In mid August, I was contracted to do a food shoot for Baleen Restaurant at the Hotel Portofino in Redondo Beach, CA. The challenge with this shoot was to properly light and capture 10+ separate dishes in <8 hours. If you have ever been involved with a professional food shoot, you might know that there are a lot of variables in a food shoot including the location, the ambient lighting, the temperature, the client’s expectations, the chef and his/her food, number of people involved and many other factors.

Some food sessions take 4, 6 even 8 hours to capture a single dish to the expectations of the creative director. But that wasn’t the case with this one.  This was a really fun shoot. I have to say, Chef Daniel Roberts is one of the finest chefs I have had the pleasure of working with. Unlike other shoots I have been on, there was very little prep work to do. And in most cases, we were actually able to use the first version of each dish that came from the kitchen. They were creative, colorful and most of all – they were more than just good looking. The food tasted fabulous. I hope my shots portray just how good these dishes were once we ate them.

Below are the best shots from this series.  A more in-depth review of this photo shoot will be available on our website at www.cameradojo.com.

The evening photos here were quite a challenge as I had no lighting gear, other than my removable flash on my camera.  The other challenge was the wind.  The restaurant was on the waterfront and it was a stormy night.  We had winds of about 35-45mph to deal with while trying to shoot.  Plus, I was freehand shooting as I didn’t have a tripod with me.

All in all not the greatest food shots, but adequate for what we needed at the time (considering the last minute request).  I don’t consider myself a food photographer, but it is certainly something I want to get better at over time.

The people shots from this San Diego charity event were much more interesting than the food, but the food was certainly good and colorful. These are just casual “walking by” shots I took.