Ron’s Photo World

Tempura that stands on its own.

11-19-2012

I recently wrapped up a couple of editorial assignments that required lip-smacking images of food.

When I approach food photography, I lean towards large simple lighting, clean backgrounds and authentic food appearances. This last point is important to me. I don’t change the food once the chef has handed it off for two reasons: I want to show the food exactly the way it was prepared, and more importantly, I will probably eat some of it when I’m done photographing it. I certainly don’t want to dress up the food with any products that aren’t part of the original recipe. So no motor oil on the meats for me, thank you.

Since I usually get to “shoot my cake and eat it too,”  this makes me very happy.

The challenges with food photography include working carefully to light the food so it looks its best and working quickly before the appeal of the food wears off. Freshly cooked food can lose its luster quickly.

The first assignment was a photo essay of a newly-opened Sushi/Karaoke Restaurant in downtown Sacramento. Oishii Sushi Bar and Grill is a visual treat. Located on the second level at 10th & K Streets, the large bar area is lit with remote-controlled LED lights that pulsate in different colors. In addition to the bar and restaurant seating areas, Oishii offers a number of private karaoke party rooms; some rooms are small and some are very large with several large TV screens.

Oishii Sushi Bar and Grill features LED-lit rooms

Since I was working on location, I brought a couple of small speedlights, adjustable radio triggers, a 24″ square softbox, (more…)

My custom cargo trailer helps me use my bike for photo jobs.

05-15-2011

The month of May is officially designated as Bike Month. Several events throughout the city help raise awareness of bicycling for commuting, recreation and exercise. I am committed to find more ways to operate my photography business on two wheels. It’s not just the recent rise in gas prices that motivates me; it is much more than that. I’m interested in getting some good clean exercise. I’m interested in conducting my business in a way that attracts like-minded people…clients who appreciate the extra effort and commitment it takes to use a bike. And to expand my range, I can carry quite a bit of photo gear if I add two more wheels, as in using a bike cargo trailer.

I bought a used Burley bike trailer last summer at a yard sale for $20(!) and spent some time over the winter building my custom gear trailer. The wooden box is very light, and the design gives me flexibility for arranging the cargo space. A partial platform leaves space in the lower section for light stands, umbrellas and a tripod. The rest of my gear rides on the top of the platform and a latch on the lid keeps it all in place. The smaller format of the trailer makes a narrower track and the trailer is hardly a burden, even when loaded with equipment.

The lower section holds a tripod and several lightstands. The upper platform holds the camera and lighting gear.

This is the rear view of the trailer - the rear panel is an interchangeable placard.

For fun, I created an interchangeable placard that fits inside the back frame of the trailer. I can easily change the placard to display different messages, depending on my mood at the time.

When possible, I plan to use this rig to go to photo assignments. Naturally, distance, weather and personal safety will dictate the times I’ll use it. I have already used it a couple of times and I believe there are probably a lot more opportunities than would originally come to mind. There are some other errands that I can take care of on a bike as well, if I plan ahead well enough.

I’m trying to figure out how to incorporate carbon credits into this – perhaps someday I will be able to issue carbon credits to clients who hire me for photo jobs that work well with the bike/trailer rig. I don’t know what a “carbon credit” looks like, do you? Maybe I can just figure out how much gas I’m not using and print up a certificate documenting that and give it to the client for framing. You never know where this idea can lead.

So watch for me on the road. Honk gently and wave (with all your fingers) and I’ll wave back – and while we’re on the topic, please Share the Road.

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Hot out of the oven at Pizza Rock - 90 second cook time.

01-14-2011

In the last few days I’ve had the chance to take photos at a couple of restaurants in Sacramento. The basic rule of food photography? Eat first!

These photos were not the usual food-styled ad shots. These were taken of real food as it was moving from the kitchen to the tables of real customers. So there was not a lot of time to set up a bunch of lights, primp the food, use tweezers to rearrange the garnish, heat up one section with a small torch…etc.  It was run and gun food photography.

