Fun day with food stylist Michael-Ann Rowe

I can't believe how lazy i have been lately with blogging. I did this test shots with Michael-Ann over a month ago and i finally climbed up here to give my blog an update.

These photos were taken right before a thunderstorm, the sky gloomy, the light dim. I really like the moody look of some of the pictures.  The dark table surface with scratches on was  an improvise converted from Michael-Ann's computer desk.  We ate all the food after the shooting thanks to the wonderful cook! Something i wish I had done was to take some portrait photos of the stylist. Her blond hair is beautiful.

Photo shooting with food stylist Michael Giletto

   If you have been following my earlier posts, you may know that I have had the opportunity to work with a food stylist on a photo shoot.  Well, here is an update on how things went.

   I contacted an executive chef in New Jersey named Michael Giletto.  After the back and forth phone calls and emails where we were deciding what dishes to make and what style of photos we were looking for, we finally set the date of the shoot for Saturday, May 28th.

As it was my first time to work with a food stylist, I was quite nervous. The weather forecast earlier in the week was forecasting rain and thunderstorms for the weekend of the shoot, so I was beginning to worry. What else could I do but keep my fingers crossed? As the weekend approached, I made a list of things to bring with me, including a tripod, foam boards, mirrors, clamps, backup camera and battery, my collection of fabrics and props, the laptop, and a light stand and umbrella (in case the window light wasn't diffused enough).  Oh, and I received my new Nikon D7000 camera on Wednesday, just in time for the project!  So, my Nikon D60 was relegated to the task of backup camera.

  On Saturday, much to my relief, it was mostly sunny with a slight breeze. It was an ideal day for natural light food photography. I drove down to Oceanplace Resort and Spa in Long Branch, NJ where Michael manages quite a number of kitchen staff and all of the restaurants in the hotel, which makes him quite busy. However, he still found time to set aside a whole day for the photo shoot, of which I am very appreciative. The photo shoot took place in the fine dining room, in which one entire wall was glass. They set up one dining table with a white tablecloth and another that had a rustic, natural wood look to it.  I was provided with a tall ladder to use for my overhead shots.

    Michael was very easy-going and flexible to any ideas I had for the shoot. Before I met him in person, I had read about his appearances on the Food Network and about some of his other accomplishments. He mentioned he will also be appearing in a series of shows set to air in June. Honestly, reading and hearing about all that made me nervous, but soon after we began working together, I felt comfortable and relaxed. Michael is a very talented food stylist and is awesome to work with!

You will find some of the photos from the shoot after this post.  Enjoy!


My thoughts and prayers go out to those families who have lost loved ones that have given their lives in defense of, and to those who are currently serving this country on this Memorial Day.

 

Something orange

Life is treating me good so far since I moved to the city. I made a post on Craigslist last week to look for a food stylist to build portfolio together. To my surprise, quite a lot of people replied. I got emails every day until a week after. There are people with very interesting background. One girl called Michael-Ann is a food TV show host and producer, who also does food styling on the side. In her show, she travels around to eat different food and hear stories and cultures behind the food, which reminds me of Samatha Brown's show of the Travel Channel. Another one is an executive chef of a hotel restaurant in New Jersey. He has appeared in Iron Chef America as sous chef for Cat Cora and a contestant of Chopped. I am excited about all these opportunities. Only New York can provide me such diverse talents and surprises. You never know!

I met photographer Mira Zaki this week for coffee. And I am her intern now! She is sweet and easy-going and actually cares that I will learn from this internship, which I appreciate very much. I don't know how other professionals start, but for me having someone nice and approachable to show me this business is so invaluable. I got to know that she didn't enjoy driving for the same reason as me. Driving isolates us from the vibrant minutae of daily life on the street. You miss too much when driving. It's New York City!

