Holiday Fantasyland Foodscape

As a photographer I'm always looking for projects that will challenge me.

Although we specialize in product, people, and food photography, I find food projects some of the most fun.

Two years ago we shot our first all food Holiday Fantasy Foodscape project.  Well, we've shot another one this year.  I can't lie, London based photographer Carl Warner ( the Godfather of Foodscapes ) is a big influence on my images.  

This year I wanted to do a "Candy Fantasy" theme with a touch of Dr. Seuss for all us kids at heart. 

Here is the list of ingredients.  See how many you can identify.

Hammond's Classic Handmade lollipops

Idahoan Potato Flakes

Hand of Buddha

Large marshmallows

Small marshmallows

Pink and white marshmallows

White cotton candy

Ribbon candy

Old fashion rolled oats

Cocoa

Brownie mix

candy canes

Peppermint candy balls

Candy stars

White peppermint bark

White M&M's

Silver & White candy balls

White frosting

Toasted coconut

Red & White sprinkles

Cauliflower

Dark Chocolate

Peppermint chips

Rosemary

Hope you enjoy how this Candy Fantasy came together.

A big THANK YOU to food stylist Sarah Hunt and assistant Casey Dobbins for helping on this project! 

Extra food and candy were donated to http://www.sunflowerhouse.org/

These shots can get a little messy.  Some seamless paper helps with the clean-up.

The basic foundation.

The basic landscape shape.

Once we got the basic shape I started to add the snow.

A little cocoa adds a little different color to the landscape.

Starting to experiment with where to place everything. 

Food stylist Sarah Hunt working on the house.

Assistant Casey Dobbins putting the windows and door on the house.

Placing candy and white asparagus on the mountains.  I later decided they didn't work and replaced them.

Adding pink and white marshmallows to the front yard.

Decided to make this a sunset scene and started to add some color gels to the lights.

Final set.  I shot the cotton candy clouds and chimney smoke separately and added them in post. 

Some of the candy and food we used.

Sarah got tons of options for the shot.  Awesome job Sarah!

Final Image

My Fish Story

From time to time, we do pro-bono or reduced cost projects for small start-up companies, especially if we like what they're doing or like their product. This was one of those projects.

Quixotic Farming is a Tilapia farm operation in Colorado and Missouri. If there was an "organic fish" designation for fish farming, they would have it. Quixotic Farming Tilapia is raised without growth hormones or antibiotics and the water in the tanks is filtered constantly. 

The result is very healthy and clean-tasting fish.

Part of the project was to photograph some of their whole fresh fish -- Fish Portraiture as it were.

These fish were so good looking, the women at the studio just had to name them:
Timmy, Tommy, Terence, Tilly and Tina.

Me, getting fresh with Tilly.

Tommy, can you turn your head to the right a just a little bit more?

Can you say "Gold"fish?  Tina, you're beautiful!

Say "hi" to Eric Ely, our client, fish purveyor, and a really nice guy.

Working with our awesome food stylist to show how flakey and moist the fish is. 

Checking out the final shot.

Sarah can't wait to sample a morsel of this delicious fish.

Fish Tacos -- muy delicioso.

Hawaiian Fish Patty -- aloha!

A fun way to cut your pizza

Sometimes my job is just too fun.  This project was to show a beautiful pizza with a cheese pull.  However, this pizza product had some challenges.   The product is designed to be cooked from a frozen state.  If you let it thaw, cut the pizza crust, and re-freeze, the crust doesn't perform as it is designed to.  The solution was to cut the slice out of the pizza crust while it was still frozen.  We tried to do it with a knife but the crust was so cold it would shatter.  The solution, power tools!  I got my trusty power saw out and started cutting.  Guess what, it worked like a charm, and it was a blast.  How often do you get to cut your pizza with a power saw?

Some were a little skeptical!  (:-)

No, I didn't cut my fingers off or cut a big gash in the countertop.

As you can see, we were able to make a great slice in the frozen pizza crust.  Let the pizza styling begin!

Gold and Silver at AAF-KC Addy Awards

Normally, David Morris Photography doesn't enter to many awards show as most of our work is product driven images.  Every once in a while a project will come to you that is more "Idea" base.  These are always fun because you get to really be creative.

We were reward this year with 2 Gold and 3 silver Addy awards for two such projects this year!

AAF-KC Gold awards

Dog at Blackboard received a Gold Addy 

Cargill's  Ranchers Reserve  received a Gold and 3 silver awards 

Thanks to all of our clients for an "AWESOME" year and can't wait to see what's in store for 2012!

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.

Life in our back yard.

Another installment of images I wanted to capture in a way that reflects life, as I remember it, growing up in our back yard.

Red Currants

Raspberries & Blackberries

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

Latest Food Real, more "Visual Branding"

The concept of what an advertising photographer is and does today is being blurred.

We've helping to blur the lines by adding another "Food Reel" to our Vimeo site.  Let me know what you think.

http://vimeo.com/davidmorrisphoto/fresh-and-jazzy-food-reel

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.