chef

Albuquerque New Mexico Chef Nutritionist Commercial Portraits with Celestina

Albuquerque New Mexico Chef Nutritionist Commercial Portraits with Celestina

I met Celestina at a networking event back in the fall.  She had a table with some healthy energy snack balls that were very tasty.  We stayed in touch and met up to talk shop about having one's own business that you basically run all by yourself.  She wanted to work on new branding for her business of coming to your home and making a professionally cooked meal for you and friends.  I suggested we make some photos of her in action doing what she does, and this week we met at a very cool downtown Albuquerque loft apartment to use its amazing kitchen as a background for her cooking.  

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Two Chefs Commercial Headshots on digital white backgrounds Belleair Bluffs Florida

Chef Scott & Chef Erwin posing for an updated look - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/6.3 ISO 200 1/160 - Stobist: SB-800 @ 1/4 power in 43" brolly to frame left & SB-600 in 43" shoot through umbrella to frame rightThis morning I drove over to Belleair Bluffs (surprisingly little traffic) to photograph two chefs.  Networking friend Allen who works in marketing referred this job to me, thank you! (if you need marketing, see his site)  The chefs needed updated headshot style photos for new marketing materials, including a billboard!  So if you are driving around Belleair Bluffs keep a lookout for these images!

Chef Scott individual promotional shot Belleair Bluffs Florida - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/6.3 ISO 200 1/160 - Stobist: SB-800 @ 1/4 power in 43" brolly to frame left & SB-600 in 43" shoot through umbrella to frame back rightI photographed them inside the restaurant itself, but all that was desired by the client was a final image on a clear background.  To make it easy to cut them out of the shot I setup a white background.  The white background in these images here was added in Photoshop.  The client though can add any color or type of background as needed.

Cheff Erwin individual promotional headshot Belleair Bluffs Florida - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/6.3 ISO 200 1/160 - Stobist: SB-800 @ 1/4 power in 43" brolly to frame left & SB-600 in 43" shoot through umbrella to frame back rightI have photographed with clients with glasses before, and have had some challenge getting know glare or reflection showing up.  This time the challenge was a bit more than usual.  I think I learned a tip for eliminating glare/reflection in glasses, have the subject look down slightly.  That was how I was able to make the above photo of Chef Erwin with signature glasses on.

Parkshore Grill Tyson Grant Commercial Photography St. Petersburg

Chef Tyson Grant of Parkshore Grill - Nikon D300 Nikkor AF ED 80-200mm f/2.8D @ f/5.6 ISO 400 1/250th Strobist: Nikon SB-800 Speedlight @ 1/4 power on light stand to frame right & SB-600 @ 1/8 power behind subjectThis afternoon I met Chef Tyson Grant of Parkshore Grill on 300 Beach Drive in downtown St. Petersburg for a commercial photography shoot.  As he was changing into a clean white chef's coat I scouted the restaurant for the best spot to make his portrait.  I thought the area behind the bar was the most distinctive background, but I ended up blurring most of it anyway as you can see in the final shot which was tighter than I first envisioned as well.  

Parkshore Grill at 300 Beach Drive St. Petersburg Florida - outdoor cafe style dining is available all along Beach DriveBeach Drive has many restaurants running along its wide sidewalks, most all of which offer outside eating options.  On a pleasant sunny March afternoon like this one, most of the umbrella covered tables were occupied.  The area in front of the Parkshore Grill was very busy and I could not frame a shot to my liking, so I had to cross the street and include some of the surroundings to get a shot I liked of the exterior of the restaurant.

Chef Tyson Grant of Parkshore Grill 300 Beach Drive St. PetersburgAnother central feature of the interior of Parkshore Grill was a winding staircase leading to a raised dining area in front of the kitchen.  Chef Grant said he liked this staircase so I setup the above shot having to carefully position both of my strobes so that they were close enough to him to light him up, but not so close that they got into the shot.  Using portrait orientation solved most of that dilemma and allowed the staircase to flow nicely into the foreground.

Thank you to Chef Tyson Grant for his time this afternoon.  It was a fast, but fun and interesting commercial photography shoot for me.  Visit the Parkshore Grill website.