If so, you need to get a copy of Italianicious Magazine. It’s a bi-monthly publication and this month, their iPad app has been launched. It’s a free download this month, when using your iPad,  simply go to the App Store and search for Italianicious.

My camera and I spent an afternoon at Tartufo with Tony Percuoco and Italianicious editor, Danielle Gullaci. Regular followers of this blog know that I love food photography, photographing the dishes Tony presented was a treat. My food photography style is to use natural light exclusively and keep it real, there is no fake trickery here, all the dishes are real and can be eaten! The images in the magazine look awesome and the new Italianicious App looks stunning on the new iPad. What’s more, Tony’s recipes are provided so you can do your best to create these dishes.

Tony, Danielle, it was a pleasure to work with you, congratulations on the May/June issue, it looks fabulous.

And yes, the Pannacotta featured on the cover was delicious!

Photographing Pablo as he cooked his family recipes was an honour, he was so engaging, his manner so welcoming. As I photographed him “at work” I witnessed a chef passionate about his art and only too willing to share his story.

The “Chef in Action” article featuring Pablo Tordesillas is in the June 2012 issue of SBS Feast magazine available at your local newsagent now.

Have you ever wondered what goes on in the background to produce the commercial photographs that we see in the print media or online?

My work with The Spicers Group is a terrific case study showing how images can be used to great effect to develop brand awareness with potential clients through the media and in group marketing material. I have been working with The Spicers Group for some time now, photographing their properties and the experiences guests can enjoy. For those needing a catch up, The Spicers Group are a hotel group with seven luxury retreats around South East Queensland/New South Wales. Spicers Group properties offer their guests luxury accommodation, gourmet food and wine, unpretentious service and unique on-site experiences including cooking schools and day spa treatments.

With every commercial photography job, we discuss with our client things like their brief, the outcomes they need, how the images will be used, the shape of the images needed (typically landscape for web use and portrait for magazine use), the style of photography needed and the “shot list” to be covered. We also offer advice on what is the best way to capture the images needed.

The images here are a few from a photo shoot at Spicers Clovelly Estate, Montville. What a glorious place to photograph!  Up before dawn, using the early morning light for a range of images before moving indoors for other images on the shot list. When the late afternoon light was glorious, we moved outside again, us photographer types call it magic hour. And then it gets dark, time to finish, download, recharge and do it all again he next day.

After every photo shoot, we always download and back up our images in multiple locations, they are very precious pixels! We then select the images for the client and process them ready to print. Our approach to commercial photography or photographing your business is pretty straightforward, we photograph for a half day or full day to create the images you need then provide high resolution images from the shoot ready to go.

Businesses can really benefit from having their own photo library. The problem with using images from commercial photo libraries is that the images you purchase can also be used by all sorts of people, including your competitors!

Before long, our commercial clients build up their own unique image library to use for any purpose such as in press editorials, magazine ads, on their website, on billboards, in annual reports, print materials etc. When used with thought, images become representative of a brand, a feeling, a culture. The images themselves can become iconic and synonymous with a brand.

We always take great pride in the images we provide our clients. It’s so satisfying seeing our clients feature the images we have created in magazines, on billboards and websites and knowing that our images are helping our clients achieve their marketing goals.

Learn to Use Your Digital SLR Camera at my “Hands-On” Photography Workshop, Sunday 3rd June 2012

Have you bought a new Digital SLR camera recently? Are you confused about the buttons and dials? Photography is an art form, yes a shiny new camera helps, but you have to know how to control it to get fabulous images. Spend a day with me and you will have so many new camera techniques to use.We’ll begin our day together in my studio examining images from my travel collection including many of my award winning images. I’ll reveal the camera settings I used to capture them and what inspired each image. I’ll share my foolproof recipe for creating an image so you can be in complete control of your exposures. My “hands-on” approach means you will soon know what all the buttons and dials do!

We’ll explore:

• aperture and shutter speed
• depth of field and ISO
• focal length, lenses
• light and image composition
• RAW versus JPEG.

After a break for lunch, we’ll meet on location for our afternoon photoshoot where you’ll get to practice your new knowledge. I’ll take you on a guided walk where we’ll photograph streetscapes, landscapes, architecture and food, all the stuff we love to photograph especially on holiday.

What past workshop participants say:

“The blend between theory and practical components was great. I loved that after each new thing we learnt that we walked outside had a go. It really helped me understand everything and remember it later” Kay-Lyn

“The workshop has made a huge change for me, I don’t feel my camera is wasted on me now” Jenny

“To have the control of my photos by knowing when, why and how to adjust ISO, aperture and shutter speed has made me eager to use my camera daily and make photos I can feel proud of.” Barbara

“I would definitely recommend this workshop to others, in fact I already have! It’s great for anyone who has a DSLR and isn’t using it manually. Whether you’ve had your camera for a while and aren’t sure whether you’ve been using it to its full potential or it just came out of the box, the workshop is very educational.” Kay-Lyn

Please bring with you:

• Your Camera: A digital SLR with lens or lenses
• Your camera instruction manual
• Memory cards
• Fully charged camera battery, plus spare if you have one.
• Tripod if you have one
• Notebook and pen
• Hat and sunscreen.

