Food

Over the years I have tried to broaden my photography. I've posted the results on this blog.

I have shown you portraits, of models, family and friends. And the head shots I did for a company website. The candids taken during my cycling. And the motor sport shots, that started this photography journey.

There is still so much to experiment with. Landscape, animal and food are some I have either not tried or have just had a few attempts at.

Food is the subject of this post.

I use to work for a publisher of, amongst others, food magazines. I would help the photographers, make sure equipment was working, show them new pieces of kit or software etc.

I could see it wasn't as easy as you'd think it was, flicking through the magazines.

I have tried it myself. The first hurdle is styling. I can cook pretty well. But it is the presentation I struggle with. By the time I have finished cooking, I'm just too hungry to give much thought to how it looks.

Food photography is as much about presentation and styling as it is about the process of photographing the food.

You really have to think about what you are trying to say about the food, what you want to focus on, if it's for a magazine where the text will go.  And how the photograph will fit on the page or pages.

For me I just wanted to produce pictures that showed off my technical ability and my cooking.

The first part of the process, the question of how to light it, the angle I should shoot it from, the composition and eventually how to process the raw file to produce a pleasing result. Was perhaps the easiest part.

The styling was harder. How to present the food. If it wasn't interesting to me, why would anyone else be drawn to my food.

The results below were from some time ago, I need to find the time to cook and photograph.

My favourite food is from the Caribbean, which means I like cooking it, but it gets eaten quickly. More discipline needed.

I would very much welcome your comments.

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Sports photography

I sat down to watch the men's road race at the Olympics yesterday. With near perfect timing when I switched on the television it has just started. I have been watching a lot of road race cycling lately. This is the first time I have watched so much of the Olympics.

The racing was close, with the action very fluid and changing regularly. I prefer one day racing, rather than the long tours like the Tour De France. Don't get me wrong I watched as much of the Tour de France as I could. But there were long periods of tactical riding. The commentators enthused about it. I didn't so much.

The best parts of the race were the two mountain circuits. Punishing climbs and very fast descents. These descents proved to be dangerous, especially the second circuit.

The majority of the race was filmed from motorbikes, a little helicopter footage and some static cameras.

The commentators made much of the dangers faced by the racers during the descents. A few crashes served as reminders about the risks. Thankfully the injuries were, I think, light. Only a collarbone and scapula were broken. Taking into account the speed and lack of run off I call this light. And lucky.
They reached speeds close to fifty miles per hour. And it got chaotic in places with the many team and official cars, the security and press motorbikes and of course the racers. How there aren't more collisions between all of these is testament to the skill, and concentration of everyone involved.

This got me thinking about how the coverage of these events is taken a bit for granted. I think only a few times was it mentioned that the media motorbikes were taking just as big risks. They had to follow the racers, not interfere with them and allow them space to race. All the time giving us quality coverage of the action.

It was easy to forget as I watched the racers fly down the twisting hills that to get these pictures a fully loaded motorbike with two people on it; the second one standing. Was following close behind.

It's not just cycle racing that is dangerous to cover. The photographer might be in a fast moving helicopter, car or boat. Perched at the top of a tall tower or swaying cherry picker. They might be standing a little closer to the action than is completely safe. Or at the very least sitting in the burning sun, wind, rain and snow for hours on end.

So the next time you are watching a sporting event on television, spare a thought for how the picture got to you.

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Update.

The women's race was marred by the crash of Annemie van Vleuten. She was in intensive care for a while. Concussion and broken bones in her lower back were the injuries. At first it did look like it could have been much worse.

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Keeping it real

I've been thinking lately about the amount "photoshopping" I do to my pictures. How much is acceptable?

The ease with which pictures can be altered means anyone can quickly produce an image that bears little resemblance to the original.

To be honest, I don't do much. Crop it. Adjust levels, contrast and maybe saturation. Tweak the white balance. And clone out a misplaced hair or a distraction in the background. Now I have written it down, it seems like a lot. But I don't like to alter too much. I want the picture to be true to the way I saw it. I tend to spend most time deciding which pictures from a shoot are keepers. I may have a couple of hundred, or more. I try to get that number down to about a dozen. Before I start editing.

