Food photography in colour!
I’m always excited to see the new Pantone colours come out at the beginning of each year, although at first I find the colours quite odd and have trouble envisioning how they will work. But by about half way through the year everything seems to fall into place and I except the new colours as an absolute must.
In fashion and interior items all of a sudden last years colour bright Orchid popped up in pineapples and flamingos, and in graphic design a lot of the hot pink was popular in typography. Orchid Pink was last year’s colour, and it took me some time to get used to. But then as a food photographer it was a delight to work with the bright pink colour. Delicious desserts, sweet dishes and gutsy salads were a delight not to mention the shades in napery and fabrics available to use to style!
Using colour in Food Photography Pantone Marsala
The new Pantone colour for 2015 is Marsala….. interesting but at first maybe a bit of a drab brown tone, and when I was discussing the idea for a photo session based on Marsala with Sam Gowing, my favourite recipe developer and healthy nutritionist, she looked at me as if I was high on mushrooms!
However, I managed to convince her and with just the colour Marsala in mind we started shopping at the Byron Bay Farmer’s Market and glancing over the beautifully displayed fresher than fresh produce. We got quite excited with our Marsala toned finds, not only could we find it in the many fruit and vegetables but also in the meats, so with our foraged and grazed trophies we headed back towards Coorabell to start cooking in my kitchen. Rummaging through the props cupboard we also managed to find interesting boards, table tops and fabrics to use with our styling. Sam focused on the recipes, cooking and myself on the styling and photography!
Whipping up healthy nutritious food in the Marsala colour theme, using the rich warm browns with a slight rosy tint resulted in earthy wholesome dishes. Sam and I work together to create recipes and cook, style and photograph many dishes. If you are interested, you can hire us as a team and we will come up with stunning imagery based on healthy, inspiring and nutritious food and we’ll even coordinate it in this season’s new colour!
Roast lamb with figs and olives Pantone Marsala
Slow cooked lamb shoulder with figs and olives
Sunday calls for lazy lunches or shared table eating. Cool weather and lots of rain means slow cooked food and lots of Middle Eastern inspired salads and share plates. Think figs, pomegranate, sumac and eggplant. Autumn aphrodisiac food at its finest!
1½ kg lamb shoulder blade
4 long Japanese eggplant or 1 large eggplant, sliced
8 figs, quartered
1/2 cup olives, pitted
2 brown onions, peeled and roughly chopped
1/2 lemon, finely sliced
4 garlic cloves, peel and crushed
2 rosemary sprigs
½ bunch thyme
1 cup red wine
1/4 cup olive oil
salt and black peppercorns
Oven method
Slow cooker method
