Food photos from Nautical Nellies Restaurant
In the spring of 2010 I was working on my graduation portfolio. I had decided to shoot food, and my instructors (Andrea and Mitch) mentioned a few restaurants that I might want to contact. One of them was Nautical Nellies Restaurant. They graciously let me come in to shoot, and prepared eight different dishes for me. I used three of them, and they then got the photos for their own use. A win-win situation.
One of the photos even ended up traveling around Victoria for a few months on the back of a bus.
Fast forward to November 2011. I'm back at Nautical Nellies, and this time shooting at their request. Five different dishes - and a big portion of the two sushi dishes got eaten afterwards by me and Carrie, who was my assistant for the assignment.
If you ever get a chance to eat at Nautical Nellies, don't waste that chance. The food tastes as good as it looks.
Steak, crab cake and jumbo prawns with prosciutto wrapped asparagus, roast garlic crushed fingerling potatoes and shiraz reduction.
This seafood tower contains smoked oysters, crab claws, sushi rolls, steamed mussels, clams and more.
Lobster sushi roll with Atlantic lobster, baby shrimp, tobiko and scallions, topped with warm unagi and avocado.
A different view of the lobster roll.
The young baker
Last October my wife and I were offered to submit a cake recipe to a magazine in Iceland. This magazine, Vikan, has been published for over 70 years, and their 'cake' issue is probably a top five biggest seller in Iceland each year. The reporter, Ragnhildur Aðalsteinsdóttir (a Western Academy of Photography graduate), wanted a recipe and two photos - one of the cake and one of the baker.
After mulling it over, we decided to have our son bake the cake, a spiced chocolate sheet cake. Something simple enough for a ten year old to do by himself or thereabout.
A full page of baking.
What was supposed to be maybe half a page with two photos ended up as a full page with eight photos. I was very happy to see that, and got a preview through Skype from a few people before I was able to pick up my own copy back in Iceland.
Our kitchen is wide open, which enabled me to put up one light with a softbox in the living room, directing it into the kitchen.
Márus measuring sugar.
Pouring the batter into the sheet.
Oh, and here is the recipe, if you want to try it out.
The cake:
200 g margarine
2 dl coffee, brewed strong
3 eggs
300 g sugar
350 g flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp ground cloves
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
Whip the eggs and sugar. Margarine and coffee heated together and added to the mixture. Dry ingredients added. Baked in a sheet for 15-20 minutes at 200°C.
The icing:
4 dl powdered sugar (icing sugar)
4 tsp cocoa powder
3 tbsp butter
1/2 dl coffee, brewed strong
1 tsp vanilla essence
Topped with shredded coconut.
And here it is!
Verði ykkur að góðu!
Lobster on a bus
I was driving in Langford yesterday with my family, when my wife all of a sudden exclaimed "That's your photo! On the back of that bus!" I just caught a glimpse of it as the bus turned, but enough to recognize it. It was one of the photos from my school portfolio.
When I was shooting my portfolio, which was all food, one of the restaurants I shot at was Nautical Nellies in downtown Victoria. When we came there, they conjured up eight different courses, one of which was a delicious looking lobster and steak. And that was the photo that my wife saw on the bus yesterday.
The lobster and steak image I used in my portfolio.
So naturally I went bus hunting this morning, before heading to a meeting with former classmate Devin Milner. And while driving down Douglas Street, I caught sight of my photo on a bus. It wasn't too hard keeping up with the bus, and it finally came to a halt on Humboldt Street, where it seemed to wait patiently while I snapped a few photos.
And here it is, in all its glory, my first bus image. Some of my images are already on Nautical Nellies' website, but seeing one on a bus was a different kind of fun.
Nautical Nellies ad on the back of a bus, featuring my food photography.
My school portfolio
The ride is over. I'm no longer a photography student, but officially a Professional Photographer. I graduated on June 17th, which incidentally is Iceland's national holiday. I made sure that fact was forced upon approximately 150 people, as that's how I started my valedictorian speech.
Although grades are not everything, I'm definitely proud of my final mark which is a fraction over 90 percent.
But anyway, as I've mentioned before, I did my portfolio on food. And as my journey through school is over, and all the marks are in, here are the images from the portfolio, the way they appeared page by page.
Mojito
Italian style - oil, pesto, olives, sundried tomatoes...
Pork and beans from Spinnakers Brew Pub.
Icelandic pancakes - apparently I need to bake a few for select people.
Coffee art from Serious Coffee.
Chocolate truffles from Spinnakers Brew Pub.
Blackbean soup and salmon bagel from Willow Street Cafe, and some home-made borscht.
Blueberries and a smoothie.
Sushi platter at Nautical Nellies.
Steak and lobster at Nautical Nellies.
Coconut cream pie and New York cheesecake at Nautical Nellies.
Starter and entrée from Royal Colwood Golf Club, dessert from Willow Street Cafe in Chemainus.
Creme brulee at the Royal Colwood Golf Club.
Portfolio handed in – nothing to do but wait
Today was the deadline to hand in our final assignment - our portfolio - at the Western Academy of Photography. I handed mine in two days ago, and now I'm waiting for my final mark. On June 17th I will graduate from the Professional Photography program.
After everything we have been taught, I decided to do my portfolio on one of the few genres we didn't really touch; food photography. I contacted restaurants around town (and even one in Chemainus), a few of which were willing to let me in to shoot. Still, a number of shots were done at home, with the aid of my wife, who was more than willing to do some styling and holding a reflector here and there.
I've decided not to post my portfolio here until after graduation, but there is nothing against posting some outtakes. Overall, I think these outtakes were good enough to be in the portfolio, but for one reason or another, they just didn't fit.
Icelandic pancakes, rolled up with sugar, at home.
Olives, sundried tomatoes and pesto at home.
Blueberries and mint at home.
Creme brulee, wedding dessert at the Royal Colwood Golf Club.
Coffee art at Serious Coffee.