Sunday, April 20, 2014

Sneak Peak and a Gratitude

Minicake Collage 1

It's been awhile.

Here I just need to share some photos I took for the next two books by NCC. Some kind of sneak peek, you may say.

Often times I was asked how to capture whole cakes, especially decorated cakes where the decoration must be captured as accurate as possible, without making the photos boring. Here I share some pictures from the upcoming book, they are all whole cakes, all decorated as the book suggested, hoping you can learn from them, same things I learned through one year trying to capture the beauty of 101 minicakes and cupcakes. If there are things you still want to ask, please do ask me, I will be more than happy to assist.

Minicake Collage 3 Cupcake Collage 2

To me now, the previous long process of food photo session becomes much simpler and shorter. And easier, too. Good for my sanity. For one day session containing 5-20 food items to shoot, I used only 1-2 styling theme. So it was similar styling for 5 to 10 items, with small alterations here an there. Not only this strategy simplifies the work significantly, it also makes it easier for our editor and graphic designer to put them all together in one solid design concept. So, everybody's happy, and I hope our readers will be, too.

Fortunately, again after too many times, I managed to survive session after session on a tight budget, with simple photography equipments I have in hand, masya Allah. So, if you need some tips of how to turn your old stuff into lavish props, or make an abandoned corner of your house into a productive and profitable photo studio, I'm at your disposal. I hope someday I can put it all in writing, be it a new book or a long blog post. For the time being, ask away.

Bread Collage 1

After I finished with photos and text editing of the book, 3 food photography classes awaited in Surabaya, Jakarta and Bandung. With these, too, I was determined to make them simpler and easier to understand. So I made the classes very specific by giving assignment with only 1 type of food to tackle, with a few sample photos to duplicate. The new method was tested in Surabaya, and I can say it gave better result in the review than the older method, where I gave full freedom to the students to style and shoot 3-5 kinds of food by themselves, using all the theory they just (strugglingly) learnt. Turned out specific guide worked better than lose-free imagination on the spot. Should've known better.

 
Photos taken by Ria Nirwana anda Koloni 108 

Photo taken by Nadrah Shahab

Alhamdulillah. Lovely afternoon. Lovely class. Lovely friends. #koloni108 #photographyclass #foodphotography #afternoon #bandung #food

Right now I just finished the last class in Koloni 108, Bandung, 2 days ago and probably won't have anymore classes until next year. EmpatRana has been struggling to finish their two books on food photography, covering the subject of lighting and pocket camera for food, by now I should've had joined the girls and hopefully we could get the books done before the year ends. Would you pray for us?

Black & White Mini Wedding Cake

I miss a laid back Ramadhan where I can throw all cautions to the wind and finish sorting photos from my journeys. Maybe even write again. It feels like a long lost era.

However, 'ala kulli hal, alhamdulillah. I have no complaints.


Pejaten, ba'da isya'


8 comments:

Unknown said...

No... Never complain. Best life is the one being used, not just pass away...

coating thickness said...

bagus banget desain kuenya gan

Elsye said...

Riiiii....kerenn lohh, gw baru buka2 dan blog walking lagi..:D kalo ke koloni boleh foto2 gaa...hihihi...

Sukses terus ya Ri....

Riana Ambarsari said...

Boleh banget, Sye. Yuuuk...
Thank you, you too, Sye.. *peluk*

Riana Ambarsari said...

*tos kembang goyang*

Riana Ambarsari said...

Walillahilhamd..

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