Kontos Foods

I always wondered if I would be a commercial photographer after I turned 70. I guess that's a big yes and 2024 has been a very busy year. Kontos is a new company for me although the connection did come from a past client at Nabisco. Nabisco is 20 years ago for me but it reaps benefits to me still. This is the first time I have photographed Phillo dough recipes. They were beautiful and more importantly the clients and other crew were just wonderful. Two great days and good money just for controlling light and focus. What could be better?

This was one huge job. 234 images for Daisy's Bakery one of my favorite clients. A huge majority of the images were product shots like the one here but Diana Caban my art director and daughter of the owner Jose asked me to shoot some pretty images for their website as well. The job took 10 days. Well not full days, only 4 days were over 8 hours (one advantage? of working from home) the rest were partial days doing retouching. Including cleaning up a large number that Jose didn't like the way they were made. Just a little sloppy so I cleaned them up. I enjoy working for nice people.

 

Nustef Bakery

 

This job was for a past client but a new company. Lonnie was the client I have known for quite a while. The company is Nustef Bakery out of Canada. Lonnie works for the company here in the USA. We worked for a full day down in the Split Image Studios in Fairfield NJ. Nicole from Canada was the food stylist and Lonnie was the art director. I just took care of lighting and focus and stuff like that. It was a delightful day, the work is beautiful and everyone went to their respective homes happy.

 

What is this?

This is a plate getting ready to accept food for a Hungryman package shot. The problem is: when you have a deep dish, the food falls into the well and everything starts to look messy. I have shot these images with the dish well filled with wax as it is here and even mashed potatoes. The wax works well because it is solid and acts like a part of the real plate. Most of the food we shoot is cool anyway (we use vegetable oil to make cold food look hot). The grey square in the center is used to balance the color of light and is removed before the food comes. 

So that is how an art director can pick any plate they wish and we can make it work for the shot.

Still a Spoiled Brat

 

 

There were a lot of rules concerning behavior at the Nabisco Food Company. One rule was actually no photographs on your walls or cube. This was my client corner. The images on the wall were from both Nabisco and my life in New York before. 

So why was I allowed to have prints all over everything? The answer might be in the next story: 

A Nabisco lawyer who was a friend came into my studio and said that he was not allowed to wear cowboy boots at work. He asked why when Bill does every day? The answer? Bill is a photographer. 

I guess we photographers were just allowed to get away with everything. 

Nabisco was a wonderful place to work. I was concerned about working there after 15 years in NYC. At age 35 it was the only actual full time job I ever held. It turned out to be an answer from God as I learned all about digital photography very early on. I miss Nabisco and all it was and no, Mondelez  is not the same.

What happens when you tell a wise guy "the prints don't really matter".

I worked for Nabisco from 1989-2002 (Kraft for 2002-2004). I have to admit that I behaved like a spoiled brat through most of those years. Nabisco was a great place for an undiagnosed ADD wacko to work. 

I was asked to shoot some images for a huge food show in Chicago. The client said "they're going way up on the top so it doesn't really matter what you do". 

I thought for a minute and decided to see if I could do a shot where the only sharp part of the image would be the product name. 

This is the result. I did 6 shots of 6 different products and if you look closely, only the product name is sharp.

I still shoot a lot of my food images almost wide open but this one was the craziest I've ever been.

P.S. They looked great way up at the show.

 

On location with Panos... again

These images are a few of the many that we shot on location at the Panos Brands offices. The images will be used for their website and packaging. Panos Brands does more than cheese but when we shoot cheese for them they become our fourth cheese client.

Strangely enough, I have only done 2 location jobs during this covid period and both were for Panos Brands. Most of my clients send me the product to shoot and I send them back jpgs for approval. 

We shot this job with our trusty Nikon D850 tethered to Lightroom. The AD Kevin was able to see the images as we shot them and quickly approve (or disapprove) the shots. I don't do any work in Lightroom (except to rename the images) but changed the .NEF files into .DNG once we got back to the home studio, retouched each image, saved them as 300dpi .jpgs and sent them all to the designer and Kevin via WeTransfer. 

The most important point is that we all had fun. We worked hard, had a nice lunch and did a great job... but it was nothing but fun with nice people.  

 

That's How We Roll

 

Well, I got a call from a new client and then an email from a client/friend Scott saying that I might get a call from a new client. That's why it's great to have friends in the business. I only charged this client one day rate because they are new to me and because if I was going to be doing the food styling, I thought it might take me a little longer to do it. Still, it only took me about a day to shoot. These crackers are graham, dipped in chocolate and stuffed with bits of marsh mallow! Like a smore in a cracker. Still we made smores with two crackers (chocolate facing in) and a marshmallow fired up and squashed in between. I sent them a shot (as requested) with my hand holding a full smore and asked them if they wanted me to book a hand. They said they liked my hand if I could get rid of the 67 year old hair so I did the retouching I do to model's faces on my hand and they loved it. By the way, these crackers are yummy! 

