FOOD SHOTS

Am I the only one who’s sick to death of all those food shots you see that
are shot with shallow depth of field? With raking light coming in from behind?

I know, I know……there are only so many ways to shoot a plate of food or some
individual food stuff. But, come on! Use your imagination, food shooters.

If you’d like to see food foto possibilities check out some of Irving Penn’s food pix.
Food as sculpture. Food as shape. Food as a thing in and of itself.

Here’s an artichoke I shot……..

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STAND IN

Shot Beverly McLaughlin the other day. She’s the Chief Justice of The Supreme
Court of Canada. Can’t show you the actual shots until after they’re published but
can use this shoot as a way to tell you a bit about my process…..

I had an hour at the Supreme Court to scope the place, shoot test shots and figure
out what the hell I was going to do. Then Beverly showed up and I had 20 minutes
to do my thing.

(By the way…..my policy is to call the person I’m shooting by their first name, no
matter how powerful they are or what the actual polite protocol is. That’s my
not-too-subtle way of reminding the subject that, as far as I’m concerned, we’re
all equal when it comes to photo-shooting. If the photographer is afraid of the
subject, then the photographer gets crappy pix. That’s what I believe.)

Anyhoo……here’s Ben (the assistant) in the 4 spots I decided to use for the shoot.
I use him as a stand in to figure shit out and to tune the composition and lighting.
That way, when the person I’m shooting comes out, they don’t have to stand around
watching me look at the shots on the computer, scratching my head and muttering:
“Why do these shots suck so much?”.

GENNY or BATTERY?

I have 2 ways of powering my lights in the middle of nowhere. A Honda
generator and this Innovatronix battery I bought a few months ago.

The genny is great when you need a gazillion pops and tons of power and
real fast recycle speeds. But it’s a little bit noisy and a little bit stinky. Plus,
it weighs 30 pounds.

I got the battery from a firm in the Phillipines. It’s made specifically to power
professional flash units……got something called “pure sine waves” coming out
of it. Noisless and weighs hardly anything and you get a whole lot of flashes per
charge. Plus, the thing only costs $350 delivered to your door. I used the battery
for all of the crack addict shots I’ve been shooting at night. It’s one of the handiest
bits of gear I’ve ever bought.

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