Crab Cakes

Even though I should really have the crab dressing picture before the crab cakes I feel like this picture wasn’t strong enough to be on the right hand side. I do like it though and I think for what I was doing it works well. If I shot this in the studio with lights and flash it would have been much different but I wanted to sell the idea it was local and real. Also by helping out Sally and my portfolio at the same time! 

Here fishy fishy

For this shoot I went to Martineau Guest House in Tynemouth. The photos were for Sally (Owner) and Jane (Journalist at The Journal). The idea of this shoot was to get pictures so they could use them to advertise eating fresh local catch from Tynemouth and Sally would sell cookery lessons on how to cook fish & dress a crab correctly. The whole day was a mad rush but apart from that it was great and more work experience and published work. I didn’t have much time with the fish nor much room and I couldn’t style it as well as I wanted as everyone was watching and were wanting to eat it very soon after so I felt bad for playing with it! Next time I need to not be as shy and just go for it. For my portfolio this is going to be a double page spread.

Pasta please

I took these pasta photo’s at Marco Polo, they were very tasty! I used natural daylight again and tried my best to focus on certain parts of the dish to give texture. I used a reflector to bounce light also. I like how I have shot at an angle too and added a fork for the tomato pasta as I personally think it gives off the lifestyle appeal. Also cause I wanted my work to be about raw ingredients then interaction whether it be cooking/baking the product or eating it then the product – narrative idea. For my portfolio I wanted to mix it up again and add space between the images so at least you realize there’s a change in format.

Wine or Pasta Machine? WINE!

So ideally this page was meant to be for the famous pasta machine but after hours of stewing over the shoot and the images I chose not to include the images in my portfolio, as it just didn’t work. So instead I went with my white wine shot, I had a few of these and wanted to experiment more which I intend to and maybe use different gels in the background. I like the simpleness of this and I think it shakes up my portfolio a bit as it’s not a location shot but a studio shot. On my portfolio shot I had taken the drip out as I thought it looked messy – I haven’t on this image as I forgot to save it as a Jpeg/Tiff. 

The Table

I loved the lens so much I went around the restaurant shooting as much as I could while I had the light. I loved how well laid the tables were and how everything was so accurate. I took advantage of downstairs as no one was eating there to take some pictures of empty tables. Ideally this should have been taken before the Starter and before the Starter in my portfolio but it’s more of a lifestyle shot I think and I don’t think it would be strong enough as a front page. 

The Starter

I can’t remember what the dish was called but I shot this at Marco Polo, I sat by the window and used a macro 50mm lens, which made only certain parts of the dish in focus. I like the location of where we were sitting too. I moved all the cutlery and wine glasses off the table as I found them distracting in the shot and the table wasn’t very big. I like how I have the booth in the background to give off a restaurant feel to the picture. I used a reflector to lighten up the dish and reflections on the table. I’m quite happy with this and I think it’s a good image to start on, hopefully it’s strong enough.

Portfolio Evaluation

Firstly I’d like to mention that this portfolio project was a lot more than just staging 10-15 images. I have gone out to get work experience during some of the shoots where I have been able to photograph some interesting dishes, this has helped with my confidence, contact building, portfolio and work based learning. There are a few things I’d maybe change but so far I’ve quite enjoyed food photography and intend to work more on this project even after the final grading as each picture has either a business or a funny tale behind it.