Some Storytelling and A Little Southern Cooking

We've been shooting some projects lately that tell more of a visual story than straight-up product shots. The concept of these projects has been to entice the viewer with mouthwatering food and invite them into the world we've created. Let us walk you through a couple of the stories.

I know you can smell warm peanut butter cookies with a hint of coffee from the Java Jam drizzled on top. You can feel the ice cold, creamy milk as it hits the back of your throat, chasing the tasty cookie. You can also imagine yourself in that warm, sun-drenched kitchen listening to the birds chirp through an open window on a lazy weekend afternoon. Can't you?

Fresh local milk and Java Jam topped peanut butter cookies

It's summertime in the South. Someone grabs an old, weathered table and drags it under a huge oak tree for a picnic on a steamy afternoon. On the menu? Spicy Southern fried chicken, buttermilk biscuits smothered with Tupelo honey, pickled tomatoes from the garden, cabbage slaw and fresh squeezed lemonade. Finger-lickin' good!

Summertime Southern fried chicken with pickled tomatoes

Some "behind the scenes" captured while shooting these two images...

Visual Branding Part 2

At David Morris Photography we continue to shoot for awesome clients who see the value in the consistent look and feel we provide them.

In 2011 I blogged about Visual Branding and the importance of continuity in your images. Whether it's stills or video, many clients want a consistent look in their marketing materials. Here's why – it makes them instantly recognizable and conveys quality and reliability.

To provide this consistency, we document every detail of our shoots. We also oversee all preparation, styling and lighting.

After post-production, we compare all imagery to ensure it has a harmonious look and feel.

Tiffany gives us the thumbs up that everything is looking good!

In the end, everyone is pleased. Even our equipment!

84 Pounds of instant mashed potatoes later....

In a casual conversation about doing some new food images our associate photographer Tiffany Matson suggested I do a shot of a winter scene that was made of all edible items.  Hmm,  That sounds like a fun challenge.

84 pounds of mashed potatoes, 25 pounds of sugar, rock candy, cauliflower, pretzels, mushrooms, sugar cones, jerk spice, etc. later we came up with a fun winter scene.

Shots of the scene being roughed in.

Food stylist Sarah Hunt putting the finishing touches on the winter scene.

Putting powdered sugar on the sugar cone pine trees.  Although it didn't appear in the final images you can see we included a small stream in the set.

Set assistant Braden Edwards mixing another batch of instant mashed potatoes for the base of the set.

Braden adding rock candy as a rock wall next to the road.

Nothing like the smell of beef searing first thing in the morning!

I thought you might enjoy a little behind the scenes grill marking show and tell.

Our grill marking guru and food stylist Trina Kahl prays she gets it right the first time. (;-)

We try to mark the spacing and angle we want the grill marks before we sear them in the meat.  As you can see if you look at the sticks on the meat above, they look off and at a weird angle.  Now, from the camera angle they look perfectly spaced and at the correct angles.

Different food stylist make grill marks different ways.  Sometimes it's done on set, sometimes they use hot skewers, sometimes it's done on the stove in a super hot grill pan.  No matter how its done it always give a great look of grilled meat to the final shot.

I hate corn, I hate corn, I hate corn!

Growing up in our home one didn't go to the store to get a can of corn.  Come to think back we didn't go to the grocery store to get much.  We grew almost all the fruits and veggies.

Most of the year, except winter it seemed like most of what we did around our house centered around the garden.  As soon as it got warm enough in the spring we were out tilling the garden to get it ready to plant.

Now that I'm thinking about it the garden was on my Dad's mind even in winter.  Late winter was when the seed catalogs arrived and Dad picked all the seeds for the spring and fall plantings.   Let's see if I can remember, there were the standards, "Jet Star" tomatoes,  "Kandy Kane" was the sweet corn, green and yellow wax beans, etc.

Mom was proud of her Sweetcorn field

Durring canning season, which seemed like all summer, Mom would get up and out to pick whatever needed picking by 5am.  Five am was cooler and my sister and I were still sleeping.   I think it was a good time for some peace and quiet from us two kids also.  By the time she got us up in the morning she had picked whatever was ready, got the water boiling, and made breakfast for us two kids.  Our job was to clean our rooms, eat breakfast and then help her can.  When it came to canning corn our job was to cut the corn off the cob, put it in freezer bags and take it down stairs and put it in the freezer.  I think, the only one of those we did without complaining was eat breakfast.  OK, I'm sure my sister and I complained about everything or were kicking each other under the table.     

A modern take on corn relish

 As I recall, one year during sweet corn season, it was the third or fourth day into canning corn, we broke for lunch.  I'm not sure what Mom fixed but more than likely peanut butter sandwiches, maybe some fresh sliced tomatoes, whatever.  What happend next is something my Mom told on me, even in her 90's.

Lunch break was over and neither my sister nor Mom could find me.  They looked outside, yelled for me in the basement, called the neighbors, etc.  Finally, Mom went in my room and heard something coming out of my closet.  She opened the closet door and found me yelling as loud as I could into my pillow, "I hate corn, I hate corn, I hate corn".  I guess I had had enough!  In her loving way she explained that it was a lot of work now but come winter that corn sure would taste goooood.  Knowing me I'm sure that didn't help much, I wanted to be out riding my bike or playing baseball with the other kids in the neighborhood.

Mary and I ready to catch the bus for school

 Mom was right, come winter that corn tasted really goooood!

Another "Life in our back yard" post

Part of what happens behind the scenes as an advertising photographer is "creative experimenting".

As a creative person one has to practice their craft to stay relevant, always keeping your creative muscles exercised.  Besides, its just plain fun.  Not only has this project been creatively fun, but it's been a time of exploring wonderful memories.  Part of the creative process is drawing on your rich heritage of life experiences.

This group of seasonal food shots, from our families back yard, turned out fun.   I engaged my friend and stylist Trina Kahl to style the Gooseberry Desert and Zucchini cooked dishes.  We had a blast!  

Gooseberry Desert

Garden Lettuce

Zucchini

Growing up I remember my mom fixing simple but interesting dishes - using what grew on the property.  At the time, I didn't think too much of some of her choices.  As a adult, I look back with fond memories and long for those days.

Sometimes you just need to do your own thing!

I've given myself an assignment this year to document some of the awesome organic fruits and veggies that my folks and I have grown.  I wanted to capture them in a way that reflects life, as I remember it, growing up in our back yard.

Here's a couple in the series.  Let me know what you think. 

Apricots

Tart pie cherries

Food Photography Trends

Food photography, like fashion and interior design, has numerous visual trends.

We love to shoot with a loose, editorial look. It's one of the visual trends we have been noticing for a while. It’s a wonderful approach for some brands because it projects a more “real” and “approachable” look for their product.