I just stumbled across this fantastic behind the scenes look into Judd Pilossof’s studio on Cookbook Catchall. Judd’s work is beautiful, and everyone should be a little envious of Skrockodile for getting to sit in… but mostly grateful for the great write-up! I know I am more than a little intrigued by Judd’s August still life class, a part of Maine Media Workshops.

While you are out there browsing, check out this podcast from Tips from the Top Floor in which Chef Mark of the Culinary Network talks a little about how he photographs his own food.

Last time Adorama had a Food Photography workshop, I found out too late to let you all know. This time, I’m on it… although there isn’t much time to get signed up. The next talk, given by Lou Manna, author of Digital Food Photography, will be held November 18th. The cost of the class is $250, and it will be held in Lou Manna’s studio in New York. For more information, see the Adorama Workshop site.

Even more exciting, I think, is Sun, Surf and Style, a three-day live tabletop and food styling workshop in San Diego, California from February 8-10, 2008 by food stylist Lisa Golden Schroeder and photo stylist Susan Linnet Cox. This three-day interactive workshop features a “jump start” day focused on getting started in the business of food styling and propping, plus two great days filled with styling demos and test assignments with a professional shooter, New York food photographer Gregory Bertolini. The class will be held in a professional photography studio, fully equipped with a commercial kitchen. There are only 13 slots open for this class which is $900. More info and registration can be found here.

If you are looking for some instruction but can’t travel, you might check out Food Styling 101, a 4 week online class on Photo Styling Workshops. The next round starts on Nov 13th. Also check out Self-Promotion and Marketing for Food Stylists.

Also, if you haven’t stopped by Michael Ray’s food photography website recently, he has a new post on food photography and lenses.

If you missed the Boston University International Food Styling & Photography conference back in June, you missed a great talk by the food stylists and photographers from Gourmet Magazine. Luckily, you have another chance to catch at least some of this team in action, at the 5th Annual Gourmet Institute in October. Your $1,394 buys you 4 cooking demonstrations or talks on both Saturday and Sunday, and a few meals and galas along the way. Talks and demos will be by some of the big names in food… Anthony Bourdain, Eric Ripert, Ed Levine, Thomas Keller, and Ruth Reichl to name just a few. Seminars and tasting are starting to sell out, so if you are going, best to book right away.

On the last minute note, if you happen to live in Manilla, there is a rumor that there is a food lighting workshop going on tomorrow, July 21st, at Cafe Ysabel in Greenhills by Ricky Ladia.

Adorama is now offering photography workshops. Unfortunately, the food photography workshop with Lou Manna was back in March. But, keep your eye out on their website for new classes if you are in the New York area.

Focal Point Visual Learning Center in Vancouver, BC is currently holding an ongoing class on food styling and photography on Thursdays from 2 to 5pm. The workshop started on July 12th, but continues on through August 23rd, so it may not be too late to join. See the Focal Point website for contact info and more information.

For those planning further ahead, check out the Travel & Food Photography Workshop in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas in February of 2008 offered by Marilyn Tausend. The 6-day trip looks like a beautiful combination of culture, cooking and photography for a cost of $2,850 (plus some transportation expenses). The group size will be from 8 to 12 people. Please see Marilyn’s website for more information.

For those of you in Chicago, it looks like there is a small class forming the weekend of Nov 2-4 2007, on food photography tips & tricks by a Shutterstock photographer. The class is limited to 5 people, so it may be full… but perhaps you’ll be able to convince the photographer to try a repeat class?

(update)
Oh, and I almost forgot. This year’s BlogHer conference in Chicago next weekend will be host to a little panel on Food Photography featuring the wonderful Beatrice of La Tartine Gourmande as well as the Photoshop Guru Jan Kabili. Oh, right, and likely a very stage-fright ridden me. Do make sure you stop by and introduce yourself after the talk once my heartrate has calmed back down to the two-digits.

Technorati Tags: Food, Food Styling, Photography

Leaving Boston on Monday evening, I felt like I had just spent 4 days pouring over my favorite foodie magazines… I was awe-struck, overly full of ideas, and antsy to start getting back into the kitchen and putting even just a little of what I had learned to use. My head still feels a bit like an over-stuffed sausage, but it seems time to start to give you a taste of what went on at the conference.

My personal adventure started a bit earlier than the conference because I am a spaz, and apparently can’t read a schedule. The conference started on Friday, and I knew that I really was not capable of sitting through an afternoon of talks after taking a red-eye flight, so I booked myself on the Wednesday night redeye instead, expecting to have the Thursday to recover before the workshops began. Silly me… the only thing happening on Friday was registration, something that I could have done half asleep. Thankfully, Bea and P were incredibly kind with my extra imposition, and I got to hang with Bea as she whipped up some of her famous tarts. All I can say is that as great as they look on her blog, they even taste better. Bea and I also got to go do some prop shopping, starting at a fabric store, where we both picked out several new and fabulous textures and colors for backdrops and linens. After my recent trip to LA, and a suitcase bulging with goods I got from Surfas, I knew that I’d better keep my finds to fabrics that would pack well.
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How many people do you know that drive around LA with dead scorpions and a buckets of paella in their cars? If you know a professional food stylist, chances are, you just might know at least one. Last weekend, I got to sit in on Food Fanatics‘ Master Food Styling class, a great hands-on class by two professional food stylists, Denise Vivaldo and Cindie Flannagan, who have been in the business for years and years. The class was a virtual dumptruck of food styling info, from common styling techniques (which we got lots of time to practice ourselves) to thoughts on the food styling business and digital photography, to story after story of food styling challenges, mishaps and other, sometimes bawdy, adventures. I can’t remember the last time I was in a class for two full days that never bored me, but this was one of them. From the 9am start to Q&A over wine at 3 in the afternoon, the class is a non-stop riot of laughing and dirty hands. If you get a chance to spend sometime with Denise and Cindie, don’t miss it.
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If you are interested in improving your off-camera flash lighting skills, Strobist is kicking off a new round of lighting assignments geared toward teaching people the basics. Lighting 102 kicks off on June 4th, and I’m thinking about playing along this time. Most of what I do is natural and continuous light, and my flash skills are sorely lacking. First step is the gear… and Midwest Photo has put together several great low-cost options of the Strobist lighting kits. If you are thinking about going through Lighting 102 (or looking back at the Lighting 101 archive), you might check out the kits soon, before they start to run out.

