Why food?

Within this blog it occasionally comes up that I’ve chosen to photograph food and jewelry due to the inherent challenge in doing them well.  When I look at my life, seeking challenges seems to be a consistent theme.  Huh.  Who knew?  Anyway…

Mmmmm…That Smell

I’ve written before about why I love photographing jewelry, but what about food photography?  Why choose that over so many other photographic genre?  Probably  two reasons:  1) I spent around a dozen years in the restaurant management business before photography, and 2) I love good food; how it looks, how it smells, how it tastes.

People Buy With Their Eyes

In the beginning I helped out as a favor to a couple of friends who owned a popular 24 hour restaurant in State College, PA., called “Munchies” (it was the 1970’s, State College was and is a party campus, and the name was pretty on-the-nose).  Anyway, they were building an addition and I helped with construction and design of the kitchen layout for the most efficient work flow.  

Chicago Steak Company

After the build-out was complete, they asked me if I’d like to manage the new addition since I was totally familiar with it.  I’d recently returned from being on the road with Genesis, and wasn’t really looking forward to returning to England or going back on the road, so I said yes.  It was eye opening, but it turned out I had a knack for restaurant management, becoming GM of their three locations in a short time. 

I wasn’t there much longer than 18 months or so before marriage and the desire for a better position with more potential for growth led me to a company in Indianapolis named MCL, or as it’s known today, MCL Restaurant and Bakery.  At the time, there were 33 operations in 4 states.  Management training was comprehensive and included learning how to make everything on the menu from scratch. 

Love the Process!

I fell in love with the process of creating excellent food of all types, but especially with baking!  That included everything from half a dozen different breads and cinnamon rolls to cakes, pies and homemade noodles.  I was hooked and remained so for a decade before photography called me to this career.

Chicken Fajita Wraps for Roy Rogers Restaurants

These days, instead of making the food, I photograph it.  But it’s still all about the love of good food and knowing how to present it so it’s appealing to the eye.  One challenge is in not being fake in how we present the food, yet still make it look mouth-wateringly good.   Another is in the design of great lighting to bring out the textures, colors, sizes and shapes. 

As I was taught at MCL, we really do buy with our eyes. Especially our food!

Let’s Talk! 724-730-8513 or jeffbehm@behmphoto.com