Food Photography: Food, glorious food we’re anxious to try it!

Being a photographer is fun, I get to meet lots of wonderful and different people from newly engaged excited couples to the beautiful new born babies who are only a few days old.

As a hobby I love capturing landscapes and architecture. So between my passion and my work I thought I pretty much had all types of photography covered.
As usual I was wrong!

After getting a call from the stunning Essendon Country Club, where we are preferred suppliers, I realised that I was being asked to capture something I had not previously done – but actually could have a bit of a perk!

Essendon Country Club in Hatfield, Hertfordshire is a glorious venue for a wedding with beautiful photo opportunities both inside and out. Unusually it wasn’t my skill at capturing their wedding venue they required this time…. more my photographic skills of capturing their new menu, a chance to try food photography!

Plate after plate of amazingly presented food arrived from the kitchen, steaming and aromatic ready to be photographed. I started with a delicately carved melon rose, served with a coulis and blueberries. The petals of the melon had been meticulously carved and looked delicious!

As I was setting up for the next shot and discussing how great food photography was as it stayed in one position unlike my wiggly giggly nearly 4 year old a big chucky wooden platter caught the corner of my eye with only what I can describe as food but in miniature… handmade teeny tiny beef burgers with miniature toads in the hole, dinky crostini with smoked salmon and cream cheese. The list went on and on and on as each hor d’oeuvres was presented.

After that in quick succession I was present with a plethora of starters all presented on a slate plate. If pushed to narrow it down I possibly would have chosen either the miniature tart selection or the crostini with homemade pate. Embarrassingly it was at this point my tummy gurgled in appreciation and to remind me, that I had not eaten since my bowl of rice crispies this morning. I had just realised the only down side to food photography.
Having finished capturing the starters from different angles, the main courses were beginning to arrive. They arrived freshly cooked with their aromas filling the room whilst the steam slowly made my appetite worse. A lamb shank on a bed of creamy mash potato served with a jus and pomegranate seeds; snap, snap, snap went the shutter, this was quickly taken away only to be replaced with a very sophisticated version of toad in the hole with layered potatoes and gentle roasted vine tomatoes. Dish after dish of well prepared, beautifully presented fantastically smelling food was laced under my camera lens and ultimately under my nose.

Then the puddings were paraded (yes paraded, they all came out at once by several waiters) and my tummy audibly confirmed what I was thinking YUM! trios of miniature deserts served on slate. Perfectly formed cheesecakes, nougat and the tiniest macaroons I have ever seen.

Finally I had finished photographing the all of the beautiful dishes, they were all lined up on the table behind me, I was checking my shots and packing away my equipment. When I was called over and given a set of cutlery and told to help myself!

Food Photography its everything it is cracked up to be and more. So who wants me to come and photograph their food, I am also a very willing taste tester!

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