Food Stuff

My food weekend

After noticing the lack of roast beef sandwiches on Dreamstime and confirming with iStock the same, I decided to do a sandwich shoot.  I thought it would be my first “easy food” shoot.  I mean..how hard can it be to style a sandwich? 8 toothpicks and 2 frustrating hours later I can honestly say it’s WAY harder than it would appear.

The second part of my foodie weekend was a birthday party / dinner party.  We combined an adult-based dinner party for the family with our 14 year old’s birthday party to come up with a menu of: pizza bites (slice in between each and every pepperoni) and tomato skewer appetizers, one huge tossed salad and saute of chicken and broccoli over penne as the main course.  We followed that with birthday cake of course!  Since we technically had my birthday to celebrate as well and 15 guests, we made two cakes.

Here are some quick images I shot this weekend – not the best of the best but at least a few I have already edited.  I’ll post the recipe for the chicken and broccoli on my MattAntonino.com site later today.

Food Stuff

Be a ________.

During the last few months one of my major goals has been to shoot more food photography.  I am really interested in the subject, I enjoy all aspects of it, and I think I can do it well (eventually).

So my past few months have been focused on learning – studying food photos, “becoming” a foodie, learning styling techniques – I never wanted to jump straight into food but rather be a food person who knew how to photograph.  I’ve been studying food, food photos, collecting recipes, deciding on what I want to focus on. In learning to “be” a food stylist/chef  you learn about presentation.

Thus my thought for the moment – become involved in the shots you want to shoot.  You shoot sports?  Go PLAY sports more – referee for the kid leagues, shoot hoops more at the park and watch more games.  See how the pros present sports.  You want to shoot business people?  Get deeper into business – meet with SCORE, talk about business planning and attend a seminar so you can see how someone has designed their speech.  Desire to shoot more animals & nature?  Interact – get out there, follow wildlife, hunt (with or without the gun), track animals – learn their behaviors.

— Related tangent —

When I first started learning to be a wedding photographer I listened to everything wedding photographers said. Advertising, marketing, sales, websites, SEO, photography & lighting, everything!  Eventually it dawned on me that photographers were good at making images.  I should learn advertising from an advertising specialist.  I no longer pay much attention to wedding photographers when they speak on subjects other than booking or shooting weddings.  The thought is very similar to what I’m talking about above.  Learn to be great at your subject – not just aware of it.

Sometimes when I want to shoot something I just pull it up, shoot it, wonder why it doesn’t sell.  I think the main reason is because someone else understands the subject while I just wanted a good photo of it.  Can I take good photos?  Yes.  Absolutely!  I shot models for years – and then I realized that because I don’t enjoy it all that much, the images weren’t high-class.  I can shoot well enough but the connection wasn’t there.  The question is – how involved are you in the shoot?

It doesn’t make sense for a city-dweller to go shoot cows and barns.  It doesn’t make sense for a sporty jock to shoot ballet.  Who are YOU and what can you shoot better than everyone else?

Food Stuff

Preparing Our Next Shoot

I wanted to document a bit of how we prepare for a new stock shoot.  Unfortunately I’m not shooting hot models a la Chase Jarvis so I’m not going to be live demo’ing anytime soon!

Our thought process on a new photo shoot works something like this:

1. Overall concept/theme/ingredient
2. Specific recipe
3. Lighting/angles/technicals
4. Shop
5. Shoot Day

1. Overall concept/theme/ingredient

We shoot two days a week – Friday and Sunday. If we shoot more that’s fantastic.  If not, oh well.  We plan those two days to have one breakfast or lunch type shoot (Friday) and one dinner/dessert (Sunday).  It’s easier to spend a long time cooking/shooting on Sundays for us and dinner/dessert usually seems to take longer than breakfast/lunch.

I follow some really great foodies on Twitter/Facebook/blogs.  One thing I always look for is a recipe that a) will taste great and b) will LOOK great.  As a bonus I often look to see if I can find a healthy version so nobody gains 10 pounds per recipe I shoot.

