Death by food
My property shoots are legendary (in my mind anyway), but I also receive commissions to shoot stuff due to my long history of shooting fashion products. Lighting products is a gigantic subject that I’ve studied and practiced over the years, and I’m pretty adept, but nowhere near the level of the masters of the genre – guys like Jonathan Beer, who I’ve spent some seminar time with, shooting shiny stuff like toasters. Genius, absolutely genius. Anyway, I’ve shot a fair bit of food for various clients, and this was a particularly challenging one, as it consisted of lots of carb-rich dishes that would finish off my Type 2-Diabetic old bones in a matter of minutes.
The Running Fox is an extremely successful cafe in the village of Felton. It has a reputation for excellent produce, a warm welcome, and huge portions. It has become a victim of its own success – being one of the few cafes which you need to book ahead in order to get a table. The owner Kris Blackburn is the force behind the business – she works tirelessly, and has steered the ship in a definite direction. This is now a destination in itself, and attracts customers from all over the north.
She wanted a complete rebranding of The Running Fox – and contacted my talented friend Wayne Hilton at Hilton Media to help her revitalise the business with new products, new concepts, and a new public image which represented the aspirations of the business. My part of all this was to provide a body of imagery, including the menu items, new branded products, staff shots, and subsequently, some PR shots for the local press.
The shoot had to be accomplished after the customers had gone. I generally like to shoot food using natural light in front of a window, but it was pitch black by the time the punters had vacated, so I set up a set using a chest, and a fake window – A 500J Bowens flash with a 4ft soft box angled downwards, propped inches from the food. This provides lovely soft light that wraps around the subject. A silver foil reflector was propped up on the other side of the set to fill in the shadows. Once the set was up, and the test shots had been done, the process of shooting was pretty straightforward and speedy. Good job, as there were table upon table of dishes lined up to capture. I organised things into categories, depending on the shelf-life of the food on the dishes. The stuff like frothy coffee drinks, hot chocolate etc needed doing first, followed by desserts, salads, buffet-style items, hot dishes, then merchandising and branded stuff/breads/products.
Some of the dishes were very simple to shoot, and some had a need for embellishment – a few coffee beans/sprinkles of oats/sugar cubes/cutlery etc. You need to think fast, and act fast, while retaining a technical and aesthetic handle on everything. One thing I could have done with is a 45mm or 85mm PC-E lens to control the angle at which I was shooting. The whole menu was done in about 2 hours, with some dishes needing to be prepared again due to salad wilting etc. It was torture seeing tens of thousands of calories come and go, while my tummy rumbled with hunger. Delicious breakfasts, brunches, lunches, dinners, puddings, and suppers were all paraded in front of me.
Some of the dishes needed some extra-special treatment. Namely, the tray bake and afternoon teas. These were part of a special setup which saw the technique of light painting being used. The shot below is a composite of about ten frames – with flash highlights being popped onto the table, food, and the background. A technique used daily in my property photography, and not a bad result.
The branded products were shot last. It was well into the night when I had the opportunity to put my skills in clothes styling and shooting to good use. The staff uniforms, and branded sweatshirts looked very striking against the wooden floorboards. Shot with the same light minus the soft box diffusion panels – at a distance of about 10ft to ensure even illumination across the width of the frame (Look up the inverse square law on Google).
I was entirely cream-crackered by the end of the shoot. I’d not eaten since lunchtime, and the presence of uneaten food was a nightmare. I processed the images the following morning, got the finished shots off, and the cafe closed for a day to effect the visual part of the rebrand. The website is up and running, and the success of The Running Fox continues unabated. Now, let me go and have an almond flour scone.
