Cupcakes Gallore

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.

- Kyle

Food Styling – Visual Fodder

I’m so drawn to the kitchen whether it be at home helping my wife get dinner ready for the boys or when I’m on set and my food stylist is prepping for the next shot.

What draws me to the kitchen? I think it’s a little like a mad scientist being drawn to his own laboratory. There’s a thing happening with all the senses … visual, smell, touch … and there’s also an element of “ooo, what are we going to build today?” Enter mad scientist laugh … “muu-ha-ha.”

For fun, I grabbed my DSLR and snapped a few photos of some interesting color and shape as it was happening in preparation for the real shot on set involving kitchen products/utensils. This is what I was seeing as it happened in the kitchen.

It’s fun to just capture what is happening naturally compared to spending one to two hours on a single dish. (Honestly, I enjoy the tedium of highly controlled shots as well as the spontaneity of these “as they happen” shots.)

So, here are a couple fast un-styled food related shots from our studio kitchen.

There you have it. Now you see what I saw.

- Kyle

Nashville Arts ~ Valentine Food

The February issue of Nashville Arts Magazine just hit the stands this week. The creative team lead by Paul Polucarpou and Katie Sulkowski make for a fun group to work with.

This particular feature was driven by poetry from Alimentum: The Literature of Food and written by Paulette Licitra.

On the photography side of things our A-team lineup in the studio was fabulous food stylist Teresa Blackburn, innovative recipe developer Nancy Vienneau, and trusted first-assistant Rory White.

There’s probably a lot that could be said for chocolate truffles, berry cobbler, lemon cake, kiwi tart, chocolate banana parfait and tiramisu, but I’d prefer to let the images do the talking.

Berry Cobbler

Tiramisu

Tiramisu (outtake)

Chocolate Banana Parfait (outtake)

Chocolate Truffls

Chocolate Banana Parfait (outtake)

Lemon Cake with Lemon Liquor

Kiwi Tart

This was a fun assignment. Thanks to everyone involved.

- Kyle
“Yum … that was good!”

Shooting Product

I continue to push myself in my photography. I’ve found that I prefer to look at things from different perspectives – philosophically and literally.

With photography it’s so often a combination of “thinking” and “looking” simultaneously. I know, this sounds a bit deep for “just taking product photos” but I prefer to be a little deep … otherwise my work would be boring and I would then lose interest.

So, all that being said (and thought), here are a could of product shots I did yesterday. I’m pleased with the forced perspective (thanks to me TS-E lens) and with the split tonal effects (b&w plus a little tint).

Rowenta Iron - Product Photograph

Rowenta product photograph

I am certainly enjoying what I do.

– Kyle

Day Fourteen – Photo a Day

I have this strange love affair with old and new technology. Here that contradiction plays out with old wood type and a new iPod Nano.

Tomorrow … another day … another photo.

- Kyle Dreier

Day Five – Photo a Day

Just so you know, you may notice two posts/photos in a single day. I’m allowing myself a little grace as the intent of this self imposed assignment is to shoot. Shoot more than normal. Shoot to be pushed. So, the net will be one photo per day, but you may see me shooting to get ahead or catch up.

I love the irony of this tag.

-Kyle Dreier