It’s been a while since I did much searching for these, but there are several classes coming up in the next 6 months that you might be interested in checking out:

Denise Vivaldo and Cindie Flannigan are hosting several upcoming classes in the LA area: May 12 -13th is the next Master Food Styling class, a hands-on, coached weekend in the kitchen. If you can’t make that, look for the Food Styling Workshop, a 3-day intensive class, October 26-28th. For more information, plus what looks like some upcoming International classes, see the Culinary Entrepreneurship Program website.

If you are in the Kansas City area, you might be interested in the Styling Workshop at David Morris Photography. This 2-3 day workshop (April 26-28, 2007) is focused on jumpstarting novice stylists and boosting experienced stylists’ value in the workplace. For more details, send see the Foodesigns website.

And, if you were interested in the upcoming food styling and photography conference at Boston University, there is more information up on their site now. Looks to be an exceptionally valuable few days, June 1st - 4th.

If you don’t have time for travel, there are online food styling courses at PhotoStylingWorkshops.com. The next round of Lisa Golden Schroeder’s online class, Food Styling 101, starts on April 17th.

The French Culinary Institute in New York is offering a 2 session course in Plating and Styling in late July/early August. It’s quite pricey at $695, but looks like it offers some good basics, and the Saturday morning schedule works for most folks… and it’s still not as expensive as the CIA ProChef courses in styling, taught by well-known stylist Delores Custer. Upcoming sections are Mar. 19 - 23, May 7 - 11 and Sep. 24 - 28, and are about $1200 each. The classes are held in Hyde Park, New York and not only do you learn food styling, but you spend time working on building a portfolio and have CIA food photographers shoot your work.

Of course, if you are just starting out, any cooking class is going to be helpful to your food styling, since the root of all food styling is being a good cook!

Technorati Tags: Food Styling

John Sherlock is the expert food photographer behind recent books from Vikram Vij, Rob Feenie, and John Bishop. Barbara Jo’s Books to Cooks in Vancouver will be hosting John as he uses Christopher Styler’s Working the Plate: The Art of Food Presentation to give a step-by-step lesson on the art and craft of food photography, while Chef Glenys Morgan styles the plates next February. The talk includes a copy of the book, as well as food. Talk size is limited to 14 guests, and is $115 per person. For more information and to register for the talk, see the Books to Cooks website.

Technorati Tags: Cookbook, Food, Food Styling, Photography

More food styling classes going on in California! Many of these are next year, but that just gives you extra time to plan.

Alternative Culinary Careers
March 9, 10 & 11, 2007 in San Francisco
Three 1-day seminars taught by Joyce Goldstein, Denise Vivaldo and Linda Carucci. One day focuses on Food Styling and Business, the next on Cooking School Instruction, and the final day on Writing about Food for todays markets. Classes can be taken all together or individually.
$495 for all three days

Food Styling Workshop
January 12, 13 & 14, 2007 in Los Angeles.
An intensive 3-day workshop in which students will learn what a food stylist does and their responsibilities, how food reacts under the camera, basic presentation, the ins and outs of propping, and shopping and prepping for a shoot. Taught by Cindie Flannigan and Denise Vivaldo. (Note: I met Cindie at Matt’s and she is AMAZING!)
$800 for all three days

Master Food Styling Class in Los Angeles
A hands-on, fully coached weekend in the kitchen. Practice important, difficult styling techniques with highly experienced stylists. Tackle sizzling steaks and chops - from the grill or saute pan to the plate; make the picture-perfect crisp and golden chicken or turkey; master savory and sweet sauces, from coloring to drizzling and pooling; and how to build beautiful pasta and salad plates.
October 28 & 29, 2006 and May 12 & 13, 2007
$525 for both days or $325 for a single day

For more information, see the Culinary Entrepreneurship site, or contact Denise Vivaldo at dvivaldo@earthlink.net. The website features photos from past classes so you can see the kind of thing they’ll be focused on.

Technorati Tags: Food Styling

Langara College in Vancouver, British Columbia offers a very extensive photography certification program geared toward freelance photographers wishing to hone their skills or start to specialize. I just noticed that this fall, starting in September, there’s a 12 week class focused on food and beverage photography taught by two professional food photographers. Each Saturday morning, students spend 3 hours doing coursework and labs, with weekly photo assignments and access to professional level equipment (including a 4×5 camera). Class tuition is $479 CDN. For more information (including a week by week class schedule), see the Langara College website.

Technorati Tags: Food, Food Styling, Photography