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.