2. Specific Recipe

So Friday we need to create a lunch. I bookmarked a delicious looking recipe two weeks ago and decided quickly I’d try that this week.  The recipe will be 3 Cheese Chicken Cacciatore Manicotti.  That was easy.  We also need to figure out dinner for Sunday.  I wanted to find something not as “fancy” as cacciatore manicotti so we looked at several recipe sites, some cookbooks and finally decided on something the Biggest Loser Cookbook called “Mom’s New Beef Stew.”  That fits my requirements: tastes great, looks super yummy and bonus: it’s fairly healthy at 275 cals per serving.

Some weeks I will decide on a recipe by ingredient.  Take Kahlua for instance.  We have leftover Kahlua from the chocolate mousse we made a week ago.  This Chocolate Truffle Pie also uses Kahlua.  If we don’t make that Sunday for dessert I’m certain we’ll make it next week.  Using ingredients you have on hand greatly reduces wastes and product going bad/old.

3. Lighting/angles/technicals

After printing the recipe and making a shopping list we write on the back of the recipe some ideas for the shoot.  Mostly this is just note-form.  Here are some examples from our banana split shoot:

• Yellow/orange
• high key
• OJ – don’t think milk will work
• Balance the color
• Angles: will be propped up?
• Spoonful

Generally meaningless until you get in the shoot.  We did end up using a yellow napkin and orange juice – it balanced the color very well.  We did some shots near the end of the shoot with a spoonful of split in front of the dish.  We tried but didn’t use milk because it did, in fact, look bad.  We ended up propping the bowl with a small bottle cap for a few shots.

4. Shop

Shopping day is Thursday.  That dictates our Friday shoot – if we need something super-fresh we may have to pick that up Friday morning before the shoot.  Sunday’s shopping is done except fresh on Thursday as well.  WE have a local Farmer’s Market on Saturday mornings year-round so we do our fresh shopping for Sunday then.

With our recipe and our ideas already in place shopping day is generally pretty straightforward.  Pick the best items you can find.

5. Shoot Day

Well, shoots are shoots.  The only thing we try and do specifically at each shoot is pre-organize our ideas so we don’t cut up the food before we’re done with it.  The further into a shoot we get the more we “mess” the dish and the more we feel free to cut, chop, move, adjust, add to, take from, etc.  We want to get those setup shots first, the meat of the shoot, then start playing with the outer edge of the shoot – closeups, eating, some unusual stuff just to see how it works, etc.  Get the bulk of work done when the food is as fresh and perfect as possible.  Once you get that THEN experiment.

Wrap Up

So that’s the way a typical shoot has been going for us.  We are pro photographers but very amateur food photographers. The combination is sometimes an interesting one.  I can figure out how to light something I’ve never shot before but I may not know how to drizzle syrup “correctly” yet.  We continue to read foodie sites, blogs, watch food stylist tutorials on Youtube and read food photo books.  Many many ways to learn in 2010!

Hope you enjoyed the post!  It’s great to be back and thank you for all the comments and well-wishes recently.

Food Stuff

Yogurt Banana Split

This morning our kids woke up to a banana split with hot fudge for breakfast.  Needless to say, they are THRILLED we are doing food photography now. It was chocolatey, fruity and very tasty.

You’ll find that most of what we are doing now is healthy so even though these look like 500 calorie treats they are just 195!

Strawberry Breakfast Banana Split

1 ½ tsp fat-free, sugar free hot fudge 1 small banana, peeled and sliced 1/3 cup strawberries, chopped 1 tbsp Grape Nuts ¼ cup vanilla lowfat yogurt

1 Heat the hot fudge in the microwave. 2 Arrange the banana halves in a small dish with the cut sides facing inward. 3 Spoon the yogurt in the middle. 4 Top with strawberries, then cereal. 5 Drizzle hot fudge over the top and serve.

Nutrition Facts Servings: 1 Yield: 1 banana split Serving size: Entire recipe (9.2 ounces). Nutrition information provided by the recipe author. Amount Per Serving Calories 195 Calories From Fat (4%) 8.24 % Daily Value Total Fat 1g 2% Saturated Fat 0.65g 3% Cholesterol 3.06mg 1% Sodium 88mg 4% Potassium 638.69mg 18% Total Carbohydrates 46g 15% Fiber 5g 20% Sugar 25.59g   Protein 5g 10%

Food Stuff

Low fat Kahlua chocolate mousse

This Low fat Kahlua Chocolate Mousse recipe may save my LIFE.  I am a chocoholic, yep.  And for years I’ve tried to lose weight and eat healthy all to succumb to chocolate again at some point. I must say before I even begin comparisons or anything of the such – this tastes AMAZING.  It was so good we felt happy not to have leftovers because they would be gone too. It tastes absolutely delicious.