A trio of new nightlife establishments have opened in the downtown area in a section of town that has seen better days. These new venues are intended to bring the better days back to the area. One venue is a plush dance club, the other is a fancy bar with a massive overhead fish tank, and the third venue is Pizza Rock, open for lunch, dinner and late night. Pizza Rock has an imported wood burning oven that will bake a pizza in 90 seconds (photos above and below).

Master chef Tony Gemignani

Pizza Rock opened for business today and I was tasked with taking photos for a Sacramento Press article. When the doors opened at 11:30 for the lunch crowd, the restaurant filled quickly. As the food started rolling out, the aroma was intoxicating. I consider pizza one of my favorite foods – and this pizza looked amazing. That’s when I remembered I had not eaten a substantial meal before arriving to take photos. Bad idea. Well, as a professional I’m supposed to be able to work in spite of distractions, right? Um, yeah.  This was clearly going to be a battle. At one point the restaurant manager asked me if she could get me anything…something to eat, or a drink? I politely (and sadly) declined.

Pizza by the meter, on its way to some lucky customer's table.

So the challenge was to take some awesome food photos while everyone was scurrying around, serving customers, moving food out as fast as it was prepared, and stay out of the way of the serving staff at the same time. The pressure was on. And my stomach was grumbling quite loudly. With the exception of the portrait of Tony, all photos were taken with available light only, using a fairly wide aperture to let the shallow depth of field give me some focus control. I had to move in, shoot quickly and get out.  Since the photos were going to be used for editorial use, I wanted to keep some context in the food shots, so I included kitchen staff in the background. Story-telling, ya know.

I also took photos at the VIP party that happened a couple nights before. Same deal: get in, shoot, get out. The guests were not in any mood for someone fumbling around with a camera in their faces.

I snagged a quick shot of the man behind the new venues, standing in front of the new venues.

George Karpaty in front of his new venues.

One of my favorite images of the night was taken of the Pizza Rock kitchen staff, just before the party began.

Pizza Rock kitchen staff mug for a photo before the start of the VIP Party.

Speaking of favorites… I had a chance to take photos and write a restaurant review of Kupros Bistro. The food was great, the building is awesome, and the gelato is to die for. Pure and simple.

Vanilla and chocolate gelato at Kupros Bistro.

Since that assignment was a food review, the trick was to not eat before going. It was a dirty job, but someone had to do it.

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12-19-2009

This is a multi-media project I put together about Black Friday. It contains images, audio interviews and some royalty-free music.

(Click on image to view slideshow.)
 
As the convergence of technical tools (still, video and audio) advances, the convergence of finished products will expand as well. Photographers will be expected to produce packages like these on an everyday basis – these won’t be “special” products.  This will require new skillsets beyond just producing images: it will require the ability to shoot and arrange images that flow and tell a story, develop and ask the questions that the viewer will have as they watch, and produce a finished product in a short time-frame.

And figuring out how to estimate and charge for these products will be a new thing, too.

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05-11-2009

The Susan G Komen Race for the Cure draws over 20,000 participants each year. Held on the Saturday before Mother’s Day, the Race for the Cure raises money and awareness for breast cancer research.

Many local celebrities donate their time and energy to the Race.

More photos can be viewed in my Komen Race for the Cure web gallery.

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03-19-2009

Shooting glass is very tricky. And apparently shooting pouring liquor is even trickier.

This was taken using a technique called “bright field lighting”.

The basic setup is to place a white panel in the background and then place a black panel on each side of it. The black panels are out of view of the camera. I placed a strobe on the floor and pointed it at the white panel. The result, seen at right, is the glass is clear and the edges are darker from the reflection and refraction of the black panels.  (Check out the full lighting diagram below.)

Once the glass was properly lit, then the next challenge was to light just the label of the bottle so it would be visible. Up to this point, the only light is pointing at the background, so any objects facing the camera will be dark.

I placed a strobe at camera left and put a grid spot on it to restrict the light to just the area around the label on the neck of the bottle. I then placed another strobe with a shoot through umbrella at camera right to place a soft highlight on the bottle itself. 

That was the easy part. Once it all looked good, the biggest challenge became the actual pour. I wanted to freeze the motion of the liquid in the glass and I knew the brief flash duration would take care of that.

