Q. Can you tell me what you’re trying to capture when you take your photos?
I just want to create images that speak to SOMEONE. Just like any art-form not everyone is going to like your style, subject matter ect, but I am always trying to convey a sense of place and emote a response weather it be a portrait of a chef or farmer or still life of ingredients. It could be the symmetrical simplicity or the controlled chaos that draws you in…the emotional expression in a portrait or the imperfections in the food styling that make it feel real and inviting….the emptiness of the negative space or the deepness of the shadows that bring up memories of a particular time in the season. If I can make someone stare at my images in a gallery or stop on a page in a magazine then I think I’ve accomplished what I’ve intended to.

Q. What made you decide to become a photographer?
It sort of came along with a natural progression. As a kid, I had a love for Comic books…I think my mom bought one for me just about every time we went out. I was constantly drawing the characters thinking one day thats what I’d be was an illustrator. Once my teachers found out I could draw I became the one allowed to get out of class early to work on a mural, school t-shirt design, ect. From High School into my early college years my appreciation for art history and theory helped refine my painting skills. My influence and style quickly changed from early realism to a very Robert Rauschenberg expressionistic, pop art feeling. It was then I learned about combine painting and began incorporating illustrations and photographs into the pieces. I started realizing the similarities between painting and photography using the same elements of color and tone, light and composition. There was something about developing your own film and printing your own images that each piece started becoming more photo and less painting.

Q. What inspires you?
Inspiration can come from anything, travel, history, design, family, movies, ect. I’ll sometimes find myself missing a movie plot all together because I’m fixated on the cinematography or the way a scene is lit and trying to figure out how I can recreate that northern winter light or color temperature in a dark studio. I enjoy surrounding myself with inspiring people…artisans or individuals that have taken there craft or passion, fought through the hardship and enjoy doing what it is they are doing…..while making a living at it.

Q. Any food photography heroes? If not any photography heroes?
I keep up with and follow many types of photographers…..all of which are very different and many not very well known. But all have a vision that I can appreciate. As far as food photographers…I am often finding myself on the websites of Mikkel Vang and John Cullen. Each have a beautiful way of telling a story. Rene Riis also has a still life approach that I identify with. I’ve always been a fan of portrait photographers Mark Seliger and Matthew Rolston and what artist isn’t inspired by Gregory Crewdson?

Q. Best meal so far in 2012?
Atlanta is quickly becoming more and more of a foodie city. As many great restaurants as there are in the south, still without fail my favorite place to go is a local spot right around the corner from me called Muss & Turners. My wife and I frequent there almost weekly….so much so we attended a charity auction and the main thing we were relentless in bidding on was the chefs table at Muss & Turners. Although there were eight delicious courses throughout the night one thing stands out..the pork belly with truffle grits. An extremely southern dish done in a very refined way. We instantly befriended exec chef David Sturgis when he sat with us and asked how we felt about “brinner”. He wanted to cook completely off the menu and serve what he would want for his last meal…..and it did not disappoint.

All photos courtesy of Greg DuPree

Q. Can you tell me what you’re trying to capture when you take your food photos?
I’m trying to capture that moment when some type of food looks really amazing but not too amazing where you wouldn’t want to eat it. I like a bit of mess, imperfections in my photos. I learned photography on film cameras so with that, you learn to love the ‘happy accidents’ that always arise. I try to keep that up when I now have had to switch over to the more practical digital. Essentially, I’m just trying to recreate what I see in my head to something tangible, a photo. I generally know exactly how I want to photograph something before I do it. I don’t do a lot of planning or make sketches of how the photo should look. I just go with that gut reaction and that mental image that instantly comes to me.

Q. What inspires you?
Everything, I know that sounds cliche but there really isn’t one thing. Looking at magazines with amazing photography, movies, tv shows, farmers markets, props, light, nature, they all can lead me in different ways to having that thought, ‘oh I need to take ‘this’ photo now!’ One ingredient such as these amazing, beautifully colored eggs are my new inspiration. They are naturally different shades of pastels, with spots and bumps. I’m in love with them. I want to do a massive series of photos just of these eggs.

Q. Do you find any similarities between baking and photography?
I think when you have a passion for both there are a lot of similarities. When you are baking something you go through many steps to get the final result. It’s the same thing with photography. You can’t just take a photo and that’s it. There is a lot of prep work, set up, post processing. It’s all a process. While photos don’t have the same, ‘Put these exact things together, in these exact amount every time and you will get the same thing’ result. So I guess where that thought is going is that, photography is more like cooking, where you can throw things in and it’s not as scientific.

Q. What is photography to you?
Photography is capturing a fleeting moment in time, either on a precious negative or on a digital file. Finding the perfect light, setting, props, composition that all work in unison to create an image that you can never again. Photography is something I really love. When I haven’t taken photos for a week, I get a physical urging to take some. It’s awkward for me not to take photos.

Q. Any food photography heroes? If not any photography heroes?
Too many to count. Katie Quinn Davies can do no wrong. I am always in love with all her photos and she’s the reason I started food photography. Even some of her earliest images on her site still inspire my photos now. Andrea Gentl, who is the queen of dark photos. There are so many more, but those are my tops as of the moment. As for none food photographers, one of my old photo teachers, Ron Zack for the passion he had and made me had. He pushed us in class and made sure we cared about what we were doing.

Q. Best meal so far in 2012?
Hopefully the best is yet to come, I have had good meals that included homemade butter, cheese & bread. But no meal that comes to mind where I think, ‘That was amazing’ and still find myself craving it to this day. Unless you are counting a recent visit to Cowgirl Creamery in the Ferry Building. Everything was marvelous and I have been known to consider cheese a meal.