The only contant is change

So I was hired to shoot packaging images for Panos Brands. This time it was yummy little crackers filled with nuts and fruit. 

I got a call about a month after shooting the job from Marty (the boss) who wanted to make sure I got paid for the job. I told him that I had and said good-by. Then I thought hummm that was a little strange so I called him back and asked what's up? He told me that their co-packers were having a terrible time making the product and it was put on hold. He just wanted to make sure that I had gotten paid for the work I did. It really is a shame because the crackers were yummy. I won't get package flats until it goes to press either. I shot these at their offices and was required to wear a mask. Ugh! Most clients send me products to shoot so this was the first time since the Covid mess that I was on location. It was a whole new experience.

 

Slight changes because of Covid

I have been basically a food shooter since 1988. Over those years I have worked with all of the best food stylists in the NYC metro area. Only very occasionally have I been asked to be the photographer and food stylist. Well, Arla Brands asked me to shoot in my studio and send then jpgs and do the food styling. I can do this because I have seen my own stylists do it so many times. I don't know all of the tricks and I take much longer but it all worked well. It took me three days to prop and food shop, food style and shoot six main images. To just shoot would have been only one day. I began by shopping for both props (most from my own prop shelves) and the food needed. I had to shop 2 more times as I would realize that I had not gotten something (a real food stylist never has to do that). Food like toasted cheese sandwiches are tough but I got a nice cheese pull and think things look great. So were it not for covid I would have worked one day and instead I got to be a food stylist and shoot for three. Yea!

My first job for Nabisco

I can still recall the first image I ever did for Nabisco. I was handed a big box of products and told to shoot them as one image. I put up a 9' roll of brown seamless and began piling the products. I used anything I could find to hold up the ones in the back. I figured that this was a test to see how I would do. Well, they must have liked what I did because this image appeared on the back of Nabisco's calendar for 1990. Now here is the strange part. People who know me know that I shouldn't  be handed a razor blade. Sure enough, after I was almost done I was cutting something, and myself, so if you click on the image above to enlarge it you will see a drop of my blood in the lower right edge of the seamless. I never said anything, shot 6 sheets of 8X10 film and that was that. When I saw the calendar, right there on the back cover was my shot... and my drop of blood right there in the corner. Today I would have just cloned the blood off the image but this was 5 years before I began to go digital.

practice

I am a man most blessed. While I, like others, have had to put off shooting for a while, I do have 2 new clients that came during this crazy time. To that end I am playing around with my newish Godox lights. It's just amazing. Three V1's fit in one little bag and the 400 w/s SK400 fits in its own small case. Compare that to the 2400w/s Speedotrons I used to lug around. These 2 shots were captured at 1/250th f/22 and ISO of 100. Just one V1 with a grid and the 400 over the top in an Octabox. The shot on the left is the bank on it's own and the one on the right has added the V1 with the grid. The way I used to do this was with an Elinchrom spotlight 3000 and a Speedotron off the ceiling. Even turned down all the way I often had to use a 2 stop ND just to get open to 22. It's good to know that this is all going to work out well. I'm ready (aren't we all) let go back to work!

COVID-19

Well, we'll see how all of this goes...

    So I had a meeting with PANOS Brands who do healthy crackers and other food, to shoot images for a new package. That was 2 weeks ago before things got crazy. 

    Now I not only have to think about light and focus and other photo related things, but I have to convince my new client that we can do this remotely with things like Skype and Zoom. I am keeping in close (but not to close) contact with my potential client and I think I have them convinced to send me just the crackers to shoot first so they can see how I light.

    I sent them this contact sheet to give them an idea of the kind of lighting I do for cracker-type packaging. I know it will make their packages sell well. In this crazy time, we'll just have to wait to see what actually happens.

Maria's Bakery

So I did some tests yesterday for a new client. The wonderful thing about shooting food is that you can eat it. All the food had sat out for a while but the cannoli was just yummy! So was the sfogliatella. Maria's Bakery in Saddle Brook NJ is awesome. Anyway, I did something dumb. I had 2 of my Godox V1 flashes in the 48" octabank and one from behind for "sparkle". I turned off the camera but left all of the light on over night. I was delighted to see that after 12 hours on, the ones in the bank (on full) were only 1/3 down in battery and the sparkle light (on 1/64th power) was still on full charge. I know that I should expect the flashes to hang out when not being used but Profoto doesn't. These cheap little Godox V1's are just... Awesome!

Godox Testing, Testing 123

 

Well I didn't know if this would all work out but it has and better than I ever thought.

