The team at Bank Bar & Bistro don’t mess about. Merely two weeks after shooting the images for their website, they have already got their website up and running. Bellow are a few screenshots from their site which can be visited here.
I was happy to hear that the The Wanderlust Hotel was honored with a 2011 URA Architectural Heritage Award this week. This is the third winner that I have worked closely with in generating images that go into the competition submission – the other two being the New Majestic Hotel (2006) and The Empire Lofts (2006).
Some more of my shots of the Hotel can be found here.
While my mind was wandering (yeah, terrible pun!!) about Wanderlust, I came across an entry about the hotel in the Cool Hunting website. As it’s a site I regularly visit for inspiration, I was excited to see my shots of the The Wanderlust Hotel staring back at me. More priceless publicity for a one-of-a-kind hotel.
And while we are on the subject, the Design Hotel’s “Made By Originals” book is out, with a couple my shots.
Photo of the Design Hotel book courtesy of Foreign Policy Design Group who designed and installed the wonderful signage around the hotel.
This isn’t exactly up to the minute news! I have been looking back at my archives recently, and noticed a job that I didn’t really publicize. It was the 2007 Wing Tai annual report. It was a big deal at the time. But I was so busy when it came out that I didn’t get to blow my own trumpet about it!
So here it is! Me blowing my trumpet loudly about an annual report that I shot four years ago!! Brrr,rupppp,tuddd,dooooo!
It was an interesting brief, because it called for both my people / fashion shooting skills and architecture skills – sometimes at the same time. It was also the first time I had worked with Epigram, the iconic design house that know their way around annual reports!
ITE’s newly revamped website have made use of images taken by me for their Choa Chu Kang campus. They gave me free range of their campus for the day, and I ran around taking anything and everything, from their training kitchens to their fake mock-up hotel rooms and their gorgeously designed main building.
MICA Building Singapore
Every now and then (not often enough!!!) I take a shot for my own satisfaction…this is one of them. I have always loved this building, but have never actually shot it. After walking past it a million times, I finally got my camera out to document it after a job last night. It could have done with some nice blue sky at dusk….but that was saved for the client’s shot! Maybe I should go back and do it again properly next time……
That got your attention! But it is a big lie – I didn’t really shoot the cover… But two of my interior images did make it into the legendary magazine’s inner pages. Congratulations to the Wanderlust team, Loh Lik Peng and DP Architects for managing to garner impressive publicity for the hotel, and for Singapore.
Vogue Italia, September 2011.
Every year, I relish the chance to shoot mooncakes for the various Hotels around town. They are always fun and challenging because there is keen competition to have the best looking box and pictures for the year. This year, it was Crowne Plaza who wanted a fresh and modern look for their mooncakes.
It was an enjoyable shoot! We kinda made it up as we went, but I liked the idea of designing the brochure in-camera, placing the cakes as they would be laid out in the final brochure. The shot below (the one from above) is a single frame – and not Photoshopped. Even their stunning pink box was really actually sitting next to the cakes when it was taken. I love the way it all works together – created as a team with a client who is flexible, inspired and a wee bit adventurous.
If you are inspired to try them out (I can highly recommend the Soursop Mousse!!), you can download their order form here.
I foolishly gave all my food photography secrets away in a recent interview with Appetite Magazine. Well, not quite – there is a bit more to it than having a mirror on hand (though, that is my secret weapon!). You can read all about it below – if you can get past staring at my enlarged forehead. Yes, it was a self-portrait, and no, I won’t do this to you in your portrait. In case you are wondering, I do know how to use chopsticks (albeit with the naughty cross-stick method), and I used them in the picture to show off ( plus I couldn’t find my extra-large tweezers). The original answers for the interview are included below, (in case you can’t read the article), as well as the original image as it was meant to appear (I think my version is a bit more dramatic!!).
I was rather honoured to be featured alongside some of Singapore’s best food photographers – Edmund Ho, Andy Wong and John Nursalin. But please don’t use them – they are rubbish!!*
1) When did you start shooting food – How long have you been in the industry?
I started shooting food 7 seven years ago. I have been a photographer for nine years.
2) How did you start your career – were you always a food photographer or did you start in a different field – and successful business?
I was retrenched from my job at a big consulting firm. When I realised that if there was no real security in holding a traditional job, I may as well take the plunge and do what really inspires and excites me. Photography was the obvious choice because it is the one thing that I am good at – the one thing I find effortless to think about. And so it doesn’t feel like work when I am surrounded by wonderful food and people passionate about what they do.
3) The biggest challenges when shooting food are …
Getting the chef onside, inspired, involved and trusting me with their food. It is after all their baby, their vision, their style. It’s my job to understand what they are saying with their food and convert it into a delicious and evocative two dimensional image that looks tasty and makes the viewer feel hungry.
