Time travel in the darkroom
Recently I have enjoyed the opportunity to get back into a darkroom - using my vintage medium format cameras again has also been a joy.
Spending time in the darkroom years ago really sparked my passion for photography, and although digital cameras are a fantastic tool for professional photography, you can’t beat the satisfying clunk of an antique shutter and the unpredictable results on film! It is so exciting watching an image appear in the developing tank, and a feeling of achievement in completing the whole process from the click of the shutter.
This year I took my Kodak Duaflex on holiday to Cornwall and Venice. I love the old fashioned feel of the photographs - from the tiny black spots where the film has been a little bit scuffed to the hazy focus and spots of dust, it’s like a little time machine, taking me back to the early days of photography.
Experimental Food Society
This weekend I enjoyed a trip to the Experimental Food Society show on London's Brick Lane. I love the amazing things people can do with food - some of the exhibitors are incredibly creative and produce food almost too beautiful to eat. Cakes by Pomp de Franc were just extraordinary and sugar art by Michelle Wibowo included a lifesize, extremely detailed Dodo. She told me that it was so easy a monkey could do it but I didn’t believe her - the detail was incredible
I’m afraid that I chickened out of trying the snack box by food adventurer Stefan Gates largely because having fed mealworms to my pet hamster as a child I have not been able to face eating them myself and the curried mealworms with bee vomit on yoghurt were just a step too far for me. I am sure they were delicious though and I enjoyed listening to the snackers playing their carrot bassoons. Other delights in the box included a bum sandwich and jellyfish, fungus and noodle salad and lambs testicles on cous cous.
I did make my own blend of tea with the Girl with the the Golden Cup using mint, lavender, rose, ceylon tea, borage and white tea. It was lovely and I wish you could buy it in bags.
One of the most interesting exhibits was by Emily Crane, Cultivated Couture - she has created delicate and beautiful materials from micro-nutrients to produce unique and transient fashion, experimenting with natural and edible ingredients known as high tech kitchen couture.
It was a feast for the eyes as well as the stomach, and a fascinating day out.
Vintage Portraits - Vintography
I am looking forward to a new venture alongside CharlestonDance putting together a truly unique hen party experience with a vintage feel.
This month we took part in the Vintage Wedding Fair in Chiswick. It was a fantastic event - some fabulous stands and the most beautiful dresses and accessories. We met some wonderful brides to be and I really enjoyed making some portraits in my vintage style photo booth. I put together a dressing up box with some pretty vintage accessories to make the experience fun and a little bit glamorous!
We had a lot of interest from visitors to the fair, and I can't wait to shoot our bookings in July. I have started a new blog purely for the Vintage Hen Parties - please drop in or contact me for more details!
Why should I pay for a Professional Photographer?
A question I hear all too often these days! All businesses are struggling to deal with increased costs and cash-strapped customers, but this is not the time to cut back on a marketing budget. Remember that an effective marketing campaign will increase the number of customers requesting your services in the future, and by reducing your marketing you may risk losing customers who don’t know what services you offer or even if you exist at all.
The other objection I encounter often is that most people now own their own camera - often a very good one, and they decide to take their own photographs for websites and marketing. This may be an effective way to cut costs, however it is important that the images you show on your website are of top quality - poor quality images will give the wrong impression to visiting clients.
Food is especially difficult to photograph without the correct equipment - poor lighting will make even the most delicious and stylish meal look tasteless and unappetising. Typically restaurants are lit with fluorescent or tungsten lights, which will give a green or yellow tint respectively to your images. Using proper lighting, lenses and white balance, the photograph will do justice to your food and entice visitors to want to try the real thing in your restaurant.
I have taken a few simple photographs above to show the difference. The images are of the same dish - a simple salad with chilli, on a bistro style background, and from roughly the same angle. The first photograph is of very poor quality - taken with a point and shoot camera in normal indoor lighting with no flash. The food lacks colour and the image overall has a yellow tint from the tungsten lighting. This type of image will definitely not be effective on your website or menu!
The second image was taken on the same little camera, but using the on camera flash. Even using the camera’s ‘Food’ setting, the colours are slightly better but the flash is very harsh and creates distracting reflections and shadows on the food and table. This does not look professional and will put people off their dinner!
The final image was taken with professional camera equipment and proper lighting. The overall effect is much more appetising - the colours are natural and the focus is on the food rather than the table setting.
A good photograph looks professional and shows that you care about your product and business. Don’t risk putting your customers off with an unappetising image! Contact me today to discuss how I can add value to your marketing menu and arrange a free, no-obligation quote.
Christmas Cupcake Recipe
Christmas Cupcakes
1-Mincemeat Cupcakes 2-Fig and Ginger cupcakes
100g butter/margarine
100g caster sugar
100g self raising flour
2 eggs
pinch salt
2tbps mincemeat 1 crystallized ginger stem finely chopped
1tbsp finely chopped candied peel 6 chopped dried figs
4 chopped dried figs 1tbsp finely chopped candied peel
pinch ginger pinch ginger
Beat the butter/marj until soft then add the sugar and salt and beat until smooth and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and beat until smooth. Then add the sifted flour and combine evenly. Add the mincemeat, peel, figs and ginger and mix thoroughly.
Divide the mixture into 16 cupcake casings and bake at 180ºC for twenty minutes until golden brown.
For the icing, make butter icing with brandy and a pinch of ginger:
150g butter
300g icing sugar
1.5tsps brandy
1 pinch ginger powder
Beat the room temperature butter until soft then sift in the icing sugar and mix carefully to a smooth paste and add the brandy and ginger. Spread or pipe onto the cupcakes to decorate.
Fig and ginger cupcakes
Chop the stem of crystallized ginger extremely finely and add with a couple of teaspoons of the ginger syrup to the basic cupcake mix with the chopped peel and figs
The Techy stuff:
For the photographs I set up my mini studio with two strobes at minimum power (one with softbox and the other with an umbrella), set the camera to f1.4, 100ISO and 1/160s for the ingredients images. For the main cupcake image I just used one strobe aimed at the wall to reflect low light onto the table, and had two sets of fairy lights in the background. In order to blur the background, the aperture was f1.4 again, 100ISO and 1/125s. Camera is Canon 5D mkii, with a 50mm f1.4 Canon lens. I also adjusted the white balance to warm the tones. Props include old crockery from various junk shops with dried orange slices, tinsel, fake ivy, old books and fairy lights.