I recommend you wear comfortable clothes and shoes you can walk in, you may need to kneel down to take photos.

Workshop Details:

Date: Sunday 3rd June 2012

Where: Brisbane, Australia

Numbers: This workshop is “hands-on” with a maximum of only 12 participants only. (8 participants needed for event to go ahead).

Workshop Fees: $195 per person. Want to bring a friend? Register two places and receive $25 off each registration.

Times: 9.30 am – 5.30pm

Bookings: Please email me your contact details to reserve your place in this workshop.

Additional individual tuition is available. Please contact me for further information.

About your Workshop Leader John Reyment

Master photographer John Reyment has been taking photographs for more than 30 years. He is the owner of Reyment Photographics, a boutique wedding and portrait studio in Coorparoo, Brisbane.

John lived in Europe throughout 2009 with his family photographing European life, landscapes, producers and food. John’s images have been published in the Australian press in a variety of magazines including SBS Feast, Italianicious, Luxury Travel and Style Magazine. His documentary style of photography won him the 2010 Epson AIPP Queensland Documentary Photographer of the Year award. He is the 2011 Epson AIPP Queensland Runnner Up Photographic Artist of the Year. John has won many AIPP print awards for his images.

John left a career in training and development and management consulting to pursue his photography dreams. He is eminently qualified to help you learn photography.

Working with Brisbane based creative agency, Red Candy and Weston Milling, I visited and photographed a cross section of Weston Milling’s customers all over Australia. Their customers had operations that ranged from big to small, large scale production to tiny premises. All had a unique story to share.

My brief was to be a documentary photographer, (my specialty) and capture the essence of each business, going behind the scenes to photograph production, key people and of course some of the amazing product made to entice.

It was an awesome project, there were times I was up ladders, secured by safety harness to the top of scissor lifts, dressed in protective jackets and hairnets, squeezing into tight spaces. My camera and I were often covered in flour, what a sight I must have been.

The end result of the project is the great bit. Seeing it all come together is so satisfying. Weston Milling published their 2012 calendar using my images of their customers businesses, the calendar has been distributed widely to their customers and potential customers. Weston Milling are clearly a company who care about each businesses they supply, they have been innovative in showcasing the stories of these businesses on their own website.

Weston Milling now have their very own image library of unique images to use in their printed materials, brochures, product catalogues and web based marketing materials. Having your own unique images is much more powerful than using standard stock images that may also appear on competitors marketing materials.

Congratulations to all at Weston Milling and Red Candy Agency for being so innovative and setting the standard for supplier/customer relationships. A big thank you as well to each of the businesses I photographed, It was a pleasure to work with you all on this exciting project.

Below are just some of the images from this project. Businesses featured in the 2012 Weston Milling Calendar were:

• Uncle Bob’s Bakery, Brisbane
• Miettes Boulangerie Patisserie, Brisbane
• Dulwich Bakery, Adelaide
• Riviera Bakery, Adelaide
• Little Caesars Pizzeria, Perth
• Miss Maud Pastry Houses
• Arik Kebabs & Turkish Bakery, Perth
• Bharat Traders, Melbourne
• Sunstar Bakery Melbourne
• Sainsbury’s Artisan Bakers, Melbourne
• Pasta Vera, Sydney
• Croissant D’or, Sydney

Brett Noy, Uncle Bobs Bakery, Brisbane

Brett Noy, Uncle Bobs Bakery, Brisbane

Uncle Bobs Bakery, Brisbane

Miettes Boulangerie Patisserie, Brisbane

Miettes Boulangerie Patisserie, Brisbane

Dulwich Bakery, Adelaide

Dulwich Bakery, Adelaide

Dulwich Bakery, Adelaide

Riviera Bakery, Adelaide

Riviera Bakery, Adelaide

Riviera Bakery, Adelaide

Little Caesars Pizzeria, Perth

Little Caesars Pizzeria, Perth

Little Caesars Pizzeria, Perth

Miss Maud Pastry Houses

Miss Maud Pastry Houses

Miss Maud Pastry Houses

Arik Kebabs & Turkish Bakery, Perth

Arik Kebabs & Turkish Bakery, Perth

Bharat Traders, Melbourne

Bharat Traders, Melbourne

Sunstar Bakery, Melbourne

Sunstar Bakery, Melbourne

Sunstar Bakery, Melbourne

Sainsbury’s Artisan Bakers, Melbourne

Sainsbury’s Artisan Bakers, Melbourne

Sainsbury’s Artisan Bakers, Melbourne

Pasta Vera, Sydney

Pasta Vera, Sydney

Pasta Vera, Sydney

Croissant D’or, Sydney

Croissant D’or, Sydney

Croissant D’or, Sydney

Working with art directors and editors is different to photographing for my business or my commercial clients. When photographing for magazines, you have to keep the spirit of the brief in mind, images are to reflect the copy that will ultimately be printed in the magazine. It’s important to compose and crop images in-camera, allow room for mastheads, text panels and shape of the magazine.

