Having grown up in Dallas and spent much of my adult life there, Black-Eyed Pea Restaurant runs deep in my veins, and stomach. So, when we got the call to shoot some menu items for the now Nashville based corporation I was very much looking forward to it and holding my breath for Chicken Fried Chicken and Squash Casserole for lunch.
On set I was recalling with a VP from their corporate office all the different Black-Eyed Pea’s I’ve eaten at. They are like little mile markers from various times in my life. In fact, my first advertising agency job in 1985 was in the same building as the then owner Prufrock. Maybe I should write my memoirs and let my various dinings at Black-Eyed Pea restaurants be the connecting thread. Or not.
Well, for now, let me at least share with you a few images from our food photography session. This was one of those occasions where we shot on location and our food stylist (the amazingly talented and pleasantly jovial Teresa Blackburn) worked with the corporate chef at there corporate restaurant.
Unbeknownst to me, Black-Eyed Pea has developed a fried pie of many flavors. They offer these various flavor temptations seasonally, and with ice cream … of which I’m always a fan. Well, enough of that, here’s a few photos for your salivary glands to consider.
So, there you have some fried pies and little something else to feast your eyes on. I’m sorry, too many puns today. I guess it’s time for me to take a break … a la mode, of course.
This week we were shooting for Charlotte Magazine again, which always makes for a fun day. Wait, come to think of it, is there such a thing as a day of food photography that isn’t fun. Ha! The images aren’t scheduled to publish for a couple of months so I can’t show you the results. Not yet at least. I’ll just tease you by saying one word … “chili!”
So, in the meantime, I can show you a couple of photos from our Charlotte Magazine food shoot that was a few months ago since it has since been published.
Banana Waffle.
Ham and Green Onion Scone.
As always, a huge credit goes to our food stylists. For these particular images, food styling acrobatics were provided by the talented and culinarily creative Whitney Kemp. You rock Whitney!
Look for more images from our food photography shoots with Charlotte Magazine in the future. Up next … beer. North Carolina beer, that is!
A few weeks ago we did a shoot for a regional Asian franchise. Without fail, when people see images after a shoot like this they ask me if I got to partake in what we shot. Unfortunately, nine times out of ten the answer is regrettably “nope.”
Actually, I should probably qualify why my answer is usually “no.”
In a situation like this, where we’re photographing drinks which are made to look cold, the drinks themselves might be room temperature at best plus they’ve been handled, squirted with various liquids “not for human consumption” and finger dabbed, poked and stirred. Even though we keep a clean set, I’m not one for drinking or eating something in which so many fingers have ventured.
Well, that’s enough of that. I don’t want to totally turn you off to what actually looks quenching.
Many thanks and credits go out to our great team Rory, Teresa, Whitney and Mollie. Great work all!
Recently I was in Breckenridge, Colorado and spent a few hours with Matt Fackler owner and chef at Relish Restaurant. He and his crew do a really nice job of utilizing local sources to build a menu with everything from fresh greens to buffalo.
It’s always nice being in and around the hustle and bustle of unique restaurant such as Relish. It’s also nice when they insist on feeding me. Gotta love it!
Earlier this month the studio was all about cupcakes from Gigi’s. The smell in the studio has been sa-weet!
After spending a couple of days processing the images, I’m quite pleased with the results. It’s so nice when a shoot goes well. Additionally, having great equipment, super nice client and reasonable schedule makes the food photography formula work, too.
I’ve been shooting with the PhaseOne P40+ digital back and it makes for such nice pixels. Almost 40 megapixels to be exact, almost. In case you don’t know, it’s a medium format camera setup. I’m using the PhaseOne back on a 555 ELD Hasselblad camera body. My lens of choice is usually a 120mm macro.
I thought it be fun to show you a couple details from one of the 31 cupcakes we shot.
This is the full image (scaled down for web resolution) of Gigi’s Chocolate Sundae Cupcake. Processed, color balanced and a little retouching.
This is just a cropped detail of the full image. Doesn’t this look yummy! It might look like ice cream but it’s frosting. Yummy frosting … so I hear.
