The Star of the Show

6/26/2021

It's always a good idea to keep in mind what you want the viewer to see in your shot, and how to lead them there. Notice how your eye goes straight to the cake here. No question of what the main subject is. This is no random accident. Some of the techniques I used to create this effect are easy to apply, once you know how. Here I considered:
1) Leading lines - created by the petals trailing towards the cake.
2) Light - sidelight here has been blocked in the foreground so the narrowed shaft of light falls on the cake, illuminating that glaze.
3) Aperture - a low f-stop and focusing directly on the cake ensures the background and foreground remain slightly blurred. This shot was taken at F 1.8.
Succesful photography is always a juggling game between aperture, shutter speed and ISO, to achieve the look you want. If you want to find out how to improve your food photography, please get in touch. I teach both 1-2-1 and online. And if you would like me to help you tell your food brand story, then please let me know, I'd be delighted to hear from you.

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A Wedding Breakfast
It was my pleasure to photograph a wedding breakfast created by Colline Watt, owner of Colline's Kitchen recently. With a bubbly and nurturing nature, it's no suprise to me that this mother from Zimbabwe wants to feed us all with delicious, fresh and sustainable food, along with a decadent cake or two, and how typical that, on the first date that weddings were permitted in the UK after lockdown, she got the call and I found her in a pretty garden with spectacular views piling food and flowers on to a table in a high wind, and creating an edible work of art.
Colline's successful cafe business, set in the historic Town Hall in the market town of Newbury has been put on hold since Lockdown in March, but she maintains a service, delivering food as diverse as Afternoon Tea and Mongolian beef stir fry, sourcing fresh ingredients locally. Find her at www.collineskitchen.com

BUNTING
When Jo, owner of The Bunting Basket asked me to photograph her bunting, I read her bio, and discovered how the business began, and how it came to be named The Bunting Basket. After making bunting for a family christening, Jo was innundated with requests for it from her friends and aqaintances, and she soon began to sell it at craft fairs, carrying her stock in a wicker basket. When I read this, I knew a picnic basket had to feature in my photographs. I looked at the fabric designs, and thought about the premise for the business and then began to prepare my shoot. Find her at www.thebuntingbasket.co.uk

The Star of the Show

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