Wednesday 29 April 2020

Pink Lady® Food Photographer of the Year 2020.

I like to describe what I do as a 'restaurant photographer'. It's a little bit different from a studio based food photographer although a large part of what I do is photographing food and drink and the people who make it. As a restaurant photographer, every job and shoot location is different with its own particular challenges. Light is the main one, it's taken me years to hone a lighting technique that I'm happy with, to replace an ideal beautiful natural light set up, as good lighting in restaurants can be in short supply, especially in the dark Winter months. I'm often working quickly to strict time limitations and around customers and in tight spaces. You often have to think quickly and adapt to the working environment.
I love what I do and I miss the 'buzz' of it now I don't have it, living in lock-down. We don't know when restaurants will reopen properly but they'll most likely be the last industry to get back to 'normal' again.
I'm entirely self taught as a photographer, I started this blog several years ago, just for something to do and gradually found that I was enjoying taking food photos more than I was as a freelance illustrator which I was originally trained in and did for many years.
Photography technique I developed by trial and error but there are times when you wonder is this the right thing to do? Is this any good? Self doubt drives me forward but too much is unhelpful.
I look on old work that I loved at the time in self critical horror, every new job I work extremely hard to try to make incremental improvements, you see the progression as your work improves.
Who knows if all my regular clients will reopen once all this ends? One certainly hopes so. I'm generally an optimist but hope is in short supply at the moment in the restaurant business which I consider myself a part of.
Which brings me to the Pink Lady® Food Photographer of the Year 2020.
After coming second in 2019 in my bloggers category (see photo below) in all honesty I wasn't sure if I was going to enter again this year. Why not leave it on a high?

 My work is improving I think all the time but you need a striking and memorable image like this one I believe to get through the strict judging process that's needed when so many amazing talented photographers enter from all over the world. I feel that you really need a unique photo-shoot scenario, but a lot of what I do isn't really going to lend itself to this as the work and food looks really good but this isn't enough, it needs to be a little different to get though to make it memorable and stand out. You're competing with the best in the world!
Then I got one of their final promotional emails, and a successful competitor from last year said she wasn't going to enter but did and ended up winning. I thought, 'what have I got to lose?' So I entered a few of my favourites shot this year, thinking I may just get through to the exhibition if I'm lucky. The odds were really against it I thought after last year. There's a part of me that thinks I just got lucky last time.
I was extremely surprised to get an email that a few of my photos had got through to the final stage and that this photo below would be in the exhibition. 
This photo was shot yet again in the kitchen in The Boathouse in Lichfield, quickly shooting chefs as they worked. I liked the simple composition of this one. Simple and beautiful is how I like to create images and it tells the story of the chef going through all the processes, laboriously making pasta properly.
Again as last year, to get though to the exhibition is an amazing achievement, especially as a self taught relative newcomer to photography. To be chosen amongst the best in the world is a real honour and huge confidence booster. It's a flag that says you're a part of the industry and deserve to be there.
We loved our trip to London last year to the exhibition and result at having come second. Full of high spirits, we taxied to Barrafina on Dean Street to do what we do best, eating copious amounts of tapas , the food was so good, I recall big red Carabinero Prawns and drinking my favourite Spanish beer,  cold foamy Estrella Galicia. It was a special night that we'll never forget.
This year would be different of course because of the Coronavirus. But it really worked virtually online with pop star and cheese-maker Alex James presenting the awards again. 
I had seen the amazing images in my category and thought I have absolutely no chance. I couldn't believe it when my name was announced as coming second again in the bloggers category for the second year running! I was honestly astonished. This is the best food photography awards in the whole world and I'd won a prize yet again.
This really means an awful lot to me, especially in these strange times when I don't know when I'll be shooting professionally again. 
See the awards in full below.

I received an award in 2018 for this photo of Turbot on the grill at Elkano Spain. This was my first taste of success at the awards. Seeing the print on the walls of the exhibition at The Mall Galleries was wonderful.
CHECK OUT MY AWARD WINNING PHOTOGRAPHY PORTFOLIO HERE BACONONTHEBEECH.
2ND PRIZE. PINK LADY FOOD PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR 2020.
 
2ND PRIZE. PINK LADY FOOD PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR 2019.
HIGHLY  COMMENDED. PINK LADY FOOD PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR 2018.