In order to align the bottle with the glass, I attached the bottle to the top of a flash bracket that had an angle swivel on it. This was all attached to a light stand to keep it in the same place and hold the bottle steady. I needed one free hand to fire the camera with a wired remote release.

As you can see, hitting the shot glass was a hit-or-miss proposition. After each attempt, I had to wipe up everything, clean the glass, dry it all and replace it for the next “shot”.

(In case you’re wondering, I used tea as a substitute for the rum. The real rum was in a glass on a nearby shelf – and it seems that glass had a small hole in it because when I repoured it into the bottle after the photoshoot, there was quite a bit less than when I started.)

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03-07-2009

I spent part of the day at the Homeward Bound Golden Retriever Rescue  sanctuary in Elverta today. Homeward Bound is a non-profit, all-volunteer operation run by Jody and Mike Jones. They rescue Golden Retriever dogs from all over the state, and have over 40 dogs in the sanctuary. In 2008, they rescued 810 dogs!

Homeward Bound is an amazing place. They have a large indoor kennel area to keep the dogs out of the elements, several outdoor yards, a large dog park, and a pond. They also have an infirmary for dogs that are recovering from surgery.

Each dog is given a complete checkup by a veterinarian. In the photo to the right, Jody holds Megan, a 3-year old while Dr. Justina Codde gives her a shot.

Volunteers of all ages help out at the sanctuary. Several high school students were there today, bathing and walking the dogs, helping them meet potential adopters and also taking care of clean-up duties around the facility.  Speaking of adoptions, I’ve adopted Homeward Bound as my newest pro-bono client and I look forward to getting to know the people and “goldens” that make Homeward Bound such a terrific organization.

Enjoy the photos below, and to see more, go here.

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10-19-2008

Technology gives us the ability to work anywhere, anytime. All we need now is the desire.

This image illustrates how we can work from any location. The light on Laura’s face comes from a small strobe placed on the keyboard of the laptop. The strobe is pointed at a piece of white printer paper that is taped to the screen (the laptop was turned off for this photo). The strobe was set to 1/8 power and the light bounces off the paper and casts a soft glow on her face.

The camera white balance was set to tungsten, to match the very warm ambient light in the coffee shop. I placed a CTO gel on the flash to match the tungsten WB setting. I set the ambient exposure to make the room darker, so that the dark contrasts with the glow on Laura’s face.

The camera was on a tripod to steady it during the 1/2 second exposure. I waited until the coffee shop employee was moving around behind the counter, knowing he would be blurred. Again, this blurring provides a little more contrast with the sharp detail of the laptop and Laura’s face.

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10-12-2008

It’s getting easier to get around town on a bike. With more cyclists hitting the road to beat the gas prices, auto drivers are getting used to bicycles maneuvering through traffic. This photo is meant to give the viewer the sense of relative movement between cars and bikes. Even in a bike lane, it’s a little un-nerving when a car whizzes past my shoulder with a speed difference of 25-30 MPH.

This photo was taken with a remote setup. My Canon Digital Rebel XT was mounted on a bracket attached to the rear axle of the bike. The camera was remotely triggered with a radio trigger in my right hand. The bracket was made from a shelf bracket I picked up at Home Depot. I drilled out the holes so I could attach one end of the bracket to the bike axle and the other end holds a ball-head for adjusting the camera. (You can click on the photos to see a larger image.)

I set the camera to manual exposure with a slow shutter speed (1/30 sec.) in order to gain some motion blur from the moving car and roadway.

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10-06-2008

This still life depicts a soft moody setting, with the viewfinder lit much more brightly than the rest of the scene. Naturally, your eye will go the brightest part of an image, so make sure that the brightest part of the image is the most important part.

This image was taken in a very dark room with a 20 second exposure; the lens was set on f/22. Using a technique called Light Painting, the entire scene was “painted” with a small LED flashlight. I kept moving it around the center of the scene to give a brighter center and darkened, vignetted edges. I also held the light on the glass viewfinder for a couple of seconds to make sure it glowed brightly.

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