Minneapolis Food Photographer

The hamberger is in my opinion, is one of the most photographed classic foods. Ok the pizza is right up there too. Here are two samples of  what I have been working on.  The food stylist is Pete from petesfoodstyle.com. Peter was great with ideas and an easy guy to work with.  The first image is your magazine cover image. It focuses the viewer on the burger and the ingredients. The white back ground simplifies the image. And give the graphic artist more options for type and design.

This next image is more of a set, life style, story image.  there a story in the image.  you can imagine a bar or restuant sitting down having a beer and waiting for your food to arive. and then it does on a hot skillet  ready for you to dig in. TThis image is more for a restaurant, or bar menu. Maybe a ad.

I recently received a note from  Pat Sinclar the author of the  cook book Scandinavian Baking. I created the food images with pat last year.

Hello All- I wanted to let you know that Pelican is reprinting Scandinavian Classic Baking! Sales are going very well and the second addition will be available in early October. I recently met the owner of Skandisk, a local wholesaler to Scandinavian gift shops, museums etc and I’m very excited because he’s connected to the places where the book sells really well. Buyers I met were very enthusiastic about the book.

Thanks everyone. What a great team!! Pat

The book has rave reviews in some food related websites and the Minnepolis Star and Tribune.

I recently  had the oppertunity to work with food stylist Cindy O from Simply green design.  I have a policy that I will not hire a food stylist for a job, until I do some test images with them.  I need to evaluate there skill level and style of work.  I will  say working with Cindy was a joy.  Cindy contacted me for some testing. She was inspired by some fun glasswear she seen in a magazine. She ordered two of the glasses and found a Mojito recipe that would work well with the glasses.

We started the shoot by looking at the glasses and mixing the cocktail. We could then deturmand the colors we wanted to use in the rest of the final image.

I started with a wood surface. It  had some of the same colors as the drink. We changed the back ground to a metal surface and then added the ice and other ingredients. I then did another test shot.

The back ground  is better. I do like the addition of the blue/green  to the top of the photo. It mimics the color of the drink.

The final of the Blue Mojito Drink. I focused the viewers attention to the top of the drink to show some of the cocoanut shavings.

Theres been a change at my minnesota photo studio. A new expanded and remodeled kitchen was added. In June, 2011 Area nineteen the studio rental company  that operates out of my studio, had a studio rental for a week. The client needed a kitchen as a set for a video shoot. They did not want to build a set with a kitchen,  The client liked the lay out I had, so they asked if I could remodel mine. Of course I said yes.   Here are just a few of the changes we made.  I swopped  on counter tops to white. Added new doors new pulls. Built a custom moveable white island, and repainted the walls a pleasant green color. Before and after photos below.  I will admit i do like the white color for a nice clean look. For the camera, still or video the kitchen will look great.  but to keep clean… thats a whole other story.  Every coffee dropp, pan moved across the counter leaves a mark. I’m constantly wiping the counters down. How does it get so dirty?

A client sent me a link to a live food shoot in Seattle Washington. it was over 3 days Friday saturday and Sunday. I only was able to see satudays shoot.

it was interesting…. If any thing it reenforced that I’m on the right track with how I work with clients and my grasp of what it takes to produce a image.

I wish I could have heard Sunday’s discussion. I would like to hear the photographers opion on the images She created. I guess I could paned the 149.00 for the DVD of the three days.

NOT!

J

We are expanding, and not just my waistline.  Were adding some more counter space for the kitchen. Move the soda fountain dispenser and are adding more shelving in the prop storage area.  This last year of shooting has taught me  want is needed around here if i am going to attract more clients and make my prep kitchen more user friendly.   I am adding a center island,  adding about 6 more feet of counter space.  thats a lot more storage too.  I will add more sheet pans, skillets and other utensils a little later.  I hope to do a time laps of the changes.  I’ve added some new images at my other site, the food photography site  Minnesota food photographer.

I recently had one of my first clients ever return to me and work on a project together. They were looking for a simple image that connived all different departments  the grocery store offered.  In one image, on white, in a grocery bag. Not easy.  We tried a couple of different groupings and final settled on this one. It shows the bag with the company name on it. and the verity of products they offer.  This is what I would call old school photography. it was not heavily photoshopped.  A couple of spots on the banana and a cookie crumb on the tabel were removed and thats it.  The shoot goes so much better when the time is taken to hand pick each peace that will be in the shot. And have 2 or 3 extra of each item to choose from. I was in the store last week and saw the image use on all the price cards the store uses.  It was werd seeing all the same images every were.

Dear Joel:

A review of Scandinavian Classic Baking, including a few of my images, are  now  on the Bakery Boy Blog,  A website all about bakeries and baking.

Click here for a direct link to the Scandinavian Classic Baking article. Two separate posts, which also direct people to your book, share the recipes for Finnish Browned Butter Teaspoon Cookies and Scandinavian Apricot Almond Bars. Thanks to  Joe Rada for reviewing the book.

Joel

Last week we here in Minnesota, had a mid February thaw. The temp reached over 50 degrees for a couple of days. The snow was melting and I could finally see the black top of my parking lot. It was good. Which of course met I stared the spring clean. In doing so I found some paint on a back shelf. A nice bright yellow and a olive green. The colors and the weather inspired me so I proceed to repaint the hallway into the studio were my sample images hang. The color was a deep red. There was no way the yellow was going to cover the red, so a little hide died white I use for cove, took care of the red. The yellow is bright. I mean slap in the face bright. It’s great. As soon as you open the door to the studio it wake you up. The project samples jump off the wall.
The green I used in the entry/ reception area. I did pick up a lighter green for the window wells and the walls were the sun comes in the windows. This is an accent color. You don’t notice it during the day but at night. It brings out the demotions of the room. More to come i’m just in a
spring mood.
J

In my desire to create better images, changing the fabric in front of my garage door was this week project.  This fabric is used when I shoot using daylight. The semi translucent curtain is suspended on a roller in front of the garage door.  The sun light gets defused and is just wonderful to shoot with. Its a 12×14 foot wall of light. But it was a a DIY system and not very convenent if you needed to use the gragedoor.  I used stuff from around the studio to build it.  I was searching the web and came found a company in California called canvas grip. They make lots of Flags,Scrims, and silks for the movie industry.   I contacted them, and Ivan was great to talk to.   They make custom silks. So I talked to them about a new curtain.  I had a 15 x13.6 ft Poly silk curtain made.  It will move across the door just like a curtain.   I went to the local Ace Hardware, and bought the cabling and brackets that I needed. It went up well, but its been only around  20 degrees out so I have not opened the door to measure the amount a diffusion and the quality of the light. I think I’ll wait unill it gets warmer. I think I will also get a 12×12  for additional diffusion or a  great big bounce.

J