Skip to main content

Food Photography Training has gone international!

      An invitation to teach food photography in the beautiful city of Avignion, in the region of Provence, France. The team at Risotto & Co produce the best ready meal risotto's in recycled  and returnable glass jars.





















The recipes are wonderful,  full of the flavours and taste you would expect from a talented French Chef using the best ingredients of Provence.
The seafood risotto was yummy!

I do not speak French so my wife and daughter were a bit concerned as they dropped me off at Gatwick.



Arrived late to a hot, summer  French airport. After a dramatic taxi ride into the city of Marseille my fast train took me to Avignon where Kate from Risotto & Co met me.

Being from New Zealand my host looked after me as I spent the day teaching her how to photograph the wonderful food developed and cooked by her husband Chef.

kate getting into the creative groove



The last time I was in Avignon , my wife(then girlfriend!) and I were asked by  Food and Travel magazine to photograph a food feature on the city. Armed with a list of restaurants and a copy of the magazine we raced around in three days covering around ten venues. We had some fun experiences the people of the city were al ways incredibly helpful and friendly. We met the Michelin starred http://www.christian-etienne.fr/home.htm who, without any pre arrangement was more than helpful and not only allowed me to photograph him but also cooked me a meal ! I wonder if our UK Michelin Chefs would be as welcoming to photographers turning up out of the blue for a foreign magazine?  Many fun adventures throughout our stay including a jaw opening moment one evening when my vegetarian wife was given for her "vegetarian" starter, mushrooms stuffed with meat! I was given my starter after saying I  eat anything, a vegetarian deep fried Courgette flowers! We swapped and thoroughly enjoyed.   A great city to wander  and lose yourself in the ancient walls and courtyards. Love it plan to return with family. Thanks to all the team at Risotto & Co wishing them every success with their very scrumptious food venture.

A very characterful customer! Had to photograph this  wonderful French lady






Exactly as I remember when my wife and I went to meet Christian Etienne nearly fifteen years ago!
Relaxing atmosphere washed down with the best Rose !
French Corsican with style

An evening of wandering the streets of the city. checking out a good and friendly restaurant to eat in. I chose  http://www.lemoutardierdupape.fr/
Opposite the Pope's Palace. I pointed at the set menu only recognising about two items in French. Wasn't disappointed, all washed down with some amazing Provençal Rose wine, marvellous!



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Pro Tip Series #2 The best Lens for Food Photography

  Many people on my courses ask what is the best lens for food. For cropped sensor cameras with the ability to change lenses- the DX Nikon range and the APS-C for Canon I recommend this Sigma lens- Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4 DC Macro OS HSM https://www.sigma-imaging-uk.com/lens-item/17-70mm-f2-8-4-dc-macro-os-hsm/ I am not affiliated or employed by Sigma so my advice is un biased and accept that many have their favourite “got to” lens. Please check lens fit and compatibility when buying any lens for your camera. For full frame cameras- FX Nikon, EOS Canon I advise a lens with as similar focal length range as possible to the Sigma with the widest aperture you can afford. For example the full frame Nikon- 24mm-70mm f 2.8 is priced around £1300- ouch! A cheaper 24mm-70mm f 3.5/ f 4.5 is only £489...umm so why the big price difference for a similar focal length lens? I can hear some of you shouting at me- the difference is in the f number! The smaller the f number the ...

Pro Tip series #1

 Pro Tip series #1 Which is the best camera for food Photography? I get asked by many of those attending my courses or contacting me through my website, which is the best camera for food, or advice on a first camera to start shooting food projects. I will come back to that question but first a trip down my camera memory lane.... queue “twilight Zone” music I have not owned many cameras and have tried to upgrade as finances and opportunities allow. My first camera as a Professional was a Sinar 5x4 camera I bought it second hand for £300 ! Lens not included and remember travelling on the bus in some London suburb to pay cash for it. The lens took another year to buy. I hired lenses as needed. It is a camera definitely not for the faint hearted. It needs a sturdy tripod, the image is projected on the back screen upside down and the flipped left to right and sheet film is used measuring 5x4inches. It seems ancient now, but at the time delivered high quality images ...

photographing indoors

On my  courses I get many questions about taking photographing food indoors using ambient light in the evening.  I teach how the best way to take pictures of food, controlling the light either in the studio or in your home. This week at home my wife said to me  " I am making marmalade do you want to take some pictures?" It was in the evening, and I had just settled down on the sofa. I reluctantly followed her into the kitchen and recognised the problem that many people have when photographing their food at home, in the kitchen at night. Lots of bright and harsh kitchen lights. I reduced  the lighting so only a single oven hood light illuminated the kitchen work top. The scene was dramatic and created lots of good deep shadows. Next I set my smart phone camera to a high ISO setting to try and avoid camera shake, and took some photos Photo 1  Photo 1, The marmalade was boiling merrily away in the preserving pan, but my problem was that steam...