This is a 1 to 1 detail to show exactly how clean the pixels are at capture.
Confession: While I didn’t eat any food ‘off’ the set (you know my rule), I did find the opportunity to taste a few of the cupcakes that didn’t make it to set. You gotta hate it when one falls over and wrecks it’s appearance and just has to be eaten. Such is the life of a food photographer.
I spent two days with Darlene and Gina for Gigi’s Cupcakes. We shot 31 different flavors. What a great team to work with. The cool thing about this food shoot compared to others is that the product was very nice to start with. The folks at Gigi’s did a great job designing these cupcakes. They are beautiful.
When it comes to styling what is a great looking food product to begin with there are certain challenges to arise. The camera sees everything. I mean everything. That’s the advantage (and sometimes disadvantage) of shooting with a 40 megapixel PhaseOne digital back. Shooting at super high resolution provides fantastic image quality and huge files but it also shows any slight oddity that might present itself in the food. One example were some teeny tiny sugar crystal garnishes that hitched a ride on an unsuspecting cupcake during transport.
So, the food styling wasn’t anything too terribly crazy on this shoot, just different than keeping a burger patty looking fresh or making sure pasta didn’t dry out. There’s nothing better than having a beautiful subject, and I can tell you, these cupcakes were outstanding creations … and very cooperative as well.
After we completed the photography I had a little fun dissecting a number of the cupcakes and … well, uh … we had a cupcake ping pong party here at the studio. Thanks to John, Michael, Elvis, Cory and Burk for coming by to share in the left overs from the shoot. The only thing missing was a nice tall cold glass of milk.
Since I was a kid I’ve enjoyed rummaging for interesting antiques, neat junk and found objects. In fact, I can remember being down on McKinney Avenue in Dallas in the 70’s with my mom as we went through old houses chock full of miscellaneous things from the past. Back then my fascination was with old felt hats and vintage wood snow skis. These days I sometimes find myself dumpster diving looking for worn boards filled with texture.
A couple weekends ago Amy and I headed out to the Tennessee State Fairgrounds to peruse objects of desire (textures, old kitchen utensils, boxes, etc) at the Flea Market to use in my food photography. Naturally I enjoy doing this with Amy. She’s got a great eye for “stuff” … her art direction background comes in handy when I need an unbiased opinion about how something might look in a photograph.
So, last Friday (because Friday’s are free parking) we made our way to see what vendors the warmer weather would attract and what their wares would be. I landed a cool old whisk, a few neat galvanized boxes and an industrial cart to use as a coffee table in the studio.
At this point, I think I’ll wait a few months before I go again … while parking is free on Friday’s, I have a difficult time restraining my buying urges for things that are visually stimulating.
-Kyle
P.S. The flea market has other random things like socks, shampoo, work gloves. I actually bought some work gloves and pony clamps this trip, too.
I suppose there are days on set with me that might feel a little like an episode of the Jetson’s – crazy contraptions, space-age technology … and me getting a little out of control (in a fun way).
I say all this because looking at this production shot from a recent food shoot looks a bit out of control. Looking at how I lit this vintage hand mixer makes me wonder “Really? Did I really use all these reflectors and flags to get this shot?”
It was worth it – I’m very happy with the final images. Everything cooperated … the mixer suspended precariously in mid-air, the lighting bouncing from every which angle and the hero chocolate holding on for dear life.
Nothing says springtime like the smell of flowers … er, uh … burning marshmallow Peeps.
I couldn’t resist when Harry Frankenfeld offered up the notion after my recent adventure in burning regular ol’ plain boring marshmallows. (See my March 8th post.)
Well, you see, what you don’t likely know is that Harry and I worked together for almost 10 years, and during that time there sat a small package of Peeps Brand marshmallow chicks on his desk, untouched and unchanged the entire time.
So, in honor of the abnormally long shelf life of the marshmallow Peep, I present to you my photo experiment … burning a marshmallow Peep.
There you have it. All my curiosity is satisfied … at least about what a burning Peep looks like.
