Mrs Bea Tollman, the founder (alongside her husband Stanley Tollman) of the Red Carnation Hotel Group, who I regularly shoot for, needed some food photographed for her cookbook “A Life in Food”, which is a celebration of recipes that have either been passed down in the family or discovered while travelling. She already had the book published and full of photos, but this was an updated version with some new receipes.
Mrs Tollman, already had the food styled for me – as she wanted the photos to have the ingredients around the main dish and shot to match the other photos. Being an avid cook myself, I actually love this style of recipe book photography – although it’s not often used these days – because it helps you to see easily how the dish comes together with all the ingredients. As “A Life in Food” is a classical book, the more traditional style, but with a modern clean shot, both celebrates the author’s history and brings the dishes to a modern audience.
I used natural light and a reflector for these food photographs and did just a simple retouch afterwords to make the colours pop and remove some stubborn shadows and distracting reflections.
Of course, like any great food shoot, I got to eat some of it myself afterwards and have even tried to cook one or two recipes myself, although, sadly, they didn’t taste as good as Mrs Tollman’s!
To read more about the book, please visit this page here: www.redcarnationhotels.com/unique-experiences/food-and-drink/a-life-in-food. I am pleased to see my photo adorning the top of the web page as well.