Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Food, Food, Food


Two more images that need food styling as well as lighting. See them soon at your local Costco....

Thursday, August 6, 2015

Rush Job

When a good client asks if you can do a rush job, the answer is always: yes. 
This is my beloved cheese client with a shot for Costco. The recipe includes white Albacore tuna, Asiago cheese, spinach and onions. The bread was fried with butter and grated Parmesan cheese. 
I shot the job a few different ways, and worked about half a day and uploaded the image and sent the bill.  No time to book a food stylist so of course I had to shop and style the sandwich. Then it was just light, shoot and clean up with Photoshop.
Yum yum.

Monday, May 18, 2015

Is video the future of food photography?


 

It's all about the light, 'bout the light, 'bout the light.
Still or video, beautiful food photography requires beautiful control of light and focus. However, I think everyone would enjoy seeing the behind the scene videos from a food shoot. Here is Marie Haycox hard at work. Enjoy!

Thursday, May 14, 2015

Still Stylin'

More for the same money... That seems to be the mantra these days. Once again I have been the grocery shopper, food stylist (I baked the burger and faked the grill marks with a hot skewer), and photographer. 
The product is cheese, and I think it stands up pretty well. The burger looks yummy and the whole grilling experience seems to be there.
You can't have shot with food stylists for so many years without having learned something. My apologies go out to my food stylists. Let's hope things turn around soon.

Monday, April 27, 2015

Photographer as Food Stylist

More and more these days it seems that clients expect food photographers to act as food stylists. I'm not talking about the really difficult jobs like ice cream or packaging shots but smaller clients will hand you a job and expect it to just get done. The image above was one such job. I was duplicating something that someone else had shot with new product. My first job was to go grocery shopping. I needed to hit 2 or three stores before I found similar breads to the original image. The only thing I could not find was the third from the left. The original was some kind of cheese bread. I thought that baked shredded parmesan would look better so I made some. The rest of the job was made up of selecting, slicing and daubing until things looked good. Of course, the final work to be done was all in Photoshop. My client asked me to bend the herb around the salami: Photoshop. She asked for less fat and more meat: Photoshop. Thicker almond slices: Photoshop and corrected angles for the pecans: Well, you get the idea.
In the end this job required a food stylist, photographer and retoucher. All me. I did get paid well though. And it was all just fun!

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Belmont Foods


Belmont Foods is rapidly becoming my favorite clients. Not only have they been sending me jobs to shoot but all of the food they send to photograph is absolutely yummy!
The hardest part is making sure that I have enough product to shoot before I eat it all.
I just kind-of fell into food photography 25 years ago but it's got to be the most fun of any photography out there...

Friday, March 6, 2015

It's nice to be a food photographer

One nice thing about shooting food is that you get to eat products that are absolutely yummy. These new products are called Sweetzells. They contain chocolate, caramel and salty pretzels. They must make giant pans of this combination and then cut them into yummy rectangles. My biggest problem was not eating them all up until I had final clearance from the client. It won't be long now... 







Wednesday, February 11, 2015

New Client


It's as nice as you can imagine when a new client comes to you because they love the way you light food. These images are for a company called Buenos Angie. They will go on the boxes of cookies and show how good they really are. Angela was a 2014 Martha Stewart finalist. She makes traditional Argentine cookies. One is shortbread with Dulce de Leche centers and coconut, the other is with chocolate cookies enrobed in yummy chocolate. Ummmmmm. By the way, Angie is a great client who makes great cookies.

Saturday, January 3, 2015

Bye Michael Harris

I guess I'm getting old...
All of the photographers I used to assist have now passed on. The last to go (I assume) was my great friend Michael Harris. I can't find him anywhere. We were friends long after I was his assistant.
Gary Gross died in 2010, Jimmy Moore died in 2009, Joe Toto 1998, Tony Petrucelli in 2010 (I still have one of the Gitzo's I bought from him). I guess Bill King was the first to go back in 1987.
Well, Michael, I miss you. God speed where ever you find yourself. 
Bye