Play with your Food!

I wrote before about finding your niche and taking advantage of opportunities that come your way, never writing anything off as “not for me.”  Versatility is SO important as a photographer, because when it comes right down to it, you may not be raking in the dough if you focus on just one type of subject.  Trying out different genres and getting comfortable with a variety of subject matter will make you much more marketable.  For example, weddings are a blast to shoot but in Chicago, wedding season does not last all year.  The months of May through November are relatively busy, but the winter months can be quite slow.  As a wedding photographer I need to fill in the slow periods with other work, and I have found success with lifestyle family photography and even some commercial product shoots.

One genre I never thought I would try out is food photography, because you have to be (or hire) a food stylist to really make the best possible food photos.  You know, the ones that make you want to pull the food right out of the billboard or magazine because they look so real and tasty?  I had classes with a super talented woman named Peka, and her Mowie Kay-esque work inspired me to play with my food!  I picked out some recipes, hit up Trader Joe’s, stopped by World Market for cheap dishes and surfaces, and got to work.

What I found about shooting food was surprising.  Of course shooting food can help a photographer become accustomed to shooting commercial work in general, but the lessons I learned could so easily be applied to many other genres.  Interested in shooting landscapes?  The elements of a meal can be looked at as a miniature landscape, and you can play with light to see how it casts shadows in crevices and highlights different colors and textures (Carl Warner takes this to another level with his foodscapes).  Practice with aerial views and you will get used to seeing how a scene changes based on perspective.  

Do you see yourself shooting weddings and events?  You will definitely need to be able to make food look good, whether it’s served in a church basement or a lavish ballroom.  You can work on expressing different moods with your lights and backdrops and take all the time you need instead of feeling rushed because of a model's schedule.  Getting used to styling a food- or drink-centric scene now will prepare you for when the pressure is on.

Food photography is such an easy way to master your equipment when you aren’t able to work with a human subject, or when the weather ruins your outdoor shooting plans.  Who knows, you may end up shooting the next cookbook of your favorite chef!

Need inspiration?  Check out the G+ Food Photography community to see how others are composing and styling their food images, and to share your own work.  There are photographers of many skill levels there so don't be afraid to join in the fun!  I'd love to know how you practice your skills when you are stuck inside or don't want to work on portraits.  Tell me in the comments below!

Works Cited:

Kay, Mowie. "Mowie Kay: Food & Lifestyle Photographer." Mowie Kay: Food Photographer London. Mowie Kay, 2014. Web. 28 Jan. 2014.

Warner, Carl. "Foodscapes." Carl Warner. Carl Warner, 2014. Web. 31 Jan. 2014.

Go out and Shoot!

leafar

Stop making excuses, just go do it.  One of the requirements of every photo class I have taken to date is that students must take NEW photographs unless specifically allowed to use old work on a particular assignment.  Aside from being a giant inconvenience to you the student, there is a very good reason for it.  It is designed to make you a better photographer.  All the online classes and textbooks can't make up for practice and repetition.  That's what will make you a better photographer in the long run.


I know, you're thinking to yourself, I would never do that.  But believe me, it happens.  I can think 3 examples from my time in school that really stand out.  The first one involved a student that submitted pictures of a school class trip to a pumpkin patch.  While the subject matter met the assignment criteria, the fact that the person was located in the northeast and it was the middle of December led me to believe that the images were not taken during the class.  I grew up in that area of the country and I am well aware of the weather and when schools take kids to pumpkin patches (HINT: it is not in December).

Argles

The second one was a little more obvious and I don't know what the student was thinking when posting the rehashed photo.  On the first day of class we were asked to post one of our favorite images in our introductory thread.  Everyone did as such.  three weeks later we had an assignment that required us to take a portrait outdoors.  When I was looking at the posts of my classmates, I saw a picture that looked very familiar.  I went back to the initial post by the same student and sure enough, there was the same image.  For my own knowledge I checked the metadata on both images and sure enough the picture was taken 3 days prior to the start of class.

In both of these instances I do not know if it was noticed by the instructors and if it was how the student's grades were effected which is OK by me.  I just know I wouldn't do it myself.  A decision that I made during one of my early classes when the following situation occurred. One of our assignments was to shoot a group event.  The instructor defined group event as 2 or more people doing something together.  One of the students in the class turned in pictures from their child's birthday party, the previous year.  When told by the instructor that the shots were unusable (since they were not taken during the class) the student was indignant about having met the requirements for the shoot and that when the pictures were taken shouldn't matter and that there just wasn't any events in their town that they could have taken pictures at.  (What a boring town were there are never 2 or more people doing anything at the same time).  The instructor's response has stuck with me to this day, and I wish more people had been in that class at that time.

"You're a college student now and more is expected from you.  It's not going to be easy all the time"

Garlington

Never had I read truer, more eye-opening words at that point in my educational journey.  I wonder if the other two students in my examples had been in that class if they would have acted they way the did...in upper 200 level classes.

The point is, you are only harming yourself if you are trying to rehash your old work from one class to the next.  Get out there and push that shutter button.  Find the time.  Make the scenario that you need to exist happen.  If you want to be the best in this field you have to work at it, and that means taking new pictures all the time.

Comment below with your thoughts on this topic.  I would love to hear them!

Works Cited

Argles, Martin. Photojournalists. The Guardian. guardian News and Media, 18 Feb. 2009. Web. 21 Aug. 2013. <http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2009/feb/18/press-freedom-newspapers>.

Garlington, Michael. Fish Mongers Daughter. N.d. Photograph. 111 Minna Gallery, San Francisco.

Leafar. Panda shooting photo. WixBlog. Wix.com, 22 Oct. 2010. Web. 21 Aug. 2013. <http://www.wix.com/blog/2010/10/why-you-shouldnt-say-yes-to-every-offer-of-photography-work/>.