A Photo a Day by Bill Heller

Food Photos

 
Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Kiwifruit

Food and photography, some of my favorite things!

 
Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Corn Closeup

Maybe this would have been a little more fitting image for Thanksgiving. :-D

This is another low aperture shot making the the one ear out of focus. This close, the cornsilk almost looks like angelhair pasta. I like the texture in the near husk too.

 
Thursday, November 22, 2007

Baby Granny Smith Apple

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I hope you enjoyed lots of good food and friends today!

Unfortunately I did not get to take any photos of the great feast, but this was one of the "aromatics" (to quote my favorite tv chef) that contributed to the meal.

I did get a little adventurous today and decided to throw away those silly little plastic bags we usually use for the turkey. I can now tell you that brining your turkey the night before is the way to go. Much more moist and tasty that way. This is the basic recipe I used. But since I had not thought about it before hand I improvised on some missing ingredients. (Also, onions are bad for The Hound, and almost everything we make is hound-safe. Not that she is spoiled or anything. :-D )

 
Monday, October 22, 2007

Garlic Reflections

In addition to my local Santa Barbara images site I am in the process of doing some self promotion work for my commercial food & restaurant photography. I've always loved photography and I REALLY love food, so I guess it was only a matter of time 'til I made the connection!

Ohhh I just LOVE Garlic!!

 
Saturday, September 22, 2007

Kiwi Slices

The Kiwis in the kitchen were getting a little soft so it was time to do something with them. I guess I could have just eaten them... but then I wouldn't have some cool photos to show for it.

 
Sunday, September 16, 2007

Fresh from the Garden

This was taken a couple hours before yesterday's photo of the day. This was the scene in the middle of the table that inspired the three hour photo shoot.

The cool purple garlic bulb is from a recent trip to Gilroy for their Garlic Festival, but most of the others are fresh from the garden.

 
Saturday, September 15, 2007

Habanero Reflection

I noticed this pepper as I was sitting at the dining room table this morning with my wife and bird. (His cage is in the corner of the dining room. He likes to be right in the middle of the action.)

We have a huge pile of peppers and tomatoes on the table from our plants in the back yard. My wife has been pointing out the cool ones to me for a couple of weeks, and I finally couldn't wait any longer it was time for a photo shoot!

About three hours later this was one of my favorite shots. But I can't take all the credit, I have a great Art Director & food stylist! The cool black tray was my wife's idea.

 
Friday, April 13, 2007

Stripey Season

Oh I'm so excited! It's tomato time again! (yeah I know I need a hobby! oh yeah, I have my camera!) This is one of our "Mister Stripey" tomatoes from last year. But it is time to start looking for this years varieties. A couple weeks ago we had to search all the nurseries to find only common tomato varieties, but they are out in full force now and I have lost count of how many we have.

Of course, one of our favorites is still around from last year. It is a big mass of vines that seems to be very happy and produced fruit all year even through our mild frosts here. (It was nestled against the wall under our living room window and, luckily for him, they didn't seem to have anything like insulation in the 70s when the homes in this area were built. :-)

 
Monday, December 25, 2006

Frohe Weihnachten! Natale allegro! Merry Christmas!

This is an amazing little restaurant where we had a wonderful Christmas dinner today. The first thing that called our attention to this it was the Maitre D'. As we got out of our car the first night we were in Carmel he came over to the wall under the lamp post and howled at Zoe. He was very excited to see her, he explained in a German accent that he had grown up with hounds just like her. He then asked us if we were ready for dinner and told us that he had a patio where Zoe would be welcome.

We were not ready for dinner then, but he left a real impression on us. Any place that was that friendly to our hound had to be ok.

It was a good assumption, the waiters were very friendly and the food was absolutely delicious. A perfect Christmas memory! We will be back again for sure!

 
Friday, December 1, 2006

Coffee on the Hoof

Or more specifically, "Espresso." One of the wonderful things my wife introduced me to!

This is a little bit of my experimentation into self promotional shots for food photography. The christmas card season can't last for ever after all. :-D

 
Saturday, November 18, 2006

Savoy Nights

This week I had the enviable task of shooting and designing a new ad for a great restaurant in town. I love this kind of evening shot, and since the primary objective of the ad was to let everyone know they are now open for dinner it seemed the perfect opportunity for some dusk photography.

