Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Chicken Salad

A couple of days ago you got to see the ingredients. Now we have the results! Food is a tricky thing to photograph. Especially something like chicken salad. It has the very real potential to come out looking like... well, something you really do not want to eat. In examining my favorite cookbooks, I have found that lighting and garnish both play a major role in making formless things interesting and appetizing.

In the not too distant future I will be starting a new project, a cookbook, with a friend who owns a great restaurant downtown. I have to practice because his food is so good I really want to do it justice!

Tuesday, June 20, 2006
...with chocolate syrup!

This is another shot from Saturday, for those of you who like a little chocolate syrup!

Apparently there is some debate about the spelling of the word "Caramel." My wife found a few arguments online for Carmel (Just in writing this I spelled it both ways, that is why the question came up.) But, Carmel does not seem to hold up in the dictionaries. And there was one particularly snotty person somewhere telling about his wife the English PHD who had never heard of a word "Carmel." Perhaps it's not English, but they should look into the names of a few cities and mountain ranges. And my favorite, north of here near the city of Carmel there is a river called the Carmel river. If that doesn't sound like a place right out if Willy-Wonka's factory you need to work on your imagination!

I can only think of what my favorite TV Chef would say... No matter how you spell it, its "Good Eats!"

Saturday, June 17, 2006
Caramel Bowl

Today I tried to get away from my computer a bit. I love cooking and I have been finding some fun opportunities in food photography. Pity, now I need to practice! After cooking and shooting several things my wife was making something else in the kitchen that resulted in some leftover syrup in the pan. I love caramel and she suggested making some. This ended up being the most fun dish we made and it was totally spontaneous.

Friday, March 10, 2006
Lunchtime Photo Shoot

This was actually taken before yesterday's photo of the day. (yeah, I'm a little out of order :) Before I go out on a job I like to experiment a little with different compositions and lighting. This was an especially important thing this time since I was not using my trusty AE-1. I would not trade my AE-1 for anything, but professional food photography is definitely in the realm of the medium format camera with an interchangeable Polaroid back, or a good digital camera. Without the immediate feedback it is just too hit or miss to capture the wide range of colors and textures.

Incidentally, I have some very kind friends who attended our wedding to thank for this shot. The extremely cool plate is part of a wedding gift.