Great Food Photos: Stuart Ovenden

Happy New Year...Happy 2012 to everybody. I am super excited to bring you my first 2012 feature. Stuart Ovenden of Appledrane is the Deputy Art Editor at BBC Good Food and a fantastic food photographer. It's quite wonderful to meet someone that deals with another aspect of this exciting world of food photography and get his take on it.

Q. Can you tell me what you’re trying to capture when you take your food photos? A. It's a well-worn answer, but creating a sense of place that engages the viewer is one of the primary concerns for any food photographer. Often I'm in a stripped back, plain white studio building a mock environment - it's all about the little details. The fold of a napkin, careful choice of props, subtle lighting tricks; many of these things are often only acknowledged on a subconscious level when flicking through a magazine, but if you spend a bit of extra time getting them right, a big part of the job is done. It goes without saying that an equal partner in the success of a shot is the quality of the recipe, ingredients and the way that they are styled.

Q. What does photography mean to you? A. I worked primarily in design and illustration before I got heavily into photography; I don't really see them as wildly differing creative processes. For me, strength of an idea always has to come first; I'm happy for them to overlap or be drawn from unusual sources. I'm a child of the digital age; if I've shot a picture of a box of apples and I want it to look like it's been torn from an old sketchbook, I'll just scan in a few bits of worn brown paper and bring the image together in Photoshop. I'm equally passionate about spontaneity and a capturing a beautiful moment through the lens; but using photography as a tool - it's often just as exciting.

Q. From a Deputy Art Editor perspective, how has food photography changed over the years? A. I've been at BBC Good Food for 5 years now; during that time the way in which we shoot and compose features has changed greatly. There was barely an overhead shot in the mag when I started, these days roughly about 50% of our photography is taken from above. I also think that the way food is styled has loosened up in recent years; it now looks far more relaxed and natural.

Q. Sometimes do you find your Deputy Art Editor self disagreeing or agreeing with your freelance photographer self? A. I find that it's less about a conflict between the two different roles, more a case of how understanding both sides can help develop both. As an art editor I have style guidelines and paginations that need adhering to; knowing how certain colours and foods photograph really helps when briefing stylists and sketching out features. On the flip-side, if I'm behind the camera I'll take a shot, but then pull back/change the crop/drop background focus so that a designer has the option to run copy over the picture if needed. You learn pretty quickly that the success of a feature not all about the photographs, it's the balance of many different elements arranged on a page as a whole.

Q. Any food photography heroes? If not any photography heroes? A. One of my favourite photographers is Jason Evans. He's not a food photographer, but I love the way he uses colour, texture and repetition in his work. These are certainly aspects that I'm keen to explore in my own photography - sometimes a more conceptual, graphic approach makes a nice change from creating kitchen-esque sets in the studio.

Q. Name one thing you want to achieve in 2012 with your food photography. A. I just want to push myself creatively and hopefully keep taking photographs that people enjoy. I'm working on a book based on my Appledrane blog; I've three years' worth of recipes, written pieces and photographs to gather together but it's starting to take shape.

Q. Best meal in 2011? A. I was fortunate to be asked to photograph a wild mushroom foray in a remote part of Scotland a couple of months ago. the chef made a mushroom curry one night - without using a single spice. Each of the seven mushrooms used had a slightly different natural flavour; one peppery, one with a subtle curry flavour, another with a hint of coconut and so on - they were gently sauted together in a little butter and served with a mini naan - it tasted amazing.

All photos courtesy of Stuart Ovenden from Appledrane.

Great Food Photos: Tara O'Brady

Another great connection was made thanks to Twitter. Tara O'Brady of Seven Spoons is doing something I love about the internet (and blogs) which is telling and showing a slice of her life in southern Ontario. It's also great to read the stories that accompany the recipes. I think that, in a way, gives more life to a recipe.

Q. Can you tell me what you’re trying to capture when you take your food photos? A. For me the photos on my site, my aim is really straightforward - I hope to capture a sense of the food as it was, in the setting it was in on the day I made it, or the day we ate it. I don’t mind that you can tell if it was cloudy and stormy, or the difference between summer light and winter light - if that’s how things looked, then so be it. I appreciate the context of that. The highest compliment I can receive is someone saying they look at the photos and feel they’re at my table.

Q. Have you always been interested in photography? If not, when and why did you start? A. I have always been interested in photographs, but I wasn’t always the photographer in my family. My brother came to it first, I think. My work in the past dealt with photography peripherally, but it was only when I started writing about food that I really started taking photographs.

Q. What is photography to you? A. It sounds super-pretentious, and I don’t mean it to be, but when I was in school and studied Matisse and Delacroix, their assertion that “exactitude wasn’t [their] truth” always stuck with me. It may be a convenient excuse for the limits of my abilities, but I’m not always trying to represent a schematic of a recipe. If, say, it’s the texture of the pastry that makes a pie exceptional, than I’m happy to concentrate on a corner where the crust shattered. There will be a shot of the whole pie, but it’s that crumbly bit that I hope you’ll remember.

Q. In your bio, you said you're currently living in southern Ontario. I'm not familiar with southern Ontario besides knowing that Toronto is there. What is the food scene like and does living where you are affect your work? A. I live outside Toronto, close enough to feel its influence but far away enough to be a considered a bit small town. This way, we get the best of both worlds. We’re surrounded by fields, living smack in the middle of farmland and vineyards. It’s hard not to be greedily enthusiastic about this place when the fruit and vegetable stands pop up in spring and the farmer’s market is bustling. We are lucky to have local chefs and producers doing amazing things with all that bounty - you don’t have to venture far to find inspiration … and a yummy snack.

