Of all the content I was able to save, the ‘Food Photography’ section from my last site was not salvageable, therefore, I’m starting from scratch, this time with a little more direction.
August 6th, 2010
One of my photography goals for 2010 was to be involved in a professional shoot, as a water boy, reflector holder, or even as a chef getting my food shot by a pro. Little did I think I would be asked to shoot food for someone based on the images on my website. It is quite a rewarding feeling.
To be completely honest, a woman from an ad agency here in CO asked a friend of mine if he new any food photographers. He gave her my website and then sent me an email, didn’t want anyone thinking I came up anywhere in the first 10 pages of any google searches for ‘food photographer’, because I don’t. I put a bid together with help from Helene DuJardin who also goes by SweetTartelette on Twitter.
I honestly didn’t expect to get the job but I did, for whatever reason, they asked me to shoot 6 dishes that would be featured in web advertising for TortillaLand and also included with the recipes to be featured in 3 months of Food Network magazine. When they said ‘yes’, I was excited, nervous, scared and proud, all at the same time. I had never done, or seen for that matter, how this was done, but I figured I would just go about it the way I did the photos for my site.
We shot on a Wednesday. We were pressed for time because we were shooting at the restaurant of the chef who created the 6 recipes. There was a large party downstairs and dinner service was only a few hours away. Not to mention the chef, who had wanted to get out and go see his family, I can’t blame him. I picked a spot in the restaurant close to a large window, set up a diffuser on the window, set a wireless speedlight at 8 o’clock and a bounce card at 3 o’clock. I took several practice photos to adjust settings and then waited.
One of the biggest lessons I learned about shooting for clients is don’t get to0 fancy. I had to keep reminding myself that I wasn’t shooting for my site. The photos were supposed to be selling tortillas, therefore the photos had to make the tortillas look fabulous. Of course the recipes were important, but the tortillas were the star.
The first plate came out about 3:30. Mike and I played with lighting, settings, linens, and props until he felt they had the look they were going for, extremely simple. It took an hour and several re-plates to get this first photo…
With 5 more photos to go, I could see the chef pulling his hair out thinking we would be there all night. But now that we had the look we were going for, it moved fairly well from there.
Personally, I would have done a little more with props, but that wasn’t my call to make. I did manage to get them to use the tiles I brought that the plate was sitting on. They also liked the idea of using the linens which they hadn’t thought of before. This particular linen was part of the schwag bag I had received at the Food and Light workshop in Boulder earlier this summer.
It took us about 2 hours to finish the final 5 plates. All in all I was happy with the photos and happy that the client was happy with the photos. Tortillas are a tough thing to shoot, they are brown and flat, making them appealing was difficult. There was one particular shot I wasn’t happy with but the recipe called for flour tortillas. Here is that shot…
It just came out looking more like a pile than anything else. But you can see the filling and the Fresno chile helps draw the attention away a little bit which I didn’t think was such a bad thing for this photo.
I have to say, it was a phenomenal experience and I was completely thrilled to have been chosen and allowed to do the work. The knowledge I garnered in those 4 hours was indispensable and will definitely help me should I find myself in a similar situation, which I hope there will be many, many similar situations.
May 5th, 2010
Food photography is still relatively new to me, at least the commercial/artistic kind. I’m lucky enough to have a professional cooking background so I understand very well how food performs. I am also lucky enough to have chefs as friends who like my photos enough to let me shoot their menus. In the last year I’ve found that some dishes are easier to shoot than others. They have a definite ‘presentation’ side, they have focal points and are designed to be pleasing to the eye. I feel that my job is to try and capture that initial impression of a dish through a photograph. I want you to see that dish and react to it as if it had just been placed before you.
How do you handle a dish that has no discernible focal point such as a simple salad? Through framing and composition, as in the photo below…
You can easily see the photo is a salad. But getting in tight to highlight the garnish or ingredients of such a simple dish creates something to focus on. I think, generally, a photo of a plate of salad greens can be too busy, to much going on and nothing to attract the eye. By only showing a small part of the salad, you are creating something that is visually interesting.
Originally Posted December 29th, 2009
There were many ups and downs for me in 2009, both personally and professionally, but 2009 will most be remembered by me as the year I fell in love with photography. Not just food photography, although that is where I think I find the most pleasure and also the most comfort. I’ve been working with food professionally for 25 years and the marriage of both is opening up a whole new creative outlet for me.
But shooting food only can be limiting. I’m discovering that I like taking my camera out with me when I go out shopping, the post office or anywhere. Just on the chance I’ll find something worth shooting. That’s why I’m starting a ‘Photo of the Day’ exercise. I find that if I’m only shooting food, the camera might sit in my bag for 2 weeks untouched while I plan my next shoot or post. Highly unacceptable considering the investment I made in getting a more serious camera. So while shooting food is still my first love, this PotD project is meant to help me ‘get out of my comfort zone’, to use the most gauche cliché I can think of. Here is a link to the first PotD taken yesterday.
While social media has mostly passed me by, I am addicted to twitter. Many of the people or streams I follow belong to photographers and I’m always blown away when a photographer decides to follow my stream. I’ve learned so much from them, their blogs, their photos, their dedication and to a lesser degree, their habits. This is where I discovered the PotD concept. I always try and look at the photos that are posted by other photogs, most are strong, great photos, then there are a couple of duds. It’s to be expected I suppose, after 25 years in a kitchen not every one of my recipes is stellar; some are just downright bad ideas. But like the photographer, I learn from my failures to be able to make better dishes. My rules for my PotD are simple, no staging and no tripods.
I’m sure that my first year of PotD photos will contain more duds than winners, so the idea is to get better gradually over time, something I’m not going to do by leaving my camera in the bag for 2 weeks at a clip.
Some things I’ve accomplished this year with a camera:
1. Had a photo used in an advertising piece for a restaurant here in Colorado.
2. Had a photo used as an intro to a review in a magazine here in Denver.
3. Participated in the Worldwide Moment.
4. Took photos for friends who were trying to preserve the memory of a terminally ill pet.
5. Sold the same photo twice on a stock website (a whopping $3.00!)
6. Fell in love with food all over again.
I also have goals for 2010, a few of which are:
1. Complete 4 themed project 50’s. The four themes I have picked are Blue, Motion, Patterns and Faces. Some of these may overlap also as PotD entrants.
2. See my PotD project until the end on December 15th, 2010.
3. Assist a professional in a photo shoot (or just hang out and watch), as much as I can anyway.
4. Sell a 2nd photo on a stock website.
5. Capture good photos when my second daughter is born in January.
6. Photograph a special event dinner.
7. Spend 2 weeks in Europe with my camera, err, wife.
Lastly, although there are 2 weeks left in the year, I’ve decided to choose what I think was my best photo this year. I also want to post a link to a photo that inspired me, my own little Photo of the Year. I would love to see some links to your favorite photos, food or otherwise, from 2009.
Happy New Year
C-
