As a follow up to the top ten shots of my personal work from 2015, i’ve decided to do the same for my work done here in the studio.
This was a really great year. I took the summer off for the birth of our daughter. We shot 4 cookbooks which will all be coming out in 2016. I produced a book of my personal travel landscape work. Did some shooting in Kauai and a big road trip from Vancouver to Whitehorse.
I worked on more motion projects this year. It’s been interesting to see things are heading in the industry. In responding to my clients changing needs it’s become apparent that the future of my commercial work will be a seamless integration of photography and motion. This is very exciting for me.
So here are my top ten studio shots from 2015 with a brief description of why I chose them.
1. Death by Chocolate
This is my favourite shot from the Death by Chocolate series. The dark copper tones and the way the focus falls off the chocolate drip is why this is my top pick from 2015. This was shot with probably my all time favourite lens for the Canon - my 24-70 f2.8 lens - such a versatile lens.
2. Crab for Lick Your Plate
This was shot as a companion to a crab cake recipe for the Lick Your Plate book that is coming out in early 2016. I'm very excited about a lot of the shots from this cookbook. We took things in a completely new direction in terms of lighting and compostion. Hard punchy light with strong defined shadows and lots of negative space for the food. Love this look!
3. Grilled Pork Belly Burger - Hawaiian Style
This is from the Kauai story I shot. One of the things that really sticks with you about Kauai is the vibrant colours. I wanted to bring this into these shots, so I taped some coloured gels to my lens. If you look closely you can see the pink and aqua tones creeping into the top left and bottom right of the frame. I love the colour gradations and softness that creep into the frame.
4. Summer Grilling for House & Home
Shot for a summer grilling story for House and Home Magazine. I love the props in this shots, especially the contrast of the shrimp against the dark platter.
5. Camels
Camels - Taking a closer look at a bad habit. I love the light and texture in this shot. For a shot of this nature, lighting is everything. I always enjoy pushing light as far as I can to draw out a particular mood or tone.
6. Fall Apples for Best Health
For this shot, our goal was to create a rich and moody setting for an Autumn story we were shooting for Best Health Magazine. I love the shadowy directional light in this shot. The red tones in the apple just pop off shadows. I shot this with the 90mm tilt shift lens - looking closely, you can see the focus fall off at the top of the frame. It's subtle but it helps to create depth and dimension, especially when shooting from overhead.
7. Cocktails for Elle Magazine
This was shot for a cocktails story for Elle Magazine. Full focus, hard light, defined shadows and punchy colours.
8. Cupcakes for Lick Your Plate
As you can see I'm very excited about the photos for the Lick Your Plate cookbook - 2 of the shots made my top ten. I really enjoy the pastel tones and graphic nature of this shot.
9. Eggs at the crack of dawn
The goal here was to create rustic, farm-fresh eggs in morning light. This was an exercise in lighting and I think we pulled it off nicely. I love the early morning feel of this shot.
10. Spicy Kauai Shrimp
Another one from the Kauai food story. It's a simple shot, but I love the texture and tones in this shot. You can barely make out the gels in front of the lens, but they do add another layer of depth to the overall shot.
Honourable Mentions
I love shooting doughnuts and this is one of my favourites. This was shot with the 85mm 1.2 lens. It's a bit of an unconventional lens for shooting food because of it's horrible minimum focus distance. One way around that is to use an extension tube to shorten the minimum focus distance.
Better together - love the concept here. Bacon & eggs - fries & ketchup - cherry pie & ice cream. This is another simple shot in terms of composition and propping, but the vibrancy of colour in the food makes it work for me.
Sometimes it's best to just get right in there and fill the frame with the food. This chocolate almond brittle benefits greatly from this.