Orange is my second favorite color besides pink. My personalities always prefer warm tones. They just cheer me up! I recently received Helene Dujardin's new book-Plate to Pixel. This is a practice shot of making use of complimentary colors--in this case orange and blue, that I just learnt from her book. Before I can work with the cooking and styling professionals, I just did some simple styling.

I am testing my new website and am gonna launch it officially soon. Stay tuned!

Lemon curd

 

    I've been trying so hard to do food styling myself. Things don't turn out as planned. I always make a mess and waste lots of time figuring out the recipe. When food is finally prepared, it's time of sunset, and the beautiful natural light is gone. So I tend to make simple food which doesn't require too much time or too many ingredients. Like this lemon curd. Lemon, butter, sugar, salt, and eggs are all I need. From the advice given by experienced photographers, I've spread out words, looking for a food stylist to work together. So I get the food prepared by professionals, and they get my photograghs.  Win-win right?

    On Monday, I checked out a retiring prop stylist's blowout sale. She has thousands of items crammed into her one bedroom apartment. Besides the bed, I didn't see any space available for a normal life. The cutting board, pink bowl and grey napkin are some of the items I got from her. The sale is still going on till Saturday, and she wants everything out by then. The prices are quite reseaonable compared to renting from a prop store. If you happen to live in NYC, it's something worth checking out! If you are interested, shoot me an email and I can send you the specific address. 

I am back, saying hello from NYC

    After the hectic packing, moving, cleaning, driving, looking for apartments, unpacking, and decorating, I am finally sitting here on my couch, typing my new post from my home in Brooklyn, NY. I took out all my dishes for photograhy, cleared out some space beside the window, checked out some awesome prop shops in downtown, bought a few more things from a retiring prop stylist's sale. I am ready to go back to my routine. I want to keep doing food photography, not just as a hobby, but professionally. New York is the right place for this job. Tons of restaurants, hotels, magazines, newspapers, advertising companies make this city full of opportunities and competitions. There are dozens of prop shops too for the prosperous TV, movie, art and design business. I checked out one called Prop Haus, which was mentioned by a food blogger. Although I had seen some pictures from its website, I was totally blown away the minute I stepped in. Two whole floors dedicated just to food photography and styling. It has everything you can imagine, besides the regular bowls, plates, cups, glassware, cookware, napkins......it has a considerable collection of vintage tables, surfaces, and anything antique and organic. I've been trying so hard to find a nice wood surface, something with  light-colored paint peeled off and cracks here and there. They have some perfect ones!! Later when I told a food photography studio manager how excited I was when I found this store, she was so calm and said: "oh, there're a dozen prop stores like this." New York is definitely the right place! I like crowds! I feel alive when I follow the flow of crowds on the street. I grew up this way. 

    Well, last week I met a food photographer-Colin Cooke, who's in business for 30 something years. He is so nice and ready to share. He told me how technology had affected this business and what the life would be like as a photography assistant. He even extended his generosity to think of ways for me to build my portfolio. To be a freelancer needs lots of self-discipline. Unlike a nine to five corporate job, you have to figure everything out yourself. You have to push yourself. Sometimes you get lazy unconsciously, and sometimes you just don't know how to run this business. So it would be great to have a mentor when you just get your foot in, to show you around, to familiarize you with the process. That's why I want to start as an assistant. I got several photographers interested in me, but nothing is settled yet. Maybe I will meet more people in this coming week.

    I styled and photographed the roasted cherry tomatos as my return and the first shot of my new life.  I don't usually like the taste of fresh tomatos, sour and boring for me. But this simple recipe of roast tomatos changed my opinion. Just a drizzle of olive oil, fresh thyme and basil, roast in 400C oven for 15 minutes and add salt and pepper after roasting. The sourness is gone! It's so full of flavors and juices. 

Cheer!

Trip to China Part II

    This photo was taken at my friend's home. These stools and chair put together made an intereting combination of shape and color. 