The typical chocolate mousse has 250 calories, 15g of fat, 440mg of sodium, 28 carbs, 3g protein.

Low Fat Chocolate Mousse has 145 calories, 3g of fat, 43mg of sodium, 22 carbs, and 3g of protein!

So yes, if you eat TWO of this recipe you’ve ingested 40 more calories, still less than half the fat, still 20% of the sodium and twice as much protein as if you ate a single serving of your typical mousse.  This stuff is practically life-saving!  This recipe comes from the Biggest Loser Cookbook which I highly recommend all homes carry.

Low fat Chocolate Kahlua Mousse

1/2 cup fat-free milk 1/4 cup kahlua 1.5 oz sugar-free, low-fat chocolate mousse mix 1 Tbs unsweetened cocoa powder 2   chocolate graham crackers, crushed 1 cup thawed fat-free frozen whipped topping

1 In a large mixing bowl, combine the milk, Kahlua, mousse mix, and cocoa. 2 With an electric mixer fitted with beaters, whip on low speed until blended. 3 Slowly increase the mixer speed to high, whipping for 5 minutes, or until fluffy. 4 In each of 4 large wine glasses or glass dessert bowls, layer 1/4 cup of the mousse, 2 teaspoons of crumbs, and 2 tablespoons of topping. 5 Repeat layering once more, using the remaining ingredients except for about 1/8 teaspoon of graham cracker crumbs. 6 Sprinkle the top of each serving with a few of the remaining graham cracker crumbs. 7 Refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving.

Nutrition Facts Serving size: 1/4 of a recipe (3.1 ounces). Servings: 4 Nutrition information provided by the recipe author. Amount Per Serving Calories 145 Calories From Fat (16%) 22.92 % Daily Value Total Fat 3g 5% Saturated Fat 3.66g 18% Cholesterol 6.44mg 2% Sodium 43mg 2% Potassium 107.95mg 3% Total Carbohydrates 22.23g 7% Fiber 1.52g 6% Sugar 8.48g   Protein 3g 6%

Food Stuff

Healthy Sesame Chicken

This recipe allows you to eat all that yummy Chinese food at home.  Let’s compare how this one stacks up to a personal favorite, PF Changs.

The PF Chang Sesame Chicken contains 535 calories, 15g of fat, 76 carbs and 39g of protein per serving.

This Healthy Sesame Chicken contains 457 calories, 6.5g of fat, 38 carbs and 59g of protein per serving.

80 fewer calories, less than half the fat, half the carbs and almost twice the protein makes this recipe a DEFINITE keeper!

 

Healthy Sesame Chicken

1/4 cup unbleached flour or all-purpose flour 1/4 tsp salt 1/8 tsp ground black pepper 4   boneless skinless chicken breast halves, cut into 2 inch 4 inch strips 1/4 cup reduced sodium soy sauce 1/4 cup sugar 1/2 tsp dark sesame oil 2 Tbs sesame seeds, toasted 1/4 cup chopped fresh chives (optional) 1.5 cups basmati rice

1 In a gallon-size plastic bag, combine flour, salt and pepper. 2 Add slightly wet chicken, seal bag, and shake well to coat. 3 Coat a large nonstick skillet with nonstick spray and warm over medium-high heat. 4 Add chicken to skillet and cook, stirring, for 8-10 minutes, or until no longer pink. 5 Transfer to a plate. 6 Reduce heat to medium. 7 Combine soy sauce and sugar in the skillet. 8 Cook, stirring occasionally, until the sugar dissolves. 9 Add oil and sesame seeds. 10 Add chicken and chives. 11 Toss and serve immediatedly.

