Shrimp Shoot

This weekend I had an assignment to shoot a variety of shrimp. I was given quite a bit of latitude as to the styling and presentation. The main direction was to focus on the product. "Viewers must know that this is a prawn image, not just an image of a recipe that uses prawns. We want simple, graphic, colorful and mouthwatering images."

I have a very simple and graphic style when it comes to food (mostly because I'm just not a good enough food stylist to successfully pull off a busy presentation), so I decided to play to my strengths and not try to get too far out of my comfort zone, particularly with the number of setups I was going to be doing.

I did eight different setups and platings.  Some of the shrimp were boiled, some were sauteed, some were grilled. Here are some of the more successful images.

The lighting was straightforward: two strobes; one placed to the left and the other placed behind the food. I used Pocketwizards to fire the flashes and control the power. I was able to easily switch the key light from the rear to the side with the turn of a dial on my camera.

I used each 'hero' shrimp for about a half and hour before 'retiring' it to the refrigerator, where it waited for dinner. When I was done with the shoot, we cooked the shrimp that were left, reheