING! I’m completely jealous that you got to visit my hometown and on top of that, General Mills! The photography studio and the experience you had there sounds like such a treat, and I bet you learned a lot. So cool that you got to meet Hungry Girl, too! What a trip – congrats!!
Oh what a great trip! I’ve been reading about it from other bloggers who attended and I’m dying with envy
That photo studio sounds awesome!
Loved the video!! Learned some new things… ow cool that they gave you those little recorders!
It looks like you had a great time! I can’t believe that you got to meet all those fabulous bloggers, especially bakerella.
Thanks for being kind to my husband and allowing him to accrue his hours. I appreciate it very much. I hope that everyone is doing well.
Take care!