    New Year is all about family. The new year holiday lasts 15 days and I remember we always had very full schedule of visiting families. Eating family meals is the traditional and the only festive way to celebrate it. Quite a few people have to work for a day or two in the kitchen to prepare the new year's eve dinner for 30 something family members in my mom's side. That is an extremely labor intensive work, since we always cook meals from fresh ingredients, there's nothing like throwing a grocery store bought frozen pizza into the oven and getting dinner ready within 30 minutes.

    I took some photos of the home-made dishes at my Aunt's home, and my little nephew eating. 

Spicy chicken salad;shredded carrot salad; ants in the tree (minced pork and cellophane noodles)

An Uyghur man selling lamb kabobs

Street food vendor and customer

 Chengdu's one of the most famous snack food is sweet potato noodles with pig intestine. Weird as it sounds, it tastes really good and I know where to eat the best in the whole city! I made a tour to visit the neigboorhood I grew up and came back to this diner restaurant to reminisce my childhood memory. For 20 years, it hasn't changed at all. Still an open kitchen facing the street, people waiting in the line at the kitchen to get their food, the staff smashing the dough of sweet potato noodles with his sweat rolling down the face, right in front of waiting customers. It's quite a show!

Non-spicy and spicy sweet potato noodles with pig intestine

    

    No doubt that China is rising up and there's a rapid increase of higher income families, but it's an extremely polarized country with the poor struggling hard to survive. I like to shoot these poor and maybe ignored people who showcase a large portion of the population to remind myself and others that China has a long way to go to become a real good country.

In my parents' neigborhood, this man makes a living by collecting residents' trash and sorting it out. He likes to sit in his shabby chair outdoors on sunny afternoons and drink some cheap booze and maybe take a nap.

     This old lady sells her hand-made stuff on the sidewalk in winter. There's a bus stop right in front of her spot. Although this is a busy business district, few people bother to stop and buy her stuff.

 I am extremely busy packing, contacting moving companies and looking for apartments since I came back to U.S. I will be moving to NYC soon, hopeful in mid April to try my luck to land a job as a food photographer assistant. The one and half years of living in North country NY made me unable to work, but on the other hand, I discovered something I trully love. I am grateful!

Happy Chinese New Year

   

Let the cute bunnies welcome you for the belated Chinese new year-Rabbit Year!! I know they are ridiculously adorable as well as other alien-looking stuffed animals! Most of the time in China, I stayed in Chengdu, my hometown, to spend time with my parents and visit families. It's the first Chinese New Year in the past five years that I celebrated with family. I also traveled to a historic town about an hour from the city to have a one-day getaway, and to Xichang, China's Houston as far as shooting rockets is concerned to visit more families and did sightseeing. I was never bored there. Eating hotpot, BBQ, singing karaoke, biking through the city, meeting old friends, visiting high school teachers, shopping at bargain prices.....you name it. However, things aren't always cheap there, especially so for imported brands. I got a black peacoat for 70 dollars after sale and a 20% off coupon, but the exact same coat in Chengdu is marked 4000 yuan ($550 or so), even after sale the price is still as high as $250, while its original price in U.S. is $200. How ridiculous!

Huanglongxi,A historic and tranquil town from the distance

Street vendor and his spicy potato

deep fried mini seafood;Sichuan style pancake with a selection of 20 fillings; Liangfen-jello made of rice, with spicy dipping sauce, silk tofu sprinkled with goodies.

 China is a country with 56 ethnicities. The above photos are about an ethnic called Yi, living in the southwest, mostly in Sichuan and Yunnan provinces. The kids were trying to sell me some local crafts they or their moms made. Unfortunately I already bought some from other kids. When I tried to take photos of the local Yi kids, most scared away, but this little boy even made a pose for my camera! The girl is the waitress and dancer of a Yi style restaurant which has dance shows every night for dinner guests.

Grill-by-yourself BBQ in Xichang

A red haired man and his barber stand in the shade of the tree

In a buddhist temple