So what happens when a potential diner, new customer or key client finds your website? What first impression does your website give of you and your product? Images on websites and in marketing materials contribute greatly to the first impressions made. Quality images that inspire improve the chance the viewer will remain on your website and explore other pages. Poor quality images can reflect badly on professionalism and reduce the expectations for a top quality service or product. A scary fact; some restaurants often spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on an amazing fit-out yet have little to no budget to obtain excellent images to share their story.

The last few weeks have got me thinking about the images small businesses, restaurants and artisans use to represent themselves and their product.

Image is pretty important, especially when making first impressions. Do you remember when you went on your first date or your perhaps your most recent job interview? When wanting to make a good first impression we spend a lot of time on our appearance and grooming, some would day a job interview is a perfect opportunity for a new outfit.

The magazine briefs I have been working on recently have called for images to be emotive, candid, documentary, real, inspirational, evoke memories and share details. (I can’t share the images yet, they are embargoed until after publication). Imagine if the images in your website or marketing material had these qualities, they could connect you with your customers and potential clients in a very real way.

Are you wondering how you can have your very own set of images of you and your business?

It’s easy, we have three simple options. After a chat with you about what you need, we can work with you for a short time, a half day or a whole day. Images are included in our fee, this easy to understand approach removes the usual dramas of commercial photography.

To secure a shoot for your business, simply complete the contact form and we’ll be in touch soon.

What’s your vehicle of choice to drive the Route des Grands Crus? I saw all sorts of transport from people hiking to bikes, to campers, to cars, to trucks to busses. Early one morning, we were visiting Gaugry Fromagerie. A gaggle of exotic cars left the Gaugry Fromagerie car park not long after we arrived. On show were two Ferrari 599′s, one Aston Martin Vantage, one Lamborghini Gallardo and one Bentley convertible, a collection to make any car lover car and his teenage son drool. We witnessed men with dark suits and sunglasses return to their vehicles; doors shut with a reassuring thunk, engines roar to life, tortured gravel squirm under wide rubber and then, with a multi cylinder high pitch wail, they were gone.

Sadly, I have no photos of this, my camera was tucked away in my camera bag.

I did have my camera ready for this shot though!

Not quite as exotic, but with plenty of charm all the same, the famous Citroen 2CV. These little beauties are classics, so typically French. This is a street scene from Beaune, if you ever get the chance to travel to Burgundy, travel the Route des Grands Crus.

If you live in or near Auchenflower, Deer Duck Bistro is now open in your neighbourhood. Reviews say it is well worth a visit. To coincide with the development of the Deer Duck Bistro website, restaurant owner Nicholas Cooper engaged us to photograph the restaurant and some of the dishes on the menu. You have a choice of dining rooms, front and back, both a visual treat, with so many interesting things to catch your eye while you enjoy your dinner. The dishes coming from Minh Le’s kitchen look delicious too. Best wishes to Nicholas, Minh and all at Deer Duck Bistro!

How do you describe Venice? Some say it is grubby, falling apart and dilapidated, a tourist trap. Pick a busy season and the wrong time of day and you’ll find it full of tourists; thoroughfares and piazzas like Piazza San Marco and The Rialto Bridge will be will be jammed. The permanent population is only 60,000 odd; each day more than this arrive to parade around taking in the sights before disappearing into the night.

For me, I felt like I was in one massive movie set, surely I was an extra in someone’s academy award production. In 2009, we lived  just 20 minutes by train from Venice, this feeling never dissipated, even after many visits to the medieval city.

My favourite pastime in Venice was to walk with my camera. Getting lost is part of the fun, make a rendezvous time and place to meet friends at your peril, your excuse for being late will be you were hopelessly lost. No matter. Getting away from the tourist streets and finding the back streets is where the charm of Venice is to be found. I remember the sound of local Italian voices reverberating around tiny narrow streets. Get up or arrive early in the morning and explore before the tourist invasion, you will see the city come to life.

These images are just a few of my favourite images from Venice, I hope you enjoy them, it really is a place that is a must for those with a travel bucket list. ]]> http://www.adayinthelifeimages.com/exploring-venice-italy-with-my-camera/feed 2