Some models I have worked with say photographers have adjusted skin so that it no longer looks real, more like a doll. Or altered body shape so that they almost don't recognise themselves.
Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

If you are composing an image to produce an art piece. I guess any amount of manipulation would be okay.

What is acceptable for news, advertising and general media?

Reuters no longer allow submission of files processed from RAW or a camera specific format. They say it is for two reasons. These files allow for a greater degree of post-processing, and it takes longer to process them before they can be used. If it means they can guarantee the integrity of the picture that's a good thing. When we see a picture in a news piece, we have to be confident it is real. If it is a composite or staged, the article must say so. It might represent a real event, but if the event wasn't photographed, then the picture can't be passed off as real.

We all know manipulation of advertising photography happens. I read an article about a retoucher for big brands saying that the amount of work that is applied to an advertising picture would surprise people. It can't be so much that the advert is no longer true, but they seem to push the limits. How much is too much? Especially when advertising is meant to sell a product.

I think advertising needs to be viewed with more than a little scepticism.

Celebrity photography almost expects the image to be altered. Making a Kardashian bum or lips bigger, or losing a big brother contestant's cellulite. I guess this is okay, except if they have some level of influence over their followers. Or they are endorsing products.

Bottom line. We need to be more questioning about what we see. And the publishers need to be clearer about what we are seeing.

For more of my work, go to my Facebook page.

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Summer at last

The sun is out.

Not only does it make outdoor photography much more enjoyable. It also means cycling is nicer.

For both photography and cycling it's better when planning ahead. My regular readers will have read about my recent shoots. The run up to them was tempered by the uncertain weather. They were all to be outside.  If it had rained there would have been nowhere to hide.  The beach at the beginning of July was colder than I expected. But I had some great pictures. Then in the park with Xandria. Both had very wet weeks before the shoots.

My next shoot isn't until the end of August. It's on a farm, so there will be barns and stables if it decides to rain. I hope it doesn't

Now I ride in t-shirt and shorts. Don't worry, there won't be many selfies.

The greens of the grass turning to yellow as we inevitably draw closer to a hose pipe ban. It is a bit of an institution in the southern UK.

This was June. Very wet and green.

Pictures from today, just a month later. Already the greens are turning yellow. Happy days.

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Xandria

Saturday marked a new high for my photography.

Xandria contacted me through a photography/modeling website. She asked about working with me because she had seen my pictures and liked my style. It matched the style of picture she wanted for her new profile.

It was great to hear this from non family or friends.

We discussed location and style of clothing. It became clear we were after the same thing. She especially wanted fun pictures that showed her age. Not too grown up, natural.

Because she is relatively new to modeling, she looked to me more for posing and composition than I had experienced on previous shoots. The models had more experience interpreting what I wanted, and could also work unprompted. Xandria was still very good, and we worked well together. It wasn't all one sided by any means. And once she relaxed it really started to flow.

Because she wanted pictures for her profile, I delivered over sixty pictures for her to look at. Pretty much straight from the camera. Between us I wanted that number reduced to around twenty. The final number was 38. I then processed them to produce the finished product for both our profiles. I hope to work with her again.

Here are my particular favourites.

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Cold and windy, a typical July day.

I had this shoot planned for months. I thought floaty, summer dresses under the pier and along the shore line.

And the the wettest June was followed by a very unimpressive start to July. But the weather reports suggested things were going to improve. And they did; in the morning. By the time 4 pm rolled around it was overcast and windy. It even rained as I got out of the car.

I had a jacket on and the wind was going straight through it. How would Coco, my model for the next two hours cope?

Well; she did cope very well. I guess she is use to it. But the splashing around in the sea in floaty dresses was out. We looked for more sheltered places to shoot.

The first set was around some rocks. It meant I could minimize the amount of sky in the shot. Some blown out background is okay, but not massive areas of it.

For the next set I wanted to include the sea. Standing a little higher, and further from Coco meant again I could minimise the sky and still get the background I wanted. But the largely blown out background does mean Coco stands out.

Then under the pier. A lot more windswept. So colder for Coco so we didn't stay long. But these are my favourites of the shoot.

We then moved to a sheltered garden. It meant some architecture and flowers in the background. To add some interest. And it was a bit warmer.

For more of my work, go to my Facebook page.

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