Technically, the biggest challenge is using technology to capture an emotion.
4) The most memorable/favourite food shoot you had was… (why and what was the dish?)
My most memorable food shoot was shooting a self-published book with Samia Ahad . It was a fun and passionate shoot, and the whole team was focussed on making something really special. The food from the Corriander Leaf Restaurant was eclectic, adventurous and unique, making my life a little easier. I don’t always get to eat what I shoot, but every single dish was edible and delicious.
5) The worst food shoot you had was … (difficult food stylist, editor, bad weather, etc…no names needed!)
My worst food shoot was my first ever food shoot at the start of my career. I lucked out on a big job for the most famous hotel in town, and I honestly didn’t know what I was doing. Food photography has some pretty specific lighting requirements, and I hadn’t yet worked them out then. Beautiful and expensive New Year dishes were piling up around me, and I just couldn’t get the look I was after. I learnt a lot that day, but it took six years for them to call me back again. Today they are one of my favourite customers.
6) If you could shoot any ingredient in the world, what would it be and why?
I can and do shoot all sorts of ingredients. But, the raw materials of a dish are less important to me than working with great chefs that combine them into something special. In fact, I treat the dishes I shoot almost as if they were a portrait of the chef in an attempt to capture the intended spirit of the food. There is a lot more to food than an inarticulate thing on a plate.
7) Your favourite ingredient/produce to work with is?
See above.
If the question was about my favourite cuisine, it would have to be modern Australian because it isn’t restrained by rules and expectations. It can be any shape, and any texture or colour. It’s all about freshness and feeling good, which is what I try to achieve with my own work.
8) Which internationally recognized chef’s menu or dish would you most like to shoot and work with, and why?
I would dearly love to shoot André Chiang’s (Restaurant André) amazing and whimsical menu. His textures, his colours and compositions, and the spirit behind the food excite me. I love his artisan approach, creating works of art with great care and lots of flair, orginality and imagination.
9) The reason you chose this noodle dish to shoot is because …
I wanted to avoid the clichéd long noodles, so these square noodles caught my eye. In retrospect, I probably should have gone traditional to give a little more texture and contrast in the shot, but I enjoyed the challenge of sticking to what I planned. I chose barbequed prawns because it symbolically reflects the culture of both my ancestral home of Australia and my adopted home of Singapore. I also thought the contrast of the blue and orange would make it more striking and unique.
10) What do you think is the latest trend in food photography and styling at the moment – where do you see the next trend going?
We have moved from the light and pastel look in recent years to the more brooding, darker, shadowy shots with deeper colours. The freshness of the food is still key though, so excessive artificial lights and fake food are still being avoided. My guess is that the dark styling will last a few years and we’ll swing back to the light again, but perhaps without the pastels (which will look dated to the next generation). I also suspect that still photographers will be looking to go 3D in the near future. It wouldn’t surprise me if the iPad will goes three-dimensional within the next five years bringing the entire industry along with it. Imagine how amazing food will look in 3D!
11) The most important equipment (e.g. type of lenses, lighting, utensils, camera,etc.) when you are doing a food shoot is …
My trusty mirrors – normal every day mirrors from a Swedish furniture store! They are my secret weapon, the thing that gives my food shots their magic. They stop the shadows from becoming too deep and help the food glisten.
12) What is the best part of being a food photographer?
By far the best part is working with really passionate, dynamic and complicated artists. Chefs can be humble or hellish, outgoing or insecure, egotistical and unpredictable, but they are never ever boring or uninspiring.
13) Are you a good cook? Do you cook at home?
I shouldn’t admit this publically, but I can’t cook. My job is to make what the experts produce in their field look amazing and mouth-watering using my expertise in my field. We work together as a team, tapping into the same basic human emotions that motivate us all. In this case the desire to be excited by food…and hunger!
14) If you were not a food photographer today, you would be …
Destitute and sad. I’m not joking! This is the one thing in the world that I am good at, and I cannot imagine doing anything else.
15) The one tip you could share with amateurs to make a dish look mouth-wateringly sexy is …
Turn off the lights (assuming it is daytime!), put the food in front of the window, shoot the food in the direction of the window, and use a mirror to bounce the light back into the front of the food.
* This is a joke, but do call me first!! 979 19917 – wink wink!
It was rather nice finding my photo credit in this morning’s paper. My stuff turns up all over the place, but I rarely get a photo credit – so it was cool to see that my client, Mr Campbell Wilson made sure the paper knew who took the picture!! I will be returning the favour once his low fare airline is up and running. Any excuse for a self-commissioned photography assignment in some far flung place!
