The Patch :: Ingredients/Kitchen

I’m not so sure taking photos in the kitchen during meal preparation is fun, but it seemed to me that ingredients should be closely connected to the cooking and eating. Not that I am one of those that photography my meals, it has always struck me as one of those subjects where it is very difficult to actually capture what you remember seeing. There are all sort so stories, possibly many are urban myths, for example that any food photographed inb magazines is inediable because of using acrylic paints, or dyes, hair spraym WD40m penetrating oil or even PVC glue in the cream. I wanted my food uncontaminated because I intended to eat it. Ok I did take a picture ot two but didn’t waste too much time before easting it.

I also took a few photos as I cooked a generous steak, trying out HDR (not such good results) as well a a more conventional tonal adjustment in lightroom, and then a bit of enhancement in perfect effect (motion bluring outside the frypan and warming the colour of the streak a fraction). Because I was using a variety of natural light getting the colour balance right was a bit of challenge across the range of the photos I took

I decided I would take a bit for practice before I could get appetising looking food.

How difficult could the ingredients for a cocktail be to photographed? My very favourite Brazilian cocktail is the caipirinha, it was hardly know outside Brasil and perhaps portulgal until very recently and there are almost as many recipes and techniques to make it as there are villages in Bahia. Traditionally it is made with lime, sugar and Cachaça (a sugar cane based spirit alcohol) but on inspection of my Tahitian lime, it is in the last throws of flowering and the fruit is just beginning as buds. the lemon tree is also still flowering but have a few ripe lemons (albiet small) so I figured any brazilian would also make the same choice, a lemon it is. I do happened to have some authentic Cachaça, although you can use vodka (or white rum) and the recipe I learnt was to place the lime/lemon segments in a glass and add two or three teaspoons of sugar then use a stick (the end of a wooden spoon is fine to mash. aka muddle, the fruit and sugar together into a paste and gradually add a little ice and muddle the mix some more. Fill the glass with ice and add the cachaça. Some net recipes suggest adding sprigs of mint but I think they are just good garish for the photo not the drink.

I did a couple of photo set up. One in front of the tulip bulbs (they gain most interest last week) and one in a glimpse of the winter sun. This send photo was on the round kitchen table and the curves and strong linear shadow and narrow vertical bottle gave me a better opportunity to look for a strong composition. The chair in the background was a little jarring so I use masking and motion blur in perfect effects to tame it. For those interested the caipirinha was delicious.