Featuring in British Airways High Life magazine worldwide this month are some photographs taken for a ski food feature. My job was to take some representative images of food high up in the Alps at Ristorante L’Ortiche in the ski resort of Sauze d’Oulx, Italy.
Taking photographs in a hot and busy working kitchen (with a number of chefs and other staff) is a challenge in itself – especially when you have seconds to take the photograph before the dish is whisked away to diners in the main restaurant. This is where experience really comes to the fore. Finding a place to shoot, setting-up everything beforehand, take multiple test shots to ensure the lighting is just right, sort out colour-balance, adjust black and white reflectors, diffusers etc etc. So that when the dishes are ready you’re able to shoot the food quickly.
These shots were taken with one speedlight bounced of a white reflector panel, one additional diffuser on the flash head and black panel. All shots were taken with the Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM, between f5.6-f7.1 and all were handheld using Phottix Odin wireless TTL flash triggers (much more reliable – and cheaper – than Pocket Wizards in my experience). Obviously, given the time and space to do it, it would have been preferable to shoot with controlled lighting in a studio. When you don’t have that option, you have to make the best of it.
The feature is in the October edition of British Airways High Life Magazine
