May 29, 2014

Behind the scenes

Over the past few months, I've had the pleasure of working with Food Network and Cooking Channel to shoot recipes for their online archives. I know I always enjoy behind the scenes posts from other photographers and stylists, so I gathered some (albeit shitty) iPhone snaps from some of the shoots in hopes it will be fun for you to see what goes on during these.

I've met a number of great food stylists through these shoots - you can see some glimpses of them below. I seriously admire them, because it is no easy task planning out and making 50 recipes in one week and keeping calm through any kitchen malfunctions (in fact, it sounds kind of like my worst nightmare). They also have the daunting responsibility of setting the pace for each day and making sure the shoot is on schedule. We can only go as fast as the food is able to be ready.



This first set was taken at Some Studio, which is a small cozy studio but has pretty nice natural light. In retrospect I should have used the studio stand, because at one point, we precariously put my tripod's legs on apple boxes to get more height!




And these were taken at Highlight Studio, a newer studio that's also quite spacious. I switched to strobes for shoots in this space, as I found the natural light a bit tricky to achieve consistent results with, especially on those cloudy days. I almost always shoot with my Canon 100mm macro for these shots, except for wider overheads, where I switch to my 24-70mm version II.

Huge thanks to all the wonderful stylists (Mariana Velasquez, Cyd McDowell, Micah Morton, Kira Corbin, and Courtney de Wet) and my digital tech/assistant (Josh Dickinson) for making these shoots so smooth and fun. And of course to the Food Network and Cooking Channel online editors who are super chill and feed us well.



8 comments :

  1. Great post. Its always great to see how you take your pictures. I enjoy the images so its good to be able to see how you achieve that.

    SHLOMI | A SANCTUARY OVERLOOKING LEBANESE MOUNTAINS

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  2. Alice! I love this behind the scenes. It is so fascinating to see what it takes for a picture to come out looking perfect. :)

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  3. Post more behind the scenes things, please! We like it! You do some awesome work :)

    <3 Daryl
    Unlost
    New Post: What Does Success Mean To You?

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  4. I'll echo what everyone has said. I love these behind the scenes outtakes because it's so interesting to take a glimpse to see what happens behind the shoots. I can't believe the amount of work that goes into food photos. I'm in awe of food bloggers who prepare and photograph their creations. How do they do it??!!

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  5. cool behind the scenes photos!

    Janine Maral from http://www.janinemaral.com/

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