In my last post I wrote about a food photography and styling workshop I was looking forward to attending in London. Well, the date arrived and I made my way across the water for a couple of days last week. And, it was amazing!
This is the very first photo I took at the workshop. And it's a nice photo of a beautiful carrot cake that was part of our lunch spread on the first day. But it's a photo I took in my comfort zone, and by that I mean a photo taken using the 'automatic' settings on my Canon SLR camera.
'Automatic' on a SLR camera is a setting that will always shoot the 'best' photo according to the scene you are shooting. It is leaving all of the control of the photo in the capable hands of the camera's technology. And, this setting is wonderful and it was the safety blanket I needed before I could justify buying my SLR camera last year.
But. One of the first things that Meeta and Jeanne, the workshop hosts, told our group was that it was time to break out of 'automatic' and learn what our cameras can really do. That this was the best way to get those really amazing shots we were all looking for. And right then and there, I decided that I would take the plunge - and work as hard as I could to understand all the theory behind my little picture-taking machine.
The workshop was spread over two days. On the first day, Jeanne brought us through all the theory behind shooting in the dreaded 'manual' mode on our cameras. Meeta followed up then with presentations on food photography and food styling. This was followed by lunch, a styling demonstration by Meeta, and some photography and styling 'exercises' with our cameras to get us warmed up.
Late that afternoon, Jeanne shared her knowledge of restaurant/low light photography before we all walked over to a nearby pub for a 'family feast' style dinner and, of course, more shooting!
The pub we went to was the Hampshire Hog, near Hammersmith. And this was not your ordinary English pub! Oh no - it was closer to a beautiful neighbourhood restaurant and it was absolutely perfect for our workshop group.
The Hampshire Hog put us all together in a room just to the left of the main dining room, called the Pantry. The room was surrounded by windows on two sides and let in loads of light. It was also beautifully decorated in a style I love - country chic! There was plenty for us all to photograph.
While we waited for our entire group to arrive, we all circled the table with our cameras, shooting as we went! It was wonderful to be surrounded by other like-minded individuals, finding beauty everywhere through our lenses!
While the dinner was a chance for us all to get to know one another a little better, it was also a challenge as we all needed to capture some photos for our workshop assignment too. It was difficult to stop and shoot all the beautiful food that came to the table before eating it!
Part of our assignment was to capture an 'action' shot - someone interacting with food, for example a waiter or waitress bringing in the food, or some wine being poured. Meeta was our wine pourer - picture ten women with their cameras angling for this shot and that's a bit what it was like!
And I couldn't forget the red...
And now for the food! I can only imagine what we must have looked like to other diners outside - all of us angling for the perfect shot, standing on chairs, shooting over each other's shoulders! It was a great laugh.
Our dinner was a spread of dishes which we ate 'family feast' style - helping ourselves and heaping our plates high. I really enjoyed this beautiful veggie lasagna with butternut squash - it was divine!
During the dinner I had the pleasure of sitting with two very lovely ladies - Beatrice and Reef. Beatrice is a self-employed photographer living in London and Reef is newly married and has recently moved to Denmark with her husband. Beatrice very kindly let me try out her incredible 50mm 1.4 lens and that's how I got some of these beautiful shots...
When darkness fell it became a new opportunity for us all. The cameras were out again and this time we were looking to capture the mood of our dinner experience.
On the second day of the course, Meeta and Jeanne showed us how to make the most of the shots we had taken during post-processing in Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop. I had thought of myself as an advanced user of Photoshop given the nature of my day job as a graphic designer, but I still learnt valuable tips and tricks from Jeanne. As for Lightroom - I had never used it before the workshop but now I am hooked! I used it to do post-processing work on the images in this post, size them appropriately for the web and also to add my watermark. I'll always use it now for importing from my camera.
Also on the second day, we were all given a challenge to style and shoot an image for one of the workshop's sponsors - Nino Franco. I spent about twenty minutes getting the above shot of their Rustico prosecco just right and I was absolutely over the moon when my photo was chosen by them as the winner that evening. My prize was a magnum of this prosecco, which I am saving for a special occasion. I am going to do a separate post about this beautiful sparkling white wine - it's that good!
I learnt so much about photography, my camera and styling at this workshop. I would highly recommend Meeta's workshops to anyone who is interested in this area, professionally or as a hobby. The workshop - and the hosts - were wonderful. I arrived with very little skill or technique and felt that by the end of the course, I had really improved. I also have pages and pages of notes from our very knowledgeable hosts' presentations, to ensure I won't forget all that I have learnt.
The workshop was also an opportunity to meet some really lovely people that I hope I will keep in touch with. The warmth of Beatrice, Reef and Lisa in particular and their enthusiasm for food and photography was a joy.
I hope you enjoyed the photos! Please let me know what you think of them in the comments.
This is the very first photo I took at the workshop. And it's a nice photo of a beautiful carrot cake that was part of our lunch spread on the first day. But it's a photo I took in my comfort zone, and by that I mean a photo taken using the 'automatic' settings on my Canon SLR camera.
