Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Styling BFree Bread


I styled 6 recipes using wheat and gluten free bread for BFree Breads. Gluten free breads have come a long way since the day of their bath sponge texture. These breads in particular are so delicious you wouldn't really notice the difference between them and normal bread. So, even if you're not wheat or gluten intolerant they are a great alternative.

Food styling wise, I'm all about attention to detail. A little gloss of oil in all the right places, like on the olives and the roasted red peppers. Then interesting shapes like the cherry tomatoes, the cut of the red onion, the thinly sliced apple rounds and not forgetting my special basil plant that nobody is allowed to touch (or kill!) on me as it has the most perfect little pointy, curvy leaves. Oh what a weird and wonderful life I lead. Final attention to detail goes to getting those tasty looking flaky edges on the cheese slice, picking out turkey slices with nice golden edging and arranging asparagus tips so the look like they just happened to fall into that relaxed position. The irony (several goes and a few swear words later).

On the prop styling side of things, we went for a simple, fresh and healthy look. The wood gives a natural feel besides being a nice texture with an interesting grain. The torn paper is white parchment in some cases and also that lovely paper cheese sometimes comes wrapped in (of which I have a freakish stack of). It helps ground the food, adds another interesting layer and texture and keeps the look fresh and modern. The use of one or the other or both throughout the shots, marry's them together into a nice little collection. You agree?

Check out more of my work and the delicious, healthy recipes here.

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Some snaps from overhead...



(c) Cliona O'Flaherty

These are some photos from an Udo's Oil shoot that I worked on as mentioned in a previous post. 

As you can see, the photo's were taken from over head which really shows off the food. However, when shooting food in this way you really have no where to hide so it's important to pay extra attention to the placement of each piece of food,  the shapes created and the props that you use. What looks great side on may not translate as beautifully from above and vice versa. 

Shooting everything in a collection in this way might be a bit of a headache to look at, so these shots were mixed with others shot in a more normal way.

Anyhow, pretty pretty..