Food That Looks Yummy!

When I first started art directing food photography things were different. We would spend hours arranging grains of rice to perfectly offset the protein and contain the sauce... Perhaps that's a bit of an exaggeration, but it's not far off. The point is the style was to make a plate of food look perfect. It felt wrong. I knew I was doing what was expected, but I couldn't help but listen to the voice in the back of my head that kept whispering, "No one is going to notice that unruly sprig of parsley."Thankfully, the style has progressed. Perhaps it's due to the constantly increasing social media outlets for amateur food stylists and chefs to showcase photos of their concoctions. Or perhaps magazines and food companies have realized that people don't want their food to look perfect. They want their food to look yummy!Check out the image from Gourmet Magazine online. I don't know about you, but this makes me wanna eat!Last week we had the good fortune to work with a client that understood this progression of food photography style.  And as a result the shots turned out great!Christy styled the food and I art directed and prop styled in a way that felt natural to us and, I believe, really translated into the quality of the shots. Here's one:  - Brandt Hoekenga