Looking Good Enough to Eat

Last week, I finished my master classes at LSP with Food and Product.  Split into two distinct sections with separate instructors, we spent Monday and Tuesday photographing food (and getting very hungry in the process!).  We all took turns playing the different roles you would find on set during a food shoot, the client and creative director working together to come up with a vision, the photographer and his/her assistants working with a food stylist to execute that vision.  By far, the hardest task (in my opinion at least) is that of the food stylist.  Finding the best tomatoes, taking the perfect "bite" out of a cupcake, arranging edamame beans and placing chop sticks just so. Rather than bore you with the details (it can take hours to get one shot just right), I will just share the images we produced, bon appetit!

Our first task was to shoot an image for a magazine cover, you can see the negative space at the top for the masthead, I was the food stylist, picking the "best" tomatoes and arranging them just so.  Fun fact, blue tack is a food stylists best friend. 

This was a page for a cookbook, I was the client and decided on the square format and over all look.  And yes, we got to eat the cupcakes after the shot.  And yes, they were delicious. 

Our "double page spread" for a cooking magazine, I was the creative director (thankfully, not the food stylist!)

   

This was our  "blog post" and is designed to tell a story or walk the reader through the recipe.  I was the photographer on this one.  Photographing fish is fun (and I'm not just saying that because I like alliteration...).

While it is a bit painstaking, I really, really enjoyed my tiny dip into the pool of food photography.  I am lucky to have many talented cooks in my circle of friends and family and I look forward to many opportunities to keep practicing!

Sadly though, right after this class, this was the only food around me to practice photographing:

No, I didn't run out of funds, rather I seem to have fallen victim to a stomach virus (I swear I didn't eat the sushi after the photo was taken!) and am slowly (very slowly) becoming reacquainted with food.

Before I know it I will be packing my suitcases (already?) and saying farewell to my little Finborough Rd flat and saying Bonjour to an apartment in Paris, where I will spend September.  No shortage of food to photograph there!

Tasting London

For quite a long time, London's food scene got a bad rap, but times have certainly changed.  London -- not unlike D.C. -- is buzzing with fabulous restaurants popping up all over the city.  Today, I ventured to Regent's Park to sample offerings from 40 of the city's best restaurants, in addition to a number of specialty food producers, at the annual Taste of London. Not knowing exactly where to start, I started at the most logical of locations, the "world of beer" where I purchased a pint of ale and studied the program and map, plotting my course.  Of course, I changed my mind a million times once I was actually face to face with the food, settling on a delicious risotto, a trio of seafood sliders and a spicy ox cheek doughnut.  As you can see, I also used the day to practice some of the photography techniques and lessons I learned last week -- taking photos in manual mode takes some patience and some getting used to, but I am enjoying it!

Acquerello risotto with 8 year-aged organic parmesan from Babbo

A trio of seafood sliders from The Angler

Spicy ox cheek doughnut with apricot jam from the Duck and Waffle

Everything I tried was delicious, and I would have eaten more but I ran out of "Crowns" (the currency of Taste) at the same time I ran out of room in my stomach, though I also sampled a bite of black pudding as well as some delicious English cheeses that made their way back to my flat!

Tomorrow, I am planning to set my alarm clock for the wee hours of the morning in hopes of joining fellow tennis fans in The Queue at Wimbledon (wish me luck, apparently all of tomorrow's show court tickets have already been accounted for by fans camping out since early this morning!)