Chef Ryan

Cajun Chef Ryan

Feeling & sharing a world of cooking ~ more than your average Cajun



 



Food and Photography

August 28th, 2008 · 2 Comments

When I made the Dill Sauce for the Herb Crusted Salmon the other day I had to squeeze out some juice from a lemon so I decided to take a motion photo of my hand rolling and pressing the lemon to break up the flesh and pulp. I have been taking more photos of food among other things like my model trains hobby as well and have started to experiment with the camera a bit. It is nice having a hobby within a hobby, such as food and photography! I have spent more time in thinking up my food compositions for possible photograph opportunities.

In fact, sometimes I get so caught up in the cooking and eating that I forget to take a photo here and there. Or, it’s more like “…oh…I got to get the camera out to capture this before the sauce reaches a boil” type of moment.  Or I need to take this photo before the food gets cold, I want to eat it too you know!

This photo was taken with the self timer and the aperture setting around f-18 for a longer shutter time opening. I thought it was a really neat shot! Especially since I had to time when I moved the lemon in sync with the timed shutter opening.

I have always been fascinated with photography and one of my all time favorite photographers is the French photojournalist Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908 – 2004) who coined the phrase and published the book The Decisive Moment which has influenced what I hope to achieve in my quest for photo excellence.

“The simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as the precise organization of forms which gives that event its proper expression… . In photography, the smallest thing can be a great subject. The little human detail can become a leitmotif.” — Henri Cartier-Bresson1

 Here are a few of my favorite Cartier-Bresson images:

Rue Mouffetard, Paris, 1954 – aka Boy with Bottles
Rue Mouffetard, Paris, 1954

  

ITALY, Abruzzo, Aquila, 1951 – Women with breadITALY, Abruzzo, Aquila, 1951

 


  1Quoted in Modern Culture and the Arts, ed. J. Hall and B. Ulanov (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1972), p.473.
 

Tags: Ingredients

2 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Dave // Aug 29, 2008 at 6:58 am

    I always enjoy your blog. So much so, that…

    Tag! You’re It!

  • 2 The Hungry Mouse // Sep 10, 2008 at 2:28 pm

    Oh, gosh…thanks for sharing. You’re so spot on about photography with food blogs, I think. I just started doing more of it myself. I’ve actually taken to leaving my camera on my counter as a reminder. Now I’m just struggling with the horrible lighting in my kitchen….

    +Jessie