One weekend last month, my sister (@pearlsa) and I drove down to Seattle to attend a food styling and photography class with Aran Goyoaga and Leela Cyd.
Aran is a freelance food stylist, photographer, and writer; she’s the author of award winning blog Cannelle et Vanille
Leela is multi-talented food, travel and lifestyle photographer and writer whose work has appeared numerous editorial and commercial publications, she’s working on her first cookbook, and also authors the outstanding blog Tea Cup Tea
Aran and Leela are seriously talented, and it was such a delight and honour to be able to take a class with them, especially since this was my first ever food photography class and it was fittingly an introductory course.
We gathered, about fifteen of us excited students, at Aran’s beautiful studio in Belltown, eager to learn.
The day started off with an overview of creative and technical process of styling and photographing food; we watched Aran style the beautiful mackerel she’d gotten from the market as she talked us through her styling process and gave us some great simple yet effective styling tips.
We also got to watch Leela’s approach as she took photos, demonstrating through her workflow how to create wonderful stories with photography.
We had a spectacular lunch of creamy cauliflower soup and a wonderful roasted beet, citrus and greens salad.
Afterwards, we were let loose in the gorgeous studio to style and photograph our own creations using seasonal produce they’d gotten from the market, the incredible assortment of props, and a little guidance and direction from Aran and Leela. It was an amazingly fun exercise.
It was a perfectly spent day, meeting people who are that passionate about food and photography is so inspiring, and to be able to learn from them was such an amazing experience.
I came away invigorated; the workshop made me assess the kind of food photographer I wanted to be, and I gained a little insight into the business of food photography.
Thank you Aran and Leela for bring such wonderful and kind instructors.
10 Comments
this photos of food do look really great, well done!
4 June, 2014 at 9:42 amThank you so much Clair! 🙂
4 June, 2014 at 4:57 pmLovely to see both of you there, and I am grateful that we are now support each other 🙂
8 June, 2014 at 3:17 pmLove these photos, Elsa. Wonderful writing as well 🙂
It was wonderful to see you Pang; what my post didn’t touch on was the amazing friends we made in the class 🙂
10 June, 2014 at 9:25 amI just came across Aran’s photography on our recent food blogger conference and I was drooling. Lucky you being able to attend this course.
12 June, 2014 at 2:19 amYes, it was quite incredible taking a class with her!:-) The food blogger conference looked amazing though, I wish we had something like here.
13 June, 2014 at 10:30 pmFloored my dear. You take amazing photographs. I cannot wait to take up the opportunity to attend a food styling class myself. And… ahem.. perhaps get myself a real camera. In the meantime, my Samsung smart phone will have to do.
13 June, 2014 at 2:29 pmThank you Freedes! This was my first food photography/styling course and it’s really worth it; you learn so much and get to meet some wonderful people who love food just as much as you do.:-)
13 June, 2014 at 10:41 pmOh thank you so much for tagging me! 🙂 you’re awesome!
13 June, 2014 at 10:31 pm