FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY at BOHO CAFE

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You’ve got to love when two passions combine, and at Block Art We LOVE food and Photography so when we got the recent opportunity to take some promotional food photos over at Boho Cafe, Canterbury. We were pretty excited.

We were greeted by the waiting staff and the head chef, Chris, who had prepared a selection of the current favourite dishes on the Boho Cafe menu. We set up our gear on the table next to the front windows, for anyone into photography you can read more about the lighting set up below. Our aim with this shoot was to take images which matched the “personality” of each of the dishes whilst matching Boho’s brand. We used lots of woody rich textures and traditional looking fabrics as we felt this complemented the cafe’s bohemian and rustic feel.

One of our favourite images was of a lovely dish of mussels cooked in a Curious Apple cider sauce. Chris explained that he had just got some beautiful rich orange coloured muscles ordered in and explained they were some of the nicest he had seen and tasted.  Their rich colour made for great photography material. The cider they were cooked in was from the folks over at Curious Brewery, who make a whole range of unique ciders and larger (You can read more about their new brewery in the recent Cene magazine article here). The cider had to make an appearance in the shot! We got a cold one out of the fridge and positioned it accordingly. Lovely! We also decided to add one of the 3/4 guitars, which Boho have hanging on the Cafe wall, as we thought it tied the scene together nicely as well as being a nod to the music evenings they host. 

We  were really happy with how the shoot went and the mix of props with great textures and colours created some really nice scene, which complimented each of the meals. And of course getting to try the food after is always a bonus! 

A huge thanks to the waiting staff, manager Rob and the head chef Chris for a fantastic shoot at Boho Cafe.

The Lighting Set Up

We kept it simple but effective with the lighting; we used a mix of diffused window light and multiple bounce cards and reflectors to create beautiful soft even lighting for the dishes. We were lucky that Boho Cafe has a pair of bay windows at the front which made for the perfect spot to set up as it provided beautiful back and side light which work perfectly for food photography.

The Set up: We used diffused window light from the back and side and a variety of bounce cards and reflectors to fill in any harsh shadows. this created soft even light around the dishes

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Photoshoot with American bridal designer Evita

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We recently had a photoshoot with Evita, a bridal designer all the way from Michigan, USA! Evita was visiting on vacation and contacted us to book a shoot in Canterbury for promotion of her freelance business on social media.

We met outside the Cathedral where Evita arrived along with her Dad and daughter who were both also excited by the old buildings around Canterbury. “You definitely don’t get this over in the states!” said Evita. Just before the shoot, Evita had been to visit local makeup artist Kate Ryan, who had given her a fantastic vintage glamour look.

This was a two-location shoot. Our first stop was on one of the many old cobbled streets of Canterbury, we chose this to help capture some of the cities historic charm as a backdrop. For the second half of the shoot we headed over the Marlowe Theatre to add some variation to the images with a more modern look. As we arrived at the theatre, we spotted a bright yellow vintage campervan parked outside the theatre; we had to include it in the shoot! Evita went for a quick wardrobe change into a blue dress, which was a perfect complementary colour to the yellow camper van. We got a great range of portraits, mid shots and full-body photos of her around the theatre and with the van. 

Stumbling across the camper van was one of those great things you couldn’t have planned for the shoot but made for a great, colourful addition to the images. It was a brilliant shoot and we are looking forward to working with Evita again when she returns to the UK. 

Evita’s IG page: https://www.instagram.com/evita.adolfo8/

Make-up by Kate Ryan IG page :https://www.instagram.com/makeupbykateryan/

Thanks Evita for the great shoot and feedback!

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