maybe i should just stick to portraiture.....

Sigma 30mm f/1.4 EX DC HSM for Nikon

09/22/2007 05:18:44 PM · #1

Just a story, read if you are bored :)

Through various random connections, I was asked to take some photographs of the interiors of restaurants and of certain dishes from the restaurants for a pretty important newspaper and I thought it would be an awesome opportunity to get my name out there. TThe requirements shot down most of my initial ideas though: No restaurant exteriors, boring interiors, or shots of coffee mugs with the restaurant's logo, etc. ok so etc....so don't shoot anything that could possibly be seen as boring? ahhhh..... Err on the side of food porn. Even if a close-up of a margarita or whatever looks a bit yuppie-magazine, that's better than something boring.

So yah the person who wrote the article didn't have time to call the restaurants before hand so basically me and the person who was friends with the person writing the article went with me and had to be like hey there's this article being written about you can we take pictures blah blah blah. The people at the first place (family owned) were happy to let us shoot pictures and even provided me with an appetizer dish to photograph....problem was that the lighting inside was really dim and I had a very difficult time getting a good exposure. My tripod is pretty unstable and I guess my lenses just aren't suited for that kind of stuff. I was also getting paranoid because I wasn't sure what could be considered boring or not....I mean I am a PEOPLE photographer...so yeah that was stressful but I lived through it....but then came the next place who wouldn't let us photograph without us getting in touch with the owner on monday but that's after the article deadline....GRR...and then the next place was closed....so that left one option.... EXTERIOR shots....which I was told not to do....at this point i feel kind of like punching something. Then came the last place which was really neat looking and very well lit but they said come back tomorrow morning and talk to the general manager....so I am going to do that and hope for the best.

so yeah i kind of feel like crying and i just want to find some blue eyes person to throw a reflector in front of and boost my confidence with some shallow dof artistic portraits....GAH

jdannels

Nikon D300s

09/22/2007 05:27:41 PM · #2

could you shoot the chef with the dish, and use your strengths of portraiture?
Look through old newspapers, see what they have done before try to expand on that.
dish + shallow DoF with your friend or someone behind it. I didn't see anywhere people could no be in the shot.

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

09/22/2007 05:36:17 PM · #3

Yeah I wanted to get the manager or a waiter with something but I could only shoot at that one place today and the lighting was so low that putting a person in there would have made it even harder....I wanted maybe the manager in front but the exterior of that place was also kind of icky.

I will try that tomorrow though if they let me shoot at the last restaurant. The lighting in there is fairly bright and it would combine my expertise with what is needed for the article. :) thanks

violinist123

Canon EOS-6D

09/22/2007 05:54:31 PM · #4

Dump the bees order and get a nice tripod heheh.

Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro

09/22/2007 07:35:58 PM · #5

haha hell no....i might get a nice tripod on TOP of the alien bees lights though....aaaahhhhhh sooo much moneeeyyyy

klstover

Panasonic DMC-FZ8

09/22/2007 07:51:36 PM · #6

Looks to me like the situations you were in were the problem, NOT you!!

Spork99

OM System OM-1

09/22/2007 09:11:55 PM · #7

Sounds like the writer or their editor didn't do their homework and that created quite the headache for you.

09/23/2007 12:06:17 AM · #8

Oh well, here is a cool shot from today...dunno if it is even close to what they want but this is a sombrero in the mexican restaurant Dos Salsas that actually let me photograph, i thought i captured the spirit of the place
[thumb]590411[/thumb]

Message edited by author 2007-09-23 00:06:36.

09/23/2007 12:10:17 AM · #9

I don't know much about photographing food but here is one of the attempts from today, the depth of field seemed too shallow but considering that the article mostly mentioned the chips and salsa i liked that one of the salsas and the chips pull the focus
[thumb]590412[/thumb]