'Automatic' on a SLR camera is a setting that will always shoot the 'best' photo according to the scene you are shooting. It is leaving all of the control of the photo in the capable hands of the camera's technology. And, this setting is wonderful and it was the safety blanket I needed before I could justify buying my SLR camera last year.
But. One of the first things that Meeta and Jeanne, the workshop hosts, told our group was that it was time to break out of 'automatic' and learn what our cameras can really do. That this was the best way to get those really amazing shots we were all looking for. And right then and there, I decided that I would take the plunge - and work as hard as I could to understand all the theory behind my little picture-taking machine.
The workshop was spread over two days. On the first day, Jeanne brought us through all the theory behind shooting in the dreaded 'manual' mode on our cameras. Meeta followed up then with presentations on food photography and food styling. This was followed by lunch, a styling demonstration by Meeta, and some photography and styling 'exercises' with our cameras to get us warmed up.
Late that afternoon, Jeanne shared her knowledge of restaurant/low light photography before we all walked over to a nearby pub for a 'family feast' style dinner and, of course, more shooting!
The pub we went to was the Hampshire Hog, near Hammersmith. And this was not your ordinary English pub! Oh no - it was closer to a beautiful neighbourhood restaurant and it was absolutely perfect for our workshop group.
The Hampshire Hog put us all together in a room just to the left of the main dining room, called the Pantry. The room was surrounded by windows on two sides and let in loads of light. It was also beautifully decorated in a style I love - country chic! There was plenty for us all to photograph.
While we waited for our entire group to arrive, we all circled the table with our cameras, shooting as we went! It was wonderful to be surrounded by other like-minded individuals, finding beauty everywhere through our lenses!
Part of our assignment was to capture an 'action' shot - someone interacting with food, for example a waiter or waitress bringing in the food, or some wine being poured. Meeta was our wine pourer - picture ten women with their cameras angling for this shot and that's a bit what it was like!
And I couldn't forget the red...
And now for the food! I can only imagine what we must have looked like to other diners outside - all of us angling for the perfect shot, standing on chairs, shooting over each other's shoulders! It was a great laugh.
Our dinner was a spread of dishes which we ate 'family feast' style - helping ourselves and heaping our plates high. I really enjoyed this beautiful veggie lasagna with butternut squash - it was divine!
During the dinner I had the pleasure of sitting with two very lovely ladies - Beatrice and Reef. Beatrice is a self-employed photographer living in London and Reef is newly married and has recently moved to Denmark with her husband. Beatrice very kindly let me try out her incredible 50mm 1.4 lens and that's how I got some of these beautiful shots...
When darkness fell it became a new opportunity for us all. The cameras were out again and this time we were looking to capture the mood of our dinner experience.
Also on the second day, we were all given a challenge to style and shoot an image for one of the workshop's sponsors - Nino Franco. I spent about twenty minutes getting the above shot of their Rustico prosecco just right and I was absolutely over the moon when my photo was chosen by them as the winner that evening. My prize was a magnum of this prosecco, which I am saving for a special occasion. I am going to do a separate post about this beautiful sparkling white wine - it's that good!
I learnt so much about photography, my camera and styling at this workshop. I would highly recommend Meeta's workshops to anyone who is interested in this area, professionally or as a hobby. The workshop - and the hosts - were wonderful. I arrived with very little skill or technique and felt that by the end of the course, I had really improved. I also have pages and pages of notes from our very knowledgeable hosts' presentations, to ensure I won't forget all that I have learnt.
The workshop was also an opportunity to meet some really lovely people that I hope I will keep in touch with. The warmth of Beatrice, Reef and Lisa in particular and their enthusiasm for food and photography was a joy.
I hope you enjoyed the photos! Please let me know what you think of them in the comments.
If you'd like to see even more of what we got up to on the workshop, and some very funny group photos, check out #londonfoto15 on Instagram.
It was just awesome to see how you progressed within the span of 2 days and I hope you will keep practising. Your post is awesome Holly. Keep in touch ... I'd love to see how you are doing!
ReplyDeleteThanks Meeta! And thank you for being so generous with your time and advice at the workshop.
DeleteStunning! I'm always in awe of people who have the 'eye' to take beautiful photos and clearly you have that talent. I guess being a graphic designer you are naturally visual. I tend to be more 'wordy', hence my poor effort at photos on my blog. Your photos are truly gorgeous and well done on winning the magnum of Prosecco!
ReplyDeleteThank you for such a lovely comment Helen! And don't be so tough on your photos, they always look good to me! I'm going to do a post soon on some photography tips and tricks, please do let me know if you like it.
DeleteOh what a gorgeous post Holly! It was such a pleasure meeting you (especially learning that you are originally from South Africa!) and such a joy to see you progressing so fast in just two days. I remember seeing you sitting and taking loads of shots of the Rustico bottle - and your persistence paid off! A very well-deserved win and a gorgeous collection of photos of the day. Can't wait to get to know your blog better and follow your progress :)
ReplyDeleteThank you Jeanne! And thank you for all of your help and expert advice on the course. Your restaurant/low-light photography advice really helped me successfully deliver a photography assignment at work in London this week.
Delete