Buon Apettito

Last September, Teresa and I attended a friends retirement from a company we all were employed, at one time or another.  She decided it was time to pursue something she was passionate about and open a Deli and Cafe.  Fast forward six months and now she wants some Marketing material for both print and web.  She asked if I would  come up for the day and take some photos of food, the space, patrons, and family.  It's a five hour drive from Bakersfield to Petaluma and is mostly flat and boring for four hours until you hit the Bay Area and then it get's really beautiful.

We arrived at Noon and set-up to shoot inside, with her huge front windows facing Southwest, we had some excellent natural light pouring in through the windows.  A majority of the shots were done with a reflector and a few with a single strobe and a 1/4 CTG gel to combat the fluorescent lights.  The main image above was done with an SB-900 in 15 x 15 RPS Studio softbox camera left and a silver reflector just out of frame camera right.

We shot about 400 images that included images of patrons, the deli case, aisles, food,, etc..., but what did I learn? Have a "game" plan - It probably would have gone smoother if we had planned out all the shots we needed.

It was great having Teresa and Jennifer there to help me re-arrange the food, tables and even hold equipment.  After the shoot we ate the Lasagna and all the other delicious food she made.

It was nice to see her Deli busy with customers, and to spend time chatting with friends and acquaintances, and That's A Wrap!!!