Food Truck Menu Photography clean and ready for display!
Elder drove his food truck right up to my house for an extended menu food photography shoot at the JCP Home Studio in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In just over two hours I was able to photograph 30+ menu items for Elder. He wanted a clean white background for the photos as these will appear on TV screens on his food truck. We still made time to get a hero shot and a couple other highlight shots of the New Mexican food dishes he and his team prepared that morning. This was also the first time for me to use my new LED continuous lighting for a shoot, so that while shooting tethered with continuous lighting, Elder could see in real time the shadows and highlights of each dish even before I pushed the shutter on the camera!
This was a most unusual photo shoot. I was contacted to photograph tableware for a contest. I am always up for a different kind of photo shoot so I took my camera bag to a restaurant where I worked with one of the biggest teams to make these photos happen. Before this I was always hired to photograph the actual food. This time, the forks, knives, and plates! That’s why in these photos you will see the food mostly out of focus, but a fork in focus. The chef’s creations were the background for these photos. He didn’t seem to mind at all! Being a commercial photographer in Albuquerque, New Mexico allows for a wide variety in photo shoots!
My latest UberEatsprofessional food photography assignment took me to Yasmine’s Cafe near the University of New Mexico. The shoot began with a very well plated vegetarian platter including hummus, falafel, and wrapped dates. While I waited for the other dishes I enjoyed the view out onto Route 66 through the large floor to ceiling windows that provided great natural light for all the photos, as UberEats requires using only natural light (I supplement that with a silver reflector).
I have been vegetarian for over 22 years. It is much easier being vegetarian now than it was then, but a fully vegetarian restaurant is still a rare thing to come across. Thus, I was extra excited to get a UberEatsfood photography assignment for The Acres which features comfort vegetarian food, as they describe it at their Albuquerque, New Mexico location. Shawn and his staff were very prepared and helped out, with one waitress even hand modeling in the above shot1 And the topper, I got to take the green chile veggie cheeseburger to go! Thanks Shawn!
Back out on food photography assignments for UberEats in Albuquerque, New Mexico taking me to Poki Poki, an Asian-Latin fusion restaurant. You build your own bowl of food starting with a base and ending with toppings. This allows, as you can see above, for a wide variety of Poke Bowls you can create. My thanks to Julie for having everything ready and making this the absolute smoothest UberEats food shoot I have done so far!
Santa Fe Sage Inn contacted me about coming up to make some food photographs of new menu items for the grand opening of their social themed restaurant. It was a diverse shoot ranging from close up dessert shots, to from above “hero shots” of multiple food dishes, to stylized backlit drink shots. It was a fun challenge changing gears between the different setups required for each of those types of photographs. You can see that diversity in the gallery below. Thank you to Sonya for all your assistance during this shoot and when you are next in Santa Fe be sure and check out their social themed restaurant!
I am not sure where pizza would rank in favorite foods in the U.S., but I would be surprised if it was not in the top 5. But, how is pizza to photograph? For menu shots like the photographs you see here which is what the client wanted, the trick is showing enough of the pizza to give an overall impression, without showing the entire pizza which can then end up just looking like a bumpy circle on a plate. There was no opportunity for a glory shot with a spatula lifting a gooey slice off the pan or anything like that, but nevertheless I always try to be as creative as possible, even if just making shots for a menu like I did at Brickyard Pizza in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