Since 1989 I have lit my commercial images with massive 2400w/s Speedotron strobes. I own 6 packs and numerous heads including 2 optical spot lights. I often had to shoot recipes with a 2-stop ND filter since I like to shoot wide open for limited focus. 

This year I bought a terrific Nikon D850 as well as 3 Godox V1 strobes and a Godox 48" octabox. I wondered if I could fully replace my Speedotrons with the Godox strobes for studio food shooting. I shot a number of food product jobs in my own studio with 2 Godox strobes in the Octabank and a straight stobe from the back for sparkle. I was very pleased with the f/16-22 I was getting @1/250th and ISO 100. 

2 days ago I packed my car. Just in case I brought one 2400w/s Speedotron and a box full of heads. I also brought a leather bag full of 3 Godox V1's, some Godox accessories and one Xpro trigger to control it all. 

The images above were shot with 3 Godox flashes. I was able to go between f/32 and f/16 @ 1/250th and everything was great. I go back to shoot more next week and all I'll bring are the Godox flashes. I'll just have to remember to charge the batteries but they lasted all day. I shot 75 images and they never complained.

Never Say Never

Before 2019, I had not shot photographic tests since the 1980's. That's because I have been very busy shooting for clients. I love being paid to shoot. I haven't seen a need to shoot tests in quite a while.

What changed? Well, maybe it was Martha Stewart, Instagram or maybe it's that I am older but I have been told that my images looked old fashioned. I asked around and was told that while I was busy making clients happy, people had begun to shoot food straight down. This makes little sense to me. Most people don't stand on a chair and look at their food. So that's why, after many years, I shot these tests. My website now has three images that were shot straight down. I like them but I don't really get them. Yikes! I AM old!

billtruran.com/recipes

Cheese Glorious Cheese

These images look simple enough but they actually took a full day and then some. It's not worth it to use a food stylist on these so I went to the grocery store to buy food. I came back and learned that my client had requested a dark background. My home kitchen just happens to have dark granite so I shot there (I have a very patient wife). That fact became moot after my client requested slate (as opposed to granite). So in the very end, I swapped out the granite for an image of slate that I already had. I set the shots up but actually shot all of the grapes, nuts and dried apricots separately. I stripped the cheese off the granite and added a shadow since slate doesn't make reflections. In the end we had three different versions of each of the two shots for a total of six images. My client was happy, the images were uploaded, the bill has been sent and approved. That's how a simple shot and take a full day to create. 

Halen Brands

It is such a blessing to be reconnected to one of Jason Cohen's businesses. Not only that, but I have reconnected with his art director Scott Foster. I have not worked with Scott since the old Kraft days. We spent a day shooting around 250 images of all kinds of products for packaging and another day stripping them out and retouching them to perfection. Finally I zipped the 5GB of images and put them up on my server. I am told that next week I may be shooting portraits of everybody at Halen Brands. I last did that for Geek Hive. 2018 seems to be looking better than 2017.

Daisy's Bakery

Food product shots make up some of my work lately. This one is for Daisy's Bakery who make yummy stuff. I had to shoot the cakes in and out of the packaging. Out was easy and I have a trick to shoot the cake under the plastic. What I do is use 2 hard lights, one left and one right. I have them plugged into two different strobe packs and shoot one image with the left light and a second with the right. Then I layer the 2 shots in Photoshop and change the blending mode of the top layer to either lighten or darken. One of those will make all of the super shiny reflections disappear! It's amazing!

iPhone

I really hate to admit it  but the saying is true: The camera you need is the one you have with you. 

I was dropping off an early edit of a video when my client Rick said that he would like a product image for the ending and all I had on me was my iPhone. I set up a rough studio with a turned around poster for a background, crouched down and shot. I will be honest and say that if I had lit these in my studio I would have filled the golden type a little better but after some Photoshop work, the iPhone image ended up finishing the video. The image above is from a 51MB tif. That's what I ended up with... and all from a phone.

B&G Foods

Well, Video just be crazy! I have been shooting and editing video since about 2011 but I have never shot 2 straight hours of a Power Point presentation. It all ended up being around a16GB file at 1080P. It told my client Rick that there was no way to make a 2 hour video email-able but I have gotten it down to less than 400MB @ 720P using the Handshake video app. It's pretty cool. I'm using both Premier Pro and Photoshop for the edit. 2 down and one to finish up. Video takes a lot longer to edit than stills...      

Bye bye Michael, I hardly knew ya.

Well, it has been confirmed. Michael Harris died as the result of a stroke one year ago. I've been searching for a definitive answer and now I have it. Before picking my son up from Laguardia airport, I stopped by his old apartment. The doorman didn't know Michael but a very nice woman told me that she would take my number and ask another doorman who had been there for years. She just called (thanks you so much) and now I know. My mentor, teacher who became my student has gone. Were I cannot say. Bye Michael. I hardly knew ye!