There’s something rather satisfying about photographing food before it becomes food.
These grapes are growing on our vines at home. I’ve watched them develop amongst the leaves, gradually getting larger, and naturally I eventually reached for my camera.
Most of my professional food photography begins much later in the story. A chef has chosen the ingredients, prepared the dish, plated it beautifully and then it’s my job to photograph it in a way that makes someone want to eat it.
But food has a story long before it reaches the plate.
It starts with ingredients growing in gardens, fields, orchards and vineyards. The shape of a leaf, the way sunlight falls through it and even the imperfections are all part of that story.
Photographing what’s already there
I didn’t want to interfere too much with these grapes.
There was no styling, artificial background or carefully arranged composition. I simply moved around the vine looking at how the natural light was falling and searching for a viewpoint where the grapes stood out from everything surrounding them.
The shallow depth of field helped separate the bunch from the foliage while still leaving enough of the environment visible to show exactly where they were growing.
That’s an important distinction.
Crop too tightly and it becomes a photograph of some grapes. Leave a little of the vine and foliage around them and suddenly there’s context.
Food photography is storytelling
This is something I think about when photographing professionally too.
A good food photograph doesn’t necessarily need to show everything. It needs to make you notice something.
Sometimes that’s the texture of freshly baked bread, the shine of a sauce, steam rising from a dish or the detail of an ingredient.
And sometimes it’s simply a bunch of grapes quietly growing amongst the leaves.
They’re not ready for the plate yet.
For now, I’m quite happy just photographing them. 🍇
Ray
