Commercial Food Photographer | Columbus, Ohio

Bleu & Fig | Food and Flowers

I had the distinct pleasure of working with Bleu & Fig a few weeks back! They are a full service catering company here in Columbus, but before you jump to conclusions, they are not the stereotypical catering company! They DON'T have one menu you HAVE to order from, they DO care about how their food tastes, and they AREN'T above doing small soirees.


Mini Crab Cakes | Pear Tart | Butternut Squash Bisque

Candied Bacon | Shortbread Lemon Bar

Veggie Wrap Boxed Lunch | Rosemary Garlic Chicken Pot Pie

In fact, they love the small jobs. Oscar Night, Valentine's Day for two, St. Patrick's Day gathering; whatever kind of party you want to throw, Bleu & Fig would be more than happy to help you come up with a unique menu to fit. And to make party-planning even easier, they also have 20 years experience in florals, and provide those services, as well.

Take the time to meet Regina and Brooke of Bleu & Fig, these ladies are kind, professional, creative and talented!

Photography Matters, No Matter Your Business

Why hire a professional photographer? This is a question I here a lot, especially since the rise of digital photography. I recently found two articles (not written by photographers!) that explain how the use of quality photography is integral to your business.

This first excerpt is about hiring a professional photographer for a political campaign, though it could apply to any business's advertising and marketing endeavors.

Photography can be the key to a successful direct mail campaign. When it comes to direct mail, you get approximately five seconds of a voter's time between the mailbox and the trash can so you need to make those five seconds as eye catching and powerful as possible. In a misguided attempt to save resources, many campaigns skimp on one of the most crucial aspects of direct mail--photography. It's akin to building your dream house on a dirt foundation. All of the work you put into your mail program--the research, writing and strategy--won't be as effective if the piece is dragged down by low resolution, amateurish, overtly political photos taken by a well-meaning volunteer.

A picture is worth a thousand words, especially in political mail. A compelling and unusual photo can leap out of the rest of the clutter in the mailbox and get you those precious seconds of voter attention. A few tips on getting the right image to make your point:

Hire a professional photographer, not your neighbor who has a new digital camera (unless he or she is a Pulitzer Prize winning photographer in which case I hope they have better equipment). Spend the money on a real shoot with a real photographer....

Chadderdon, Liz. "Don't Skimp on the Visual - It Seals the Deal." Politics (Campaigns and Elections). May 2010.

This second excerpt is about using photos that best illustrate your brand.

The right picture truly is worth a thousand words. It can tell your story, showcase your products, and intrigue, interest or excite your audience. But the wrong picture--well, there's a whole other phrase that describes that: Not worth the paper it's printed on. Problem is, how do you tell the difference?

A good photo or illustration communicates more quickly and leaves a longer lasting impression than words alone. It's the old left brain/right brain thing. There is an emotional and a rational aspect to every communication, and you want to enhance both. The right picture can make people read the words. The right words can make people internalize the message. The visuals you use will create a perception of your (company) in the minds of the people who see them. Make sure it's the perception you want.

There's no way to tell you exactly how much you should pay for professional photography, since so much is dependent on the specifics of your job: How many pictures? Of what? Where? When? Even where you are located geographically makes a huge difference in photo costs. The best advice is to check around. Look at photographers' portfolios, find a few whose work you like, and get several quotes. Often photographers negotiate based on use.

Before you send any image off to a publication, ask yourself if that image would stop you, engage you, interest you. Then answer yourself truthfully.

The bottom line is, the better your photos, the better you'll look. It's worth the time and trouble to get it right.

Muhleman, Janet. "Picture Your Brand." Franchising World, February 2005.

An Evening At Val's | Food Photography | Columbus, Ohio

Val Jorgensen, of Jorgensen Farms, graciously invited me to her home for an amazing culinary event, a sausage tasting, before we ever met. (You see, I was scheduled to photograph her for Edible Columbus magazine, but hadn't yet made it out to the farm.)

After I broke the news that I am, in fact, a vegetarian, she still insisted that I come to enjoy the veggie-friendly food and the company.

I'm so glad I did! Jorgensen Farms is located in Westerville, Ohio. They currently supply local restaurants with herbs, honey, eggs and vegetables. They're also venturing into doing weekly CSA dinners and event hosting.



This group all went to The Terre Madre Conference in Italy last fall for the Slow Foods movement.



Insider's Tip: If you get a chance to try their lemon honey, it is to die for!

Professional Food Photographer and Photo Retoucher | Columbus, Ohio

People are always asking me, "Do you shoot fake food?"

These days, there isn't as much of a need to use artificial elements to make food look more appealing. This is partially because the style of food photography has changed, because of flash photography and because of the wonderful invention of DIGITAL. Food photography styling is heading more towards relaxed, sometimes purposefully messy. I think it's because people like to imagine eating what they see, and eating the PERFECT bowl of pudding is unlikely. Also, food used to be shot with hotlights and a 4x5 camera. It was hard to get food to stay looking good for the painstaking process, so fake food sometimes had to be substituted just to get the shot. And of course, there's digital. It used to be everything had to be perfect before the photo was taken, because little could be done after the fact. Now, so many things can be made perfect through multiple exposures, digital compositing, and the wonderful clone tool.

You may ask, "Why retouch it when you can fix it in camera?" Well, in this case, a few reasons. One, I was in a hurry. I had one hour before I HAD to leave the studio. I'd made the pudding the night before, and I knew how I wanted to shoot it, but I had little time to put it all together and produce the perfect shot. Two, I am not a food stylist. I get by just fine, but it's not my area of expertise. So I shot the lumpy pudding and fixed the imperfections in Photoshop, vs. painstakingly straining the pudding and picking out lumps. I don't own a strainer.

So here's what I did in Photoshop. I adjusted the color, combined the depth of field shots, darkened the pudding, removed the lumps, made the swirls more even, used a lighter exposure for the bowls, switched the whisk with a better shot, removed some of the blue cast on the bowls, and straightened the fabric in the back and warped the front corner to look straight. (I did iron the fabric, but didn't have time to wash the crease out of it.)

To see the photos flip back and forth, go to this link:
http://www.photokitchen.net/Photogalleries/Pudding.gif

Then I ate the pudding. All of it. All by myself.

Professional Retoucher | Columbus Ohio

Here's a quick example of a recent image I retouched. To save time while shooting, the client and I decided to add the fire in the fireplace after the fact. This way, we could also control how the fire looked and how bright and out of focus it would be. See if you can catch all the other things that changed! Click below to watch the animation!

http://www.photokitchen.net/Photogalleries/fireplace.gif

Food Photographer | Columbus, Ohio

Food photography is so much fun, especially when you get to use food wordplay to create a new business card design. Taking a bite out of my business cards was easier to swallow than I thought. I bought a $10 contraption at JoAnn Fabrics to punch out the bites manually. Totally worth it.



Catherine Murray
All-Around Photo Chef
Columbus, Ohio
Photo Kitchen