We all want to share our food experience and for a business such as ours, to showcase our dishes. That is where my interest in Food styling and photography started, and I was lucky enough to contact Monika Coghlan of Pepperazzi Food Styling and Photography and then the Dingle Cookery School came on board and our special weekend was born.
I have been interested in food for such a long time and having our own business which is so food base is just a dream come true. I have amassed a BIG collection of cookery books and just love looking at the photographs.
With the advent of digital marketing platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter there is a revolution in Food photography.
The workshop itself was quite an informal setting in the Cookery School and the number of attendees is small which ensures personal attention.
We started off with Monika giving us the theory of photography and food photography. We talked about different lenses, tripods, and light diffusers. The different types of lighting you can use back lighting, side lighting or front lighting, and the photographers friend, white balance. We then moved on to composition development, angles and the moods you want to create in your styling. This really made you think about that you are photographing in a completely new way and will assist me in the coming months to develop my own style. I also have quite a large collection of vintage china and cutlery which I have gathered over the years and I think this makes food photography and styling much more interesting.
Mark Murphy from Dingle Cookery School took over at this stage for a food demo and his piece of advice was “ learn to cook your vegetables in five different ways”. Mark made a few dishes for us and then plated them up with a “ less is more” piece of advice. We were very lucky in that then we had those dishes for lunch and there was a lovely informal atmosphere where we all chatted and shared stories.
After lunch we got down to some serious food photography and Monika was on hand to advise us as to how to use your camera or iPhone to its best advantage. Some of the photos were amazing.
Our guests then had an overnight with us at Castlewood House, and following breakfast on Sunday morning we congregated at Dick Mack’s Pub for a tour of their new Brewery. This was followed by a tasting and then a fab cheeseboard from the Little Cheese Shop. Mark (who also owns the Cheese Shop) gave us a really great informative description of the cheese and advice on creating a cheeseboard for guests – Something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue!
It really was such a lovely weekend and we all parted ways with all our lovely attendees asking when they could come back to Dingle again ! We are thrilled that it was such a success and will hope to run this weekend workshop later in the year
At the end of the day my objective was to be able to create a photograph that looked like it came from a cookery book and I don’t think I am there yet but I am working on it!
You can view other activity packages available at Castlewood House here….
