Photographing Food

I was recently asked to help a friend with some food photography for her catering business.
She was catering for a large all day function and wanted to get some shots for her website that her husband was putting together for her.
Here are a few shots from the shoot and some others.
Over the years I have done some food photography and it really is quite easy for a photographer.
The art is in the different angles,the colour,the simplicity of presentation,the ability to show of something that will make your mouth water.
You will notice that if you look at cooking book photography there is a lot of each picture that is not in focus.
With food if you were doing it for a top shelf cooking book you would have a food stylist and all the food in it's raw state would be hand selected from markets.
If you are a wedding photographer sometimes you will be requested to concentrate on the food dishes as quite often young couples are foodies.
So weddings are a good place to learn food photography or practice it even if you are a guest.
If you are at a restaurant and you love the presentation before you photograph it with your iPhone or compact digital camera.
If you have a chef or keen amateur cook in the family it would be a good exercise to have them prepare some food so you can do a portfolio.
With the ability to print photo books these days it would not be hard to produce your own recipe book.

A Church catered Wedding Breakfast

Starters at  Kangaroo island

fruit is always colourful

From recent shoot

Banrock Station

Over the last weekend we visited Banrock satiuon near Kingston on the Murray in South Australia's Riverland.
We were with family and good friends Anne and Dave met us there for lunch having driven from Adelaide in the morning.
For those who like wine Banrock is worth a visit but as a non drinker I prefer the walks and scenery on the reclaimed wetlands.
At the present the water has been drained from the wetland but none the less there was still some good photographic opportunities.
It was an overcast rainy day for the earlier part of the day but then the sun came out.
There was a red weed covering the lake which made for some wonderful colouring in the landscape.
literally saturated colours.

http://www.banrockstation.com.au/content/wine-and-wetland-centre-8

Frank The Chookman

The last two days we have been visiting rellies in the Riverland.
Frank the Chookman's unique houseboat was moored at the front of the Renmark Hotel.
A true Australian character.
A link to an ABC item below.
http://www.abc.net.au/rural/content/2011/s3336017.htm

Faithfullness is so Impressive

Many years ago when I was in the formative stages of my new Christian faith I used to regularly read an Australian Christian newspaper called "New Life."
It is still available to day as an online magazine.
In the magazine I was interested in a regular advertisement from Ramon Williams who advertised himself as "World Wide Photos" and was preapred to go anywhere in the world taking pictures in the name of Christ.
When I was thinking about this the other day I thought that is probably where I got the idea of dedicating my Photographic craft to God.
Yet I still have never seen any of his pictures.
So I wrote to new life and they told me he is still doing his photography and pointed me to an article in the magazine about him.
I have since exchanged a couple of emails with Ramon now in his 80's.
What a marvelous testimony and dedication this man has.
I have repeated the article below.

MEET
Ramon Williams – Unsung Hero
Of The Australian Christian Media
IF you have read any published Australian Christian news article over the past
50 years, it has almost certainly been distributed by one of the greatest un­
sung heroes of the Australian Christian movement, the ‘AAP­equivalent’ of
Christian wire news, Ramon Williams, now aged 81. For nigh­on 50 years
Ramon Williams has exercised a unique and important ministry in the procla­
mation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, with his catch cry, ‘Telling others what others are doing for the Lord.’ ‘Go And Tell’ Becomes ‘Show And Tell’
In 1959 the newly married Ramon and Dorothy arrived as missionaries in Indonesia with Worldwide Evan­ gelisation Crusade (now Worldwide Evangelisation for Christ). During this time, their first three children were born. After triplets arrived in 1967 they concluded their overseas stint. Then their audio­visual work for WEC grew and became an independent mission, now called ‘Worldwide Photos’, whose aim was to serve missionaries and Christian organisations by enabling them to better ‘show’ their work as well as ‘tell’ of it. This has helped many of them to raise increased interest and support. Today Ramon Williams’ work is recognised as he has established a leading Religious Media Agency throughout the world. His distributions have the byline ‘Ramon A Williams – Worldwide Photos’ with his trade mark email ‘rlgmedia’ (short for ‘Re­ ligious Media’).
This all functions as a faith­financed mission. Only a very few organisations or individuals make a contri­ bution to the service; most ask whether their story may be of interest, hoping it will be sent around the world for nothing! His coverage of Cyclone Larry with five radio interviews, the stories and photographs cost him $2,000. No­one paid a cent.
Ramon Williams’ photography is renowned, with pictures of such notables as Billy and Franklin Graham, Princess Diana, Prince Charles, Queen Elizabeth II, Malcolm Muggeridge, Mother Theresa, Mary White­ house, and many political leaders and musicians.
‘All For Jesus’
Ramon is a silent type, unobtrusively floating around during Christian functions, and his subsequent news items are sent to leading daily religious news services around the world. He has won photographic awards, including the prestigious Australasian Religious Press Association’s Gutenberg Award in 1987, and has un­ dertaken many media and photographic assignments overseas. Ramon Williams has an eye for media high visibility. His service has been invaluable to many missions including Well­Being Australia and New Life.
Ramon’s effort has been Herculean, his great joy is to see that whatever he ‘distributes’ is published somewhere (newspapers, magazines, bulletins, on­line), in order that someone might read of the Lord’s work. Ramon Williams doesn’t have public honours and titles after his name, but his achievements will be ‘published’ in Heaven, where they will be written in ‘Capital Letters’.
Recently Ramon was taken ill and hospitalised for a short period of time, but is home now and under the care of his extensive family. We are praying for his continuing recovery.
The Lord constantly raises up ordinary people such as Ramon Williams who then engage in extraordin­ ary, wonderful, even miraculous Kingdom endeavours for specific needs within the life of a nation’s Chris­ tian community. Ramon Williams reflects this true history of Australian Christendom. We thank God for him and his extraordinary ministry, and we can say that, like Nathaniel, he is a follower of Christ in whom there is no guile.
– Dr Mark Tronson, retired Baptist minister, author, artist and director of Press Service International. His archive of articles can be viewed at www.pressserviceinternational.org/mark­tronson.html

NEW LIFE – 15 February 2013 – Page Fourteen

A Challenge for Photographers and Bloggers and Facebookers

I found the article linked below on Chrsitianity Today Magazine.
Some timely thinking expressed well.
Sometimes it is more important to just talk to people rather than take their photograph.
I am often way too guilty on this point.
Time to cut back I think.
http://www.christianitytoday.com/women/2013/april/our-over-captured-over-shared-picture-perfect-lives.html

A Day in Farmland South Australia

Today I had a wonderful day visiting friends on their farm and also just driving looking for ruins to photograph.
I do enjoy retirement and being able to do such things occasionally.
Below are a few pics.
 They are all within 90 minutes of Adelaide.