On Saturday we spent several hours in the kitchen, and at our stall at the Neighbourgoods Market, taking product photos. We’ve been meaning to get some taken a while, but with no budget and the craziness that accompanies starting a business, there’s been no opportunity. But we were contacted a week ago by an online digital magazine about appearing in their beautiful publication, and we knew we had to take advantage of the opportunity. Enter: Dan, a dear friend of Marianne’s who has already earned himself an ice cream gold star by occasionally helping us pack up our stall. He works in film, and takes great photos, and kindly offered to help us out, gratis.
Up until now we’ve been using an iphone and instagram to take photos for our blog and promotional stuff. It’s great for on-the-go pictures, giving an instant, recognizable look-feel to our images, but a lot of people find it too stylized and irritating when every image is instagrammed. So.
I have limited experience in food styling, and what experience I have hasn’t been entirely positive. You need to have immense patience and attention to detail, creativity and a working knowledge of food photography to be any good at food styling, and I’d much rather mess around with flavours than how an ice cream looks. But Marianne and I brought in lots of pretty props from home, and played around with scooping, setting up and styling different vessels, napkins, spoons and tablecloths with our ice creams.
I think Dan got some really great shots, and I can’t wait to see the finished pictures. And although I am determined to move away from instagram, I couldn’t help taking some images during the shoot.