All photos courtesy of Julie Marie Craig from Always With Butter

The 2 things that I love are both in Chris Ford’s blog. 1) Behind the scenes photos. As some of you may know I’m a little obsessed about that. 2) Big giant images. Beautiful images are meant to be shown as big as possible. That night I ended up going through his entire blog and I believe you will also.

Q. Can you tell me what you’re trying to capture when you take your food photos?
A. I want to capture my love and appreciation for that particular product. I think it’s the love in the details that tells my stories through photos, you see what I see, bad or good.

Q. Have you always been interested in photography? If not, when and why did you decide to start taking photos?
A. I have always been a creative person. Drawing and painting have always been a great passion of mine, which I still use in pastry today. Although photography is my true second love. From a young adult I decided I wanted to capture my life through a lens, never to forget an experience or food I ate. One day I can look through them all and re-live those amazing moments.

Q. Do you see any similarities between dessert making and photo taking?
A. In a way yes. It is the creative drive and inspiration part that binds them both together for me. I will see something and it will inspire me to make a dessert with it or see something I want to take a photo of and tell a story.

Q. What is photography to you?
A. Photography is a outlet for my story, ideas and talent. I have always said that food is my passion, photography is the outlet for that passion.

Q. What inspires you as a chef and as a photographer?
A. Creativeness inspires me, doing something that I haven’t seen or eaten yet. I love the sound of things that don’t make sense, like brioche macaron. They are two complete different things, yet a simple idea brings them together. I am a very visionary person, whether its planning a photo or a dessert, I usually have the end product’s picture/taste in my head.

Q. Best meal you had so far in 2012?
A. I had the chance to enjoy an amazing meal in early January, meal of desserts that is! Killed By Dessert, brought together a group of seriously talented pastry chefs, 12 courses of sweet 7 savory. It was such an amazing meal and so inspiring at the same time!

All photos courtesy of Chris Ford from Butter Love & Hard Work.

Q. Can you tell me what you’re trying to capture when you take your food photos.
A. Beautiful light and rich shadows.

Q. You fell in love with photography when you were 16. What did photography mean to you then and what does it mean to you now?
A. At 16, I enjoyed the artistic and technical challenge and the trance it could put me in. Plus, I seemed naturally good at it. At the time, I wasn’t good at what kids were meant to be good at. I wasn’t good at schoolwork or sitting still for too long. I was good at photography and baseball. Photography is as exciting to me today as it was back then.

Q. What inspires you?
A. The people I work with, film and well made television. In fact there are times that the light, composition and set design in a show like Boardwalk Empire can be so distracting that I’ll miss entirely what the characters have said.

Q. Best meal you had in 2011?
A. I was fortunate to eat at Per Se in 2011 and it was excellent. It wasn’t necessarily about the place, it was more about watching Nikole’s face light up as each course was presented. For me, that made the meal magic.

All photos courtesy of Michael Graydon.

Scrolling through the blog, it’s difficult to not to jump at the screen. Like I just want to munch on these Baby Chimichangas or these Baked Egg Boats now! Besides the delicious looking photos, the whole site is so well designed. The colors of the titles match the colors of the foods/images and who said animated gifs are out?

Q. Can you tell me what you’re trying to capture when you take your food photos?
A. I like to capture a mood and feeling. To create a space where someone would want to be in while eating that food.

Q. Do you approach a food photo differently than non-food photo?
A. Totally. Food doesn’t talk back, like people do. Its easier to interact with the food for me because its just totally visual, about pairing colors, and finding an angle that best fits the dish. For interior shoots its more about the big picture, so I try to take the same sensibilities I use in food, and use them in that area as well. Regardless of the subject, for me its still about creating a space and feeling I want to be in myself.

Q. What inspires you?
A. Literally anything. Colors in nature, patterns in clothing, shapes in plants, and of course, food magazines. Graphic design is also a big influence, I try to draw compositionally from that. Also, movies. That is a big one. For instance, the color temperature in the movie A Single Man, or the Kings Speech. The Kings Speech also has some amazing nuggets of composition genius.

Q. Do you still shoot with Polaroids? What is it about Polaroids or instant photos that attracts you to them?
A. I don’t so much anymore. I used to a lot when it was more accessible. I have not tried the new film from The Impossible Project. I think I fell in love with Polaroids when I got my Sx-70. If you are unfamiliar with that camera, it fold down nice and neat, and is metal and leather. So it feels really heavy and nice in your hands. I probably like Polaroid for the same reasons everyone else does. The instant satisfaction of an image. You get something you see, locked in your memory, into something tangible. Its small, and cute, and has a frame already. So that’s pretty cool.

Q. Any food photography heroes? If not any photography heroes?
A. Oh yes. I might go on and on right now. Non food – Irving Penn. He will always be amazing. Diane Arbus, Rineke Dijkstra, David Hilliard and Sally Mann. Andrea Gentl of the awesome photography duo Gentl and Hyers just posted this series of photos: which reminds me a lot of Sally Mann. So so so pretty its almost spooky.

For super creative manipulated photography that makes my brain shake, I go look at my Gregory Crewdson books, or a Kahn and Selesnick, Teun Hocks, or Parke Harrison.

Food Photography, I think everyone can agree Con Poulos, he is so good it makes me want to vomit. As I mentioned above, Gentl and Hyers, the textures and colors they capture are so beautiful. I am also in love with Ditte Isager.

Q. Best meal you had in 2011?
A. I think its a tie between these two restaurants in Los Angeles. One was Son of a Gun, followed by a magnolia cupcake. OR this pasta tasting menu I had at Mozza. Unreal.

Q. Name something you want to achieve in 2012 with your photography.
A. I hope to have some kind of massive creative breakthrough that changes everything for me. That would be exciting.

All photos courtesy of Teri Lyn Fisher from Spoon Fork Bacon.