I am proud to feature my latest food photo shoot. I am slowly becoming an excellent food photographer. The shoot if for a new restaurant in Farmington, Utah. It is the ParkStone Wood Kitchen.
To create these photographs we worked at their restaurant on a Saturday morning starting about 8am. We worked quickly to photograph 12+ menu items. We created about 500+ photographs and then whittled them down to the best of the best. I then retouched them making sure the plates look clean and the color is perfect.
Bacon Egg Cheeseburger
We did not use a stylist. We would work with the kitchen to create several versions of each plate and photograph each to make sure we had the best looking version of each menu item. I don’t really cook myself but I am wanting to work on some food styling. I think I will have to make that a personal project. A great food stylist is worth their weight in gold!
BBQ Chicken Salad
We would spend about 5-10 minutes per food item. We used the same lighting for each item. We did change the lighting when photographing the draft beers.
Citrus Pecan Salad with pecans, blue cheese, oranges, avocado, strawberries
The secret to food photography is to create great lighting that highlights the food and makes people hungry. I’ve had a few people say these photographs are just making them hungry so we succeed on that goal.
Combination Pizza their most favorite pizza
Every restaurant should have a few signature items that are unique to that venue. The fried deviled eggs are just an appetizer. I tried some and they were delicious. And we ended up making 3 plates of the fried deviled eggs. There was a small accident where one plate was smushed and a batch was lost. But since we had multiple plates we were able to swap the eggs for the “best of the best” eggs to represent the dish.
Deep fried Deviled Eggs
To photograph the tri-tip dinner we made to plates. The first was cooked well done and just didn’t look right. So we made the second plate rare and in my opinion it looks better and even tastier. I’ve been a fan of tri-tip since high school in central California. It is a classic dish in that area. Nummers.
Tri tip dinner served rare for the foot photo
This assignment was really fun. I look forward to future food photography. I’ll be working on some personal projects so I can practice some of my own food styling and even styling the table settings. There is a lot I can do on my own. Granted, I should find an amazing food stylist locally so when clients contact me I can immediately have a food stylist to recommend.
Santa Fe BBQ Chicken Sandwich
For the southern fried steak we tried 3 versions. The first one had the chicken smothered in gravy. That covered the chicken and it was difficult to recognize as chicken. The gravy was already starting to form a “skin” so the second plate we created was without gravy and then we photographed it with minimal gravy that I placed with a table spoon. That way you know the dish comes with gravy but you can still see the chicken. Pouring the gravy fresh made all the difference in the world. It was more shiny and fresh looking. This can be a key for food photography.
Southern Fried Chicken Dinner with gravy
Southwest soup and tri tip sandwich
Thai peanut coleslaw
Tri tip dip sandwich
