On September 18 Foodista and Keren Brown Media held FoodSnap, an all-day food photo workshop with award-winning Olympus Visionary and New York Times photojournalist, Lou Manna. What a blast we had! Lou was kind enough to be the judge of our photo contest, and we’re happy to announce the winners. Such fantastic photography from everyone (click on a winner’s name to see all their photos)!

The Grand Prize Winner of a fancy-schmancy Olympus Camera (courtesy of Olympus) is Jasmine Wilkerson for her gorgeous photo (above) of FROST Doughnuts.

The Second Place Winner of a KitchenAid Mixer (courtesy of Sur la Table) is Alice from Savory Sweet Life for her beautiful photo (below) of a Wink Cupcake.

The following winners in each category will receive a prize from the sponsor:

Wink Cupcake Category – by Elise Bauer (Simply Recipes)

Red Ticking Category – by Morry Anne Angell

Fooducopia Category -by Susmita (The Food We Eat)

Kathy Casey Category – by Peabody

Pulp Category – by Anne Livingston (Bring to Boil)

Emily’s Chocolate – Emily’s 1 by Mohini (Mango Power Girl)

Blue Bird Grain Farms – by Ashley (Not Without Salt)

Teasophy – by Askabir

Frost Doughnuts – by Jerrod Stafford

Andaluca -  by Morry Anne Angell

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Categories:	Uncategorized	4 Comments
Tags:	food photography • food photography contest • foodsnap • lou manna

Last Friday, a group of 75 passionate food lovers, photographers, chefs and food stylists came together for FoodSnap! an event put together by Keren Brown Media and Foodista.

It didn’t matter if you only had a point and shoot camera or zero experience behind the lens, eight other photographers and food stylists were right there holding reflectors, white cards and offering tips to help you capture the best shot. Chef Wayne Johnson from Andaluca catered lunch for the event and several other vendors provided delicious offerings, including Kathy Casey who provided the attendees with two FoodSnap! signature edible cocktail gelees; pomegranate rosemary and elderberry and cucumber. The gelees were just as beautiful as they were delicious.

Here is Keren Brown holding a tray of Kathy Casey’s Pomegranate Rosemary Gelees

Guest of honor, Lou Manna, educated, entertained and inspired us all to take better pictures in general, not just of our dishes.

Pictured above is Karlyn, Sheri, Lou, Barnaby, Keren and Melissa

Lou started us off with his basic recipe for food photography (excerpted from Food Arts – July/Aug 2007 issue):

1. Start with a full helping of the camera manual. Lou says your camera’s manual is like a cookbook that will help you find the key ingredients of your camera.
2. Think grey. Your camera’s light meter is calibrated to measure grey, so using a grey card to meter the reflected light or an incident meter to meter the light falling on the subject will help give you the correct exposure.
3. Think white. Be aware of the White Balance setting on your camera. Do your photos often have that yellow, green or blue tint? Auto White Balance doesn’t always work; you can set it manually or take a Custom White Balance to brighten the color of your photo.
4. Think Right. In the Western world we read from left to right, so it makes sense that our eyes also scan a photo the same way. Lou says there are some simple rules of good composition: a spiral composition that leads your eye clockwise; and the Rule of Thirds, where you divide your frame into a tic-tac-toe design and place your subject at one of those intersecting points.
5. Serve with the proper resolution. Use some type of photo editing software, such as Adobe Photoshop, and as Lou puts it, “cook” your photos to enhance their “visual flavor.” Set the digital oven to 300dpi with an image size of at least 5×7 in a jpeg format. “Don’t forget to meta tag your photos, use keywords, write captions, and use a descriptive file name.”

For more information and workshops check out and join Lou’s social network DigitalFoodPhotography

If you’re looking for an excellent, informative photography book, check out Lou’s Digital Food Photography book available on Amazon.com:

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• Kabocha and Ginger Squash Soup
• Tonight Chef and Mixologist Kathy Casey at Nightschool

Categories:	Events • Photography • Uncategorized	1 Comment
Tags:	digital photography • food photography • foodista • foodsnap • lou manna • photography tips

We are counting down the days to FoodSnap! an all-day food photography and food styling event happening this Friday, September 18th at George Town Studios in Seattle, Washington. The event has sold out, but you can follow along with us on Twitter the day of the event and stay tuned for a FoodSnap! round up blog post with highlighted tips and secrets we will have learned from the pros that you can implement at home with a simple point and shoot camera.

Here’s the list of food photographers and food stylists who will be sharing with us their magic bag of tricks!

Lou Manna
Lara Ferroni
Rina Jordan
Barry Wong
Charity Burggraaf
Kevin Fry
Tyler Rebman
Danielle Leavell
Jonathan Shmidt
Kathryn Barnard

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Categories:	American • Author • Events • Photography • Technique	4 Comments
Tags:	food photography • food styling • foodsnap • loou Manna

Foodsnap! – a collaboration between Foodista and Keren Brown Media – is a full-day food photography workshop lead by Lou Manna, www.LouTheMan.com, award-winning Olympus Visionary and New York Times photojournalist, commercial photographer, educator and author of Digital Food Photography with over 30 years of experience.

Lou will lead the workshop with the professional assistance of Seattle’s top food photographers, Lara Ferroni – www.platesandpacks.com and Rina Jordan – www.rinajordanphotography.com, as well as other well-known Seattle photographers and stylists.

Tickets are now available on Brown Paper Tickets. Register before it’s sold out!

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Categories:	Events	2 Comments
Tags:	food photography • food styling • foodsnap • keren brown • lou manna • Photography