Wine, figs, cheese
I have been jonesing to get one of my food pictures posted on Foodgawker or Tastespotting for a while now, but alas my mad skillz in photography (or staging) have been lacking. Their typical response: lighting issues or poor focus (or both). So I did what any techhead worth his own salt would do, I bought a bunch of gear, I read a bunch of books, and talked to a lot of people. Guess what, the pics still kinda sucked! But they were getting better.
I am still determined to land something on those sites to drum up some traffic, so I have started taking an online photography class (PPSOP.net).
One fine Saturday morning, I cracked a bottle and broke out some cheese to stage a few pictures. Yes, the wine was only to stage the pictures. I didn’t enjoy kicking back on the deck with a few glasses of wine, some figs and parmesan chunks. Really. Sometimes you just need to sacrifice for your art.
Anyone lucky enough to be a guest at That Jew’s parties will know my ‘standard’ wine and cheese plates. Usually there is a little soppresada or Jamon Iberico on the side, but given the recent pig-fest I kept away from the swine.
To me making a cheese plate is easy, and I am sure there are real cheese-o-philes that would remark at how crude or unbalanced mine are — but for me it’s easy. Pick a few cheeses you like, and you do like cheese don’t you? Add some decadent accoutrements like chocolate, nuts, figs, dates, dried cherries, charcuterie, grapes, honey, jam, olives, even sardines, and blammo, it’s a party! Me, I prefer a big blue like Cabrales and the soft ‘n stinkies. I’ll balance things out with something less aggressive like an aged gouda, a hunk of parmesan or a sharp aged provolone for the less adventurous guests. I usually shoot to have 4 or 5 different cheeses to keep everyone happy. My guests know I like to try new cheeses and I do get the occasional “this tastes like feet” or “this smells like ass” comment (and sometimes I’ll agree), but you wont find swiss or american cubes here.
What do you think?
Photo info: Shot with Canon 7D, EF 70-200mm L 2.8IS + Canon 500D closeup lens, ISO 100, F/11, 1/4 sec. exposure.
Photo info: Shot with Canon 7D, EF 70-200mm L 2.8IS + Canon 500D closeup lens, ISO 100, F/4, 1/8 sec. exposure.
July 22 Update:
Tastespotting rejected me again, but at least they didn’t complain about bad lighting or focus. This time I got “not a compelling subject” . What? Say that again? Not a compelling subject? Wine, swine and cheese? Not a compelling subject? Maybe not trendy like clafoutis, ramps, or an heirloom organic farm-to-table bacon wrapped bacon served with a bacon ju (jew?). Ok, deep breath Andy. I think they just solidified using this picture on a cookbook entitled “Wine and cheese: Not a compelling subject”. Who said I wasn’t spiteful?
One of the things I am finding difficult with both Tastespotting and Foodgawker is that they crop the image to a square. This usually plays havoc with my composition.
I entered the vertical shot into a photo challenge entitled “Wine”on the dpreview website. In my unbiased opinion, my pic is no slouch when compared to many of the other postings, but who knows maybe we all suck! Voting should be complete in a week or so, I’ll post the results as soon as I get ’em.
8 Comments
I hope you enjoyed that bottle of wine that you used to stage your photos.
I have always enjoyed your food photos on your blog.
Figs, cheese and wine-a great combination. I have a fig tree, and the figs are all ripening at once (sigh). Too many figs, not enough days in the week to enjoy them. I love eating them with cheese and a good bottle of wine too.
Thanks Velva, I did enjoy the wine but only due to artistic responsibility 🙂 I have been trying to get better in order to get something accepted on foodgawker or tastespotting to drum up a little traffic, but they seem to be a picky lot…
There has to be a good recipe where you can use the extra figs, I expect to find them in something scrumptious on your blog!
Well done Andy!
I think the shot with more of the wine glass showing is near perfect.
The other shot, I am not sure about seeing the bottom of the wine glass, it may be a little distracting and unneeded….possibly a couple of well place grapes in the BG would have done the job? I probably would have shot this 1 from a little lower angle, but that is just personal preference.
Beautiful shots!
Todd
Todd, thanks for the encouragement and the feedback.
My instructor gave me some good feedback on the vertical shot: would be nice to have a little more depth of field, since the most focused object is the fig and it is cut off. He also thought I should have gotten a little more light shining through the wine and grapes to make them ‘sparkle’ and show some translucency. Lastly he thought the cheese knife could have been placed a little better to keep it from merging with the glass.
All good feedback, but these seem like slight adjustments and the quality is getting better. I may just do a little photoshopping and blow it up to a 20×30 for hanging…
–Andy
I am looking forward to taking a photography course, too, in the fall. Love your sharings. I have never bothered to submit to either site. Thought they basically went out and grabbed from sights. I think that is how they get most of their stuff. Don’t you?
🙂
Val,
You should submit your candied orange and kumquat pics, love them!!! The way it works is that people submit interesting photos and blog links and they approve them if they feel they are “beautiful”. Mine are always “Too dark”, “too unfocused”, or “not interesting subject”. Funny that some of the same pics my instructor says are “well focused, nice DOF” seem to get critiqued as having poor focus. Oh well — I’ll get one eventually. I thought the chickpeas and pasta would do it, but no luck…
I can’t believe you were rejected. Love what you do. What software do you use to edit your pictures? Waiting to hear from you.
Hey Helene,
I mostly use Lightroom to post process my photos, with a little Photoshop if necessary. I try to shun away from photoshop, as it is very time consuming and feels too much like cheating 🙂
In Lightroom I will touch up the white balance and exposure, sharpen and denoise a little. I’ll also crop to get a little more interest in the shot. I need to get better at ‘seeing’ it like that in the viewfinder 🙂
–Andy