If you would like to see the finished ad, watch for the upcoming issue of Santa Barbara Food & Home or contact me for a sneak preview.

 
Thursday, September 21, 2006

Grapes on the Vine

Mmmmm, grapes! I love the color of them.

 
Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Tomatoes from the Garden

These are some beautiful little tomatoes from our garden. My wife has an incredible green thumb. Our biggest plant is about seven feet tall! So this is the first of many tomato dishes.

These are Pink Grape Tomatoes. They are translucent, beautiful, and delicious. The basil is from the garden too. Now we just need our own buffalo for the Mozzarella. :-D

 
Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Chicken Salad

A couple of days ago you got to see the ingredients. Now we have the results! Food is a tricky thing to photograph. Especially something like chicken salad. It has the very real potential to come out looking like... well, something you really do not want to eat. In examining my favorite cookbooks, I have found that lighting and garnish both play a major role in making formless things interesting and appetizing.

In the not too distant future I will be starting a new project, a cookbook, with a friend who owns a great restaurant downtown. I have to practice because his food is so good I really want to do it justice!

 
Tuesday, June 20, 2006

...with chocolate syrup!

This is another shot from Saturday, for those of you who like a little chocolate syrup!

Apparently there is some debate about the spelling of the word "Caramel." My wife found a few arguments online for Carmel (Just in writing this I spelled it both ways, that is why the question came up.) But, Carmel does not seem to hold up in the dictionaries. And there was one particularly snotty person somewhere telling about his wife the English PHD who had never heard of a word "Carmel." Perhaps it's not English, but they should look into the names of a few cities and mountain ranges. And my favorite, north of here near the city of Carmel there is a river called the Carmel river. If that doesn't sound like a place right out if Willy-Wonka's factory you need to work on your imagination!

I can only think of what my favorite TV Chef would say... No matter how you spell it, its "Good Eats!"

 
Saturday, June 17, 2006

Caramel Bowl

Today I tried to get away from my computer a bit. I love cooking and I have been finding some fun opportunities in food photography. Pity, now I need to practice! After cooking and shooting several things my wife was making something else in the kitchen that resulted in some leftover syrup in the pan. I love caramel and she suggested making some. This ended up being the most fun dish we made and it was totally spontaneous.

 
Monday, April 3, 2006

Yellow Bells

I love Gelson's! Their produce looks like a farmer's market. They even stack everything with the stems pointing in the same direction. Particularly nice since we went there to find subjects for some still life food photography.

 
Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Leek Soup

So if you have been around the site for a while, you know that I recently married my best friend. Well it turns out, SHE CAN COOK! (not like I did not know that already, we have been friends for ten years.) But she has been quite creative recently. This was the scene in the kitchen when she was experimenting with Leek Soup. We must be newlyweds I can still get in the way in the kitchen with my camera! :-D

 
Friday, March 10, 2006

Lunchtime Photo Shoot

This was actually taken before yesterday's photo of the day. (yeah, I'm a little out of order :) Before I go out on a job I like to experiment a little with different compositions and lighting. This was an especially important thing this time since I was not using my trusty AE-1. I would not trade my AE-1 for anything, but professional food photography is definitely in the realm of the medium format camera with an interchangeable Polaroid back, or a good digital camera. Without the immediate feedback it is just too hit or miss to capture the wide range of colors and textures.

Incidentally, I have some very kind friends who attended our wedding to thank for this shot. The extremely cool plate is part of a wedding gift.



 
Thursday, March 9, 2006

Tea Time at Savoy Truffles

Earlier this week I took some shots at Savoy Truffles on Figueroa for their promotional materials. What a great place for a photographer (especially one like me who loves to eat!)

I could have spent all day just taking pictures of their cool tea cups and tea-pots!

Everything is beautifully done there, from the interior to the presentation of the food itself. You can tell they really take pride in what they do. The owners and the employees all seem like they are happy to be there. Which is very refreshing.

 
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