What's Cooking good Looking?

I have photographed food for over twenty years.  Food has always been a passion in my life that was passed down to me by my father.   When I was a child, my dad and I didn't bond over a ball game- we made pasta, plum tarts anything else that struck our fancy.   During these cooking sessions dad passed along skills that have made me a confident cook.  It was a natural progression to combine my passions for food and photography.

Food is a basic necessity and  should be pretty easy to sell,  and for the most part it is- people have to eat.   But how do you expand on market share and increase sales?   Show them the food to engage them.    Humans have a visceral reaction to images of food.   Make it look fabulous and you'll draw them to  the restaurant or get them to call room service.   They are already tired from traveling, work or a day out and about.  Make it easy for them to choose to stay in and relax.   Stock photos can work to some degree, but showing potential diners Your food makes the biggest difference.    The prospect of great food can also be the deciding point for brides and other event planners working with your banquets sales team.   

When we shoot food for marketing in hotels and restaurants we keep a very editorial look that makes it appear to be excerpted from the pages of a food or travel magazine. 

Often these food shoots will happen in conjunction with the photography for the rest of the property, but we also do Food & Beverage only shoots for properties wanting to increase sales in those areas.

It's a simple matter of show and tell.    If you don't show them what you have to offer, they won't know.   Independent restaurants know that they have to have images to accompany press releases, entice people on their website and get media attention.  Yet many hotels often under serve the marketing of  this aspect of their property and are not seeing the full potential of their Food & Beverage dept.

A recent development, is the need to control your image to some degree in social media.   Most online review sites allow customers to post photographs along with their comments, most often with truly mediocre results.  The photography most often uses  smart phone with a dirty lens ( when was the last time you cleaned the lens on your phone before taking a photo?).  Often it is in a dark room and they use flash- the same light that makes fabulous starlets look blanched and strung out when they are caught by paparazzi leaving a nightclub late at night.  Having beautiful photography of your restaurant, lounge, food and drinks that YOU can post, puts the other customer's photography in perspective and give you back the control of your public image.