I've decided. My 1st round of photos to shoot for this week.

Good morning there.

This is an early(really early) post for today. Partly because I'll be busy the whole day today and I don't think I'll can make it in time to post anything later during the day. Therefore, here it is. I've selected two(2) achievable dishes based on images I went around Stockfood . I'll be able to exercise my planks that I'll be putting together this weekend. The main reason that these shots were chosen was that they required very minimal props. Other images are great, but I don't have the fancy fusion white wares just yet. Maybe that'll be next week's goal, which is to get one fusion white ware for the week. Enuf yapping, here they are, my two finalists (for today):

Image courtesy of Stockfood, photographed by Oliver Brachat.
A portion of spaghetti with shrimps & ramsons (wild garlic)

Note: I need to get that kinda plate, and the wine glass. Maybe I'll substitute the plate with a while bowl I have in the kitchen. We'll see. Planks coming in this weekend.

Image courtesy of Stockfood, photographed by Eising,FoodPhotogr.
Ingredients for prawn sauce in a stone mortar

Note: I can pull this off. I got the stone mortar.

Where can I get ideas for food photography?

It's coming to the middle of the week and I'm starting to get anxious, nervous to actually live up to my own expectation and walk the talk this weekend. I have no idea on what to shoot. Nevertheless, I got some progress on where to source out the planks (in Malaysian context).

Where?
I'm gonna get them timber pallet planks at some industrial area. More specifically nearby my house, which would be the industrial area in Batu Tiga, Shah Alam. I've seen some abandoned timber planks from timber pallets sometime ago, but I'm yet to find one this Saturday or Sunday.

Now, about the idea.
The fastest way to get some ideas is to copy, then improvise. That's what I learnt in art school, during drawing and painting exercises of still life. So, here are some links of online Stock Food Photo Agencies where we can get some inspiration from, in no particular order:

1. Stock Food at http://international.stockfood.com/
2. Fab Food Pix http://www.fabfoodpix.com/
3. Food Photo Library at http://www.foodphotolibrary.com/
   

What to get?

I've seen a few photography props being used by famous food photographers. What I'm talking about is the table surface. It's the rusted timber plank surface. Mostly come in white and some in dark brown colour.

For this weekend, my aim is to find and construct myself a white timber surface for my food shots. It should be something that I can put on top of my dining table in the house, and take it away when it's done.

Note to self:
Next goal after accomplishing the timber planks: "Make the diffusion panel" refer photo below.

Examples here: Credits to Matt from Wrightfood. His blog here.

Hello World! New Year's Resolution

Hello all,

I'm putting up this blog as a special project for myself. Inspired by the movie "Julie & Julia" which is based on two true stories, this project gives me a short term goal, something to do/achieve, one step at a time, on a weekly basis. Of course, I can't compete with Julie Powell with her cooking one dish from Julia Child's cookbook every single day, therefore, one food photography shot each week would be fair for me, in my opinion.

What's my goal?
For the year 2010, I will photograph one dish a week (most probably during my weekends, either Saturday or Sunday). There are 52 weeks in a year, therefore, this time around next year, I shall have at least 52 food photography collection that I can be proud of.

Hopefully, this will also document my progress, and along the way I'll find better ways of photographing food and share with all of you. The food photos would also serve as my stock food photos.

Now, since I missed the first week of January's quota, I'm gonna have to make it up my photographing two dishes this coming weekend. What to shoot? No idea yet, but I'll surely get there (with the help of my luvley missus)...

See you all next week then. T'ra!