Q. Any food photography heroes? If not any photography heroes? A. Gosh, so many. Many of which have been mentioned here. Ditte Isager is brilliant with shadows and texture; her images are tactile and have striking depth. Christopher Hirsheimer’s does rustic beauty so well, with an elegant, easy looseness. He’s a pal, but nonetheless I must mention Michael Graydon. I won’t say much, because it’ll sound slanted, but check him out and you’ll understand. I really like Jeff Lipsky’s food photography, and I was recently introduced to Anais Wade and Dax Henry’s work - they do stunning stuff.

Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duiguid’s cookbooks, from Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet on especially, are sort of my dream books. Along with the in-studio photographs by Richard Jung, those books convey an immediacy I can’t explain. They evoke such a specific sense of place and circumstance, and the food looks downright amazing.

Q. Best meal so far in 2011? A. Darn, it’s the end of the year, so it’s especially difficult to choose just one. Hmm. In October my husband and I ate at Proof on Main in Lousiville, Kentucky. Tucked in a corner seat of the bustling room, the night was a treat from start to finish. I may have clapped my hands when I read that they had roasted marrow bones - a childhood favourite that I associate with my mother - and theirs did not disappoint. The meal bounced along from there; Chef Michael Paley’s food is awfully clever, yet flavour never takes a backseat to wit.

It was the last night of our trip and a fitting goodbye to the south.

All photos courtesy of Tara O'Brady from Seven Spoons.

Great Food Photos: Nick Solares

If you had ever been on A Hamburger Today then I'm pretty sure you have seen photos of delicious looking burgers by Nick Solares of Beef Aficionado. I really admire how simple and to the point his food photos are. There's nothing more beautiful than a well shot close-up of a delicious looking burger. I get so hungry for meat everytime I look at his photos. Also, how much beef does this man eat per week?!

Q. Can you tell me what you’re trying to capture when you take your food photos? A. If I am photographing strictly for review I want to present the food as it arrives at the table so I won't re-arrange it or do anything to glamorize it, aside from trying to get the composition and other technical parameters right. I suppose this would be considered documentary photography and its primary objective is to convey to the reader what they might expect if they dine at the restaurant under review. While a photograph can't really tell you what something tastes like it can certainly evoke primal reactions in a way that writing cannot. The other type of pictures I make are more evocative whether they are a "making of" type feature or when I am trying to capture a particular mood or feeling.

Q. Have you always been interested in photography? If not, when and why did you decide to start taking photos? A. Not consciously but I have always been interested in aesthetics and design and, as it turned out, always looked at the world in a compositional sort of way. I had some early digital cameras but didn't particularly like the results they produced and didn't really get into digital photography until I started food writing in 2006 and picked up a DSLR. Since then I have shot almost every day and have branched out to shoot different subjects - portraits, fashion, music. But food photography remains, pardon the pun, my bread and butter.

Q. What to you makes a good photo? A. I suppose on the purely aesthetic level a good photograph should be pleasing to the eye but a great photo should cause an emotional reaction, whether positive or negative.

Q. Any food photography heroes? If not any photography heroes? A. Plenty of both, and really too many to list, but off the top of my head Andrew Scrivani's work is amazing. I really like what Christopher Hirsheimer and Ron Haviv did on the Balthazar cookbook, George Motz of Hamburger America is a big influence. I love Hong-An Tran's work, she inspired me to get into rangefinder photography. In broader photographic terms I can't get enough Eggleston.

Q. What inspires you? A. Clean lines and pure ingredients.

Q. Best meal so far in 2011? A. That's a tough one! Technically it was probably at Il Postale in Perugia, Italy back in August but the most satisfying was cooked by my sister for my brothers wedding, also in Italy.

Q. It looks like you took a sabbatical this year from Serious Eats and Beef Aficionado, what were you up to? A. I was working as the creative director for an iPad app with famed NYC butcher Pat LaFrieda and Zero Point Zero Productions, who produce No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain. Domani Studios programed and developed it, interpreting our vision in the digital plane. The app is called Pat LaFrieda's Big App for Meat and it was named as App of the Week in the App Store. The app is a complete guide to every cut of beef, lamb, pork, veal, turkey, chicken and duck and is loaded with over 250 photographs as well as exhaustive text, video, a quiz, a history of LaFrieda Meats,interactive 360 degree views of many cuts and much more.

It really is jam packed and I am tremendously proud of it. It was great to work with Pat, being a master butcher he obviously has a lot of knowledge but he is also a very good teacher and I think that really come through in the app - you will learn a lot. And working with ZPZ and Domani was truly inspiring, there are a lot of really creative people at those two companies.

To download the app, click here!

All photos courtesy of Nick Solares of Beef Aficionado.

Great Food Photos: Marie Pierre Morel

Last April I wrote a little thing about this awesome pork cookbook I got for my birthday, Pork & Sons by Stephane Reynaud. Flipping through the book I was so inspired by the simple and beautiful photos. The photos were rustic and there weren't much "food styling props" to clutter the photos. So you should know how excited I was when Marie Pierre Morel, the photographer for the cookbook, allowed me to ask her few questions!

Q. Can you tell me what you’re trying to capture when you take your food photos? A. Nothing else but food with humor or poesy.

Q. Have you always been interested in photography? If not, when and why did you decide to start taking photos? A. Yes, from the age of 15.

Q. What inspires you? A. Natural light, colors, and composition.

Q. How would you describe your photography style? A. Simplicity and natural light.

Q. Any food photography heroes? If not any photography heroes?Irving Penn, Robert Frank, Bernard Plossu, and Abelardo Morell.

Q. Best meal so far in 2011? A. Alexandre Gauthier where I was recently for a service, the first meal I had there, when I was alone with frogs "meunière" and a glass of St Aubin nice for the mouth (le palais en français) and for the eyes.

All photos courtesy of Marie Pierre Morel