Tim and I are working with the folks over at Agency Access to help with our photography studio marketing. We're putting together email promos and printed mailers, and we wanted some striking images that grab the viewer's attention. I recently read about food trends taking over Instagram, like decadent milkshakes, over-the-top desserts, things including edible gold, you get the point. I thought it would be a fun project to show the age of opulence and instant gratification via the theme "freak shake". We wanted to nod to popular food culture, so we included household names like Little Debbie's and Hostess in the freak shake toppings.
Tim and I planned well for this project, sketching out the layout, angle, color scheme and mood for the food photography. I went shopping for all the ingredients, and when the time came, we took a half day shooting the shake. Low and behold, the food styling was highly complicated for this! Our first couple attempts were a mess. We had to practice many times getting the caramel to stay in jut the right place, as it cascades over the glass, and discovered that instead of whipped cream, good-old cool whip holds its shape...forever. We tried to salvage some of the shots from the first shoot, but it just didn't have the impact we wanted. The angle was boring and the food styling was sloppy, and not in a good way.
Tim and I went back to the drawing board, perfected the food styling with lots of skewers holding up the food items and stand-ins to shoot with. The next shoot was a success! We narrowed down the dramatic angle first, then crafted the perfect studio lighting on the "stand-in". Once we had the hero shake, we shot additional details. Fortunately the hero was the best shot, and you can the results below. Many thanks to Tim's masterful retouching skills to give the final "pop" and polish to the image. We can't wait to send out the mailers!
Food and beverage photography in Austin, TX. "Freak shake" photographed here.
Cherries and sprinkles left over after dessert photography.
Studio Brisko, Food Photographer