I began shooting the photos on this blog with a Canon 7D. In January 2012 I upgraded to full frame with a 5D Mark II. I use a tripod and take as many pictures as possible in natural light, although this is New England, so sometimes I gotta use flash, especially in our kitchen–dim on sunny days and positively Stygian during storms. I rely on three lenses: a Canon 24 – 105mm F/4 IS L; a Canon 50mm F/1.2; and a Canon 100mm Macro F/2.8 (the non-L). I love my gear, and would buy more if I had the money, especially high-quality lenses.
That said, great photographers take great pictures working with what they’ve got. I don’t claim to be a photographer, but I’ve taken a half-dozen online courses at at The Perfect Picture School of Photography. To the extent that the pictures work, I give credit to what I learned in both of Ron Goldman’s Food Photography offerings. To the extent that they don’t work, the fault is due to what I learned–and then forgot.
Beautiful shot!
Thanks. Tasted good too. :-) Ken
Everything starts by eyes… Your photographs are amazing! And then, you can’t believe but I can feel their smells too when I read your recipes… They are not only so beautiful photographs, they also seem so delicious. Inspiring me to cook them. Thank you Ken, with my love, nia
Thank you, Nia. Come back soon. Ken
Ken, your photos just keep getting better and better. Keep it up.
Ken, your photos are absolutely stunning. The light always looks perfect! I will be back too ogle the food & photos…Keep it up!
Thanks, Jessica. Glad you’re enjoying them. Ken
Your photoes look so wonderful! and I’m so impressed all picutres you took in the kitchen. Now I’m strugging with lights in my kitchen.. it is now easy to handle properly.. hopefully I will learn to do it somehow! Thank for sharing!
I STILL struggle with the light in my kitchen (it’s relatively dark). However, I have picked up a couple of tricks along the way. Almost all of the kitchen photos are taken with a flash–photos of ingredients and plated food are almost always with natural light. When we started the blog I tried using longer exposures in the kitchen, high ISO and a tripod, but cooking moves so fast it wasn’t very successful. So I switched to a flash, but then I often had three different sources of light hitting the food–tungsten, light coming through the windows, and flash–if you look at my early kitchen photos they often look too yellow or blue. It’s very hard to get the lighting right in post-processsing on a photo with multiple different sources of light. Now I put a CTO gel over my flash, which changes my flash’s light to tungsten; and I set my camera’s white balance to tungsten. This means I’m only dealing with two sources of light when I process the photos later. It makes it much easier to get a useable shot. Good luck. Ken
wow!! It’s not enough to say just thank you…. I really appreciate that!! now I’m a beginner of photography so honestly I can’t understand 100% what you said.. However! I am working on it! and I will keep it in my mind! here again! Thanks……
Hi! I’ve nominated you for the Versatile Blogger Award – http://eatnowtalklater.wordpress.com/2012/04/10/blog-awards/
Thank you. Ken
Just recently found your website and enjoying the combination of photos, unique sharing of recipes and food adventures. As for the photos, fabulous. For fun I take pictures of food that inspires me (with whatever is at hand, including blackberry or iPad). The other day I lucked into a perfect picture in my kitchen with natural light of whole fish preparation which was so satisfying. Thanks for the beautiful photo posting which are as satisfying as the the food itself.
Thank you! Glad you’re enjoying the pics. Ken
Beautiful photos, congratulations ¡¡
Thanks! Ken
I think your photos are lovely! Yea for Ron Goldman. I loved his classes.
Me too. He’s a very patient teacher, always willing to answer questions, and supportive of students efforts. Thanks for the compliment. Ken
These photos are incredible. They inspire me to try harder with my photography, but I don’t think I’ll ever get to this stage of perfection!
Sure you will! The photos in our first blog posts are embarrassing to me now, but everybody gets better. There’s a photo in Friday’s post showing the flash setup we now use in our dark kitchen. Our kitchen isn’t actually as dark as it appears in the photo, but I had to drop the exposure so everyone wasn’t blinded by the flashes going off.
My house is old and dark, which doesn’t help. Can’t wait till the temperatures rise so I can photograph outside. I’ll just have to fight off my dogs!
Ken, you are one very humble guy, and, one very talented photographer in the making. As a commercial photographer for almost 30 years I know talent when I see it and it’s a joy to tell you, you’ve got it! While you and I know that good camera gear helps, the real magic in an image comes from the person behind the lens. And with food photography it’s not just the technical things like camera settings, but equally, if not more so, it’s the layout of the food and the overall composition. And you are already doing exceptional work. It will be a joy following along on this blog not only to discover some new recipes, but to enjoy the beauty of your images.
Hi, Rick–What a generous comment! Clearly you weren’t looking at some of our early posts. :-) I appreciate the encouragement. I love taking photographs and relish every extra opportunity to try to extend my experience outside of a kitchen. Life handed me a plum recently in the chance to go to Haiti. Pics to follow soon. Ken
One thing I love about WordPress is that it shows the most recent posts (and on your blog, your most recent images) first. We all have images from early in our photography that we can shake our head or wish we’d been better “then.” What’s most important though is how we’ve grown and the skills we’ve learned. And, you’ve done, and are doing fabulously. I will definitely be on the lookout for photos from Haiti when you return. Rick
The Haiti post is up today. Among other things, it includes a link to a Haiti set on my Flickr account, a set that resides cheek-by-jowl with some VERY early photos. Ha! It keeps me humble. Thanks. Ke
Gorgeous Photos! I love the layout as well. http://www.gustatori.com
Thanks! It helps if the food’s good too. :) Thanks for the comment. Ken
I’m really loving the theme/design of your site. Do you ever run into any internet browser compatibility issues? A small number of my blog visitors have complained about my site not working correctly in Explorer but looks great in Chrome. Do you have any recommendations to help fix this issue?
That would be like looking under the hood of my car, where giant worms live. Sorry. Ken