Restaurant Food Photography at The Point Kitchen & Bar in Santa Cruz
Breakfast, brunch, lunch and dessert menu photography created for websites, social media and restaurant marketing
A second visit to The Point Kitchen & Bar in Santa Cruz gave me the opportunity to photograph a completely different mix of menu items, this time centered on breakfast and brunch along with lunch dishes and desserts. The goal was to create a varied collection of restaurant photography with overhead hero images, natural customer-view angles, close-up details, and social media-ready photographs that The Point can use throughout its marketing.
Back at The Point for a Different Part of the Menu
This was my second visit to The Point Kitchen & Bar in Santa Cruz for another food photography shoot. My first visit was during the holiday season, so that shoot leaned more toward dinner items, drinks, desserts, and a restaurant branding video featuring holiday decorations. This time no holidays and the menu items photographed were for breakfast and brunch. Thus it was pancakes, eggs Benedict, coffee, salads, tacos, a burger, other lunch dishes, and dessert in front of my camera for overhead hero shots, close ups, and profile views. I also like to look for a little action when it helps bring a photograph to life, so for the pancakes we made a shot with syrup being poured. It was great working with the team at The Point and I look forward to a future third visit!
Restaurant Photography Made for More Than the Menu
A restaurant photography shoot can create much more than straightforward pictures of individual dishes. I plan for a mixture of compositions so a restaurant comes away with photographs that can work on an online menu, website homepage, Google Business Profile, social media posts, advertisements, seasonal promotions, and delivery platforms. A wider overhead photograph might become a website banner, while a close-up of the same dish can become an attention-grabbing Instagram post. The goal is to leave the restaurant with a useful collection of images rather than photographs that can only serve one purpose.
Breakfast & Brunch Menu Photography
Overhead views, close-up details, and a little movement help breakfast dishes stand out online
Breakfast and brunch gave me some of my favorite photographs from this visit. The eggs Benedict dishes worked especially well from both directly overhead and from a lower customer perspective, while the pancakes gave us an opportunity to add some motion with syrup being poured into the frame. Creating different perspectives of similar dishes gives a restaurant much more flexibility when choosing photographs for menus, websites, and social media.
Lunch Menu Photography with Variety
Individual dishes photographed to highlight color, texture, ingredients, and presentation
Lunch photography can look very different from dish to dish, which is why I do not approach every plate with exactly the same composition. A burger benefits from a lower angle that shows its layers and height, while salads, tacos, and more complex plated entrées can be much easier to understand from above. Using the angle that best fits each menu item creates a stronger overall collection while still maintaining a consistent visual style for the restaurant.
Desserts & Restaurant Hero Images
High-impact food photography for websites, promotions, social media, and restaurant branding
Not every restaurant photograph needs to show only one menu item. Hero images featuring several dishes together are especially useful for website banners, advertising, social media, and other marketing where a single photograph needs to communicate variety immediately. Dessert photography also gives a restaurant another opportunity to tempt a customer after they may have already decided what they want for breakfast, lunch, or dinner!
One Restaurant Shoot Can Create Months of Content
A good restaurant photography session does not have to produce a collection of nearly identical photographs. By changing angles, grouping dishes together, including branded elements, creating close-up details, and occasionally adding action to a scene, one shoot can produce a library of visual content that a restaurant can continue using long after the photography is finished. That is valuable for restaurants that regularly need new imagery for Instagram, Facebook, Google, email marketing, website updates, online menus, special promotions, and advertising. My first shoot for The Point also included restaurant branding video, so still photography and video can be combined when a restaurant needs an even broader collection of marketing content.
Professional Food Photography for Your Restaurant
If your restaurant has great food but your website, menu, or social media does not show it at its best, a dedicated menu photography shoot can change that. I photograph individual menu items, overhead hero images, desserts, beverages, restaurant branding content, and short-form video on location for restaurants throughout the Monterey Peninsula and surrounding Central Coast. We can build the shoot around the dishes you most want customers to see and create a varied collection of photographs ready for use across your restaurant marketing.
Jason Collin Photography is based in Pacific Grove, California and provides restaurant food photography, menu photography, restaurant branding photography, and food video for restaurants throughout Monterey, Carmel, Pacific Grove, Seaside, Santa Cruz, and the surrounding Central Coast.