I love photography, and food! As a professional photographer, I have a sweet spot for still life or tabletop photography. However when I became a mom, and then had two more kids, my studio lights (that I loved) and I parted ways and I was left with three kids and a passion that was dwindling. For Seven Years I didn’t do a single still life or tabletop shot (my made up name for food photography.) So these are my aha moments while taking this amazing three day course/ workshop over at CreativeLive it has over 16 hours of instruction time.
Me mourning my studio lights was a great excuse to not do photography. Guess what YOU DON’T NEED STUDIO LIGHTS FOR GOOD FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY! What? That’s crazy talk, so I thought I would experiment with his window light set up, and guess what? IT’S TRUE! So no more excuses for me! (bummer for my blocked artist, but great for my developing artist)
The blogging aspect of this class was exceptional, it took the words right out of my mouth, I will be referring back to the blogging part of this class often (over an hour of great instruction time.) He critiqued a friend’s food blog Shauna Ahern over at Gluten Free Girl. I have always said that if you have a Good composition and good lighting to a photograph it doesn’t matter how you got the shot. She proved it as Andrew and Shauna went through some of her photographs and told us how she got it, and her evolution of her photography. FOOD BLOGGING IS ALL ABOUT THE STORY BEHIND THE FOOD. Andrew also has a blog that he maintains and talked about what kind of things he posts on his blog, which I thought was very helpful to a blogger!
IT’S ALL ABOUT THE LIGHTING Did I mention that? Andrew gives great examples of bad lighting and how he made it work, and got the perfect shot, along with his experience in the world of Photography and food. After the lighting you can focus on composition. There is a right way and a wrong way to photograph something. Get it right and it will save you lots of time!
There is more to a food photographer than just the picture, You get to be a food stylist, sometimes the curator of the photo shoot, the Art Director, and even the Chef at times. This aha moment for me was, Oh yeah, I remember being a Wedding Photographer, and running the wedding like I knew what I was doing. How is food photography any different when you get to call the shots?
Not sure you want a business in food photography, that’s fine, He has given great business advice to any photographer. His business advice is sound and well worth following.
My favorite part of the class was his ability to tell it like it is when he was explaining his work and how he got that shot. He does talk in depth about how the shutter and aperture works, along with color, and white balance.
One of the most captivating content to this class was propping, yes, what props go well with each other, tricks and tips to use what you have, for example turn over a cutting board for a table top look, or use a salad plate for a regular plate so it looks pleasing to the eye. He also talked about what works well with each other, and what doesn’t.
Here are some of the examples of pictures I had taken over a week of cooking. I swear we eat other things than just sweets at my house....
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| Apple Sauce cinnamon Muffins |
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Birthday Pancakes
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| Jelly filled buttercream frosting cupcake |
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chocolate white chip cookies on a baking sheet
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chocolate white chip cookies
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| Mini vanilla bean cupcakes |
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| Monster Cookie Dough Dip with Graham Crackers |
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| spaghetti with meatballs |
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| Vanilla Bean jelly filled butter creme frosting cupcake if you look closely in the frosting you can see the vanilla beans! |
If you love food and photography this is a class that is worth your time and money!