Nutrition Facts Serving size: 1/4 of a recipe (12.5 ounces). Servings: 4 Nutrition information calculated from recipe ingredients. Amount Per Serving Calories 457.85 Calories From Fat (12%) 56.6 % Daily Value Total Fat 6.5g 10% Saturated Fat 1.32g 7% Cholesterol 136.88mg 46% Sodium 834.37mg 35% Potassium 701.34mg 20% Total Carbohydrates 37.83g 13% Fiber 2.28g 9% Sugar 13.11g   Protein 58.91g 118%

Food Stuff

Broccoli & Cheddar Frittata Muffins

This is a yummy family-friendly recipe for broccoli and cheddar frittatas in muffin shapes.

Our suggestion isn’t as nutritious but after eating our share of these we’d suggest adding a few slices of deli sliced ham and replacing the fat free cheddar with a low fat cheddar.  The fat free is sort of tasteless and the ham would add a bit more protein – worth the calories!

The original recipe for this is straight from one of our favorites: Biggest Loser Family Cookbook

Broccoli and Cheddar Frittata Muffins

1   Olive oil-flavored nonstick cooking spray, as needed 1 cup steamed broccoli, chopped 2 cups egg substitute 2 oz reduced-fat cheddar cheese, shredded

1 Preheat oven to 350°F. 2 Lightly mist 8 cups of a nonstick muffin tin with olive oil spray. 3 Divide the broccoli evenly among the cups (2 tbsp in each). 4 Divide the egg substitute evenly among the cups (¼ cup in each). 5 Bake the frittatas for 7 to 9 minutes until almost set. 6 Sprinkle the cheddar cheese evenly over the tops of the frittatas. 7 Bake for 8 to 10 minutes longer until the egg is no longer runny and the cheese is melted. 8 Transfer the muffin tin to a cooling rack and allow to set for 2 minutes.

Nutrition Facts Serving size: 1/4 of a recipe (5.6 ounces). Servings: 4 Yield: 8 frittata muffins Amount Per Serving Calories 102 Calories From Fat (18%) 18.8 % Daily Value Total Fat 2g 3% Saturated Fat 1g 5% Cholesterol 16.14mg 5% Sodium 314.95mg 13% Potassium 485.73mg 14% Total Carbohydrates 1.91g <1% Fiber 1g 4% Sugar 0.88g   Protein 18g 36%

Food Stuff

Apple Walnut Rice Salad

This is our first attempt at posting a recipe online and our second attempt at food photography ever so please be gentle! We’re going to be posting recipes and photos at least twice a week.  This is a recipe I found on an Indian foods site. After eating it as shot, I’d replace the brown rice with basmati but choose the rice that suits your palette.  This is best served warm.

Apple Walnut Brown Rice

1 cup brown rice 2 tbsp extra virgin Olive Oil 1/4 tbsp grated orange peel 5 tbsp orange juice 1 tsp vinegar 1 pinch nutmeg 1 pinch salt and pepper to taste 1 whole apple 2 tbsp raisins 3 tbsp celery chopped 2 tbsp toasted walnuts, chopped

Instructions 1. Cook a cup of raw brown rice and keep aside. 2. In a bowl, combine 2-3 tbsps olive oil, 1/4 tbsp grated orange zest, 5 tbsps orange juice, 1 tsp vinegar, pinch of nutmeg pwd, salt and pepper to taste. Mix well. 3. Add the cooked brown rice, one chopped apple, 2 tbsps raisins, 2-3 tbsps chopped celery (both stalks and leaves). Toss all the ingredients. 4. Finally add 2 tbsps toasted, coarsely chopped toasted walnuts.

Nutrition Facts Nutrition information calculated from recipe ingredients. Serving size: 1/2 of a recipe (8.6 ounces).  Servings: 2 Percent daily values based on the Reference Daily Intake (RDI) for a 2000 calorie diet.   Amount Per Serving Calories 358.26 Calories From Fat 169.4 % Daily Value Total Fat 19.49g 30% Saturated Fat 2.56g 13% Cholesterol 0mg 0% Sodium 13.07mg <1% Potassium 356.69mg 10% Total Carbs 44.54g 15% Fiber 4.46g 18% Sugar 15.56g 10% Protein 4.21g 8%