Won a Gourmand Award for Best in the U.S!
Won a Gourmand Award for Best in the U.S!
February 21, 2019
I am primarily a portrait photographer but sometimes, I like to venture out and try other kinds of photography. One of those occasions was when I had the opportunity to photograph a cookbook, which sounded like a fun project. I thought it would be a challenge too, as all the shots needed for the book would need to be done in 4 days. Projects like this, keep me on my toes and let me explore my creativity.
For two days, we shot at the restaurant the chef worked at, one day at his mother’s house, and one day on the beach. The book got published in the fall last year and this year, was awarded the Gourmand Award for Best in the U.S. for the barbecue category! I couldn’t have done it without such an awesome team. The author of the book is James Fraoli and the chef whose amazing culinary delicacies that I got to photograph and got to try as well, is Chef Derek Bugge. Many thanks to Skyhorse Publishing as well, for the beautifully designed layouts!
Having dabbled in food photography, I’ve learned that you want to make the food look as delicious as possible. Like with portraiture, the type of lens used, as well as the choice in aperture and shutter speed, the kind of lighting that is being set up, the angles shot from, the distance of subject from lens, and the timing, all matter. I think I treat food like it has personality and character just like a person. One thing with food, is that timing is extremely critical as most food don’t look too good--not to mention don’t taste too good-- after laying around for a certain amount of time. So the longer the food sits, the more chances you’ll end up with images that are not-so-tasty-looking. Ice cream is a good example. Ice cream melts pretty fast, even if it’s relatively cool in the environment the ice cream is being placed in. When you don’t have a food stylist on set, it’s always a race with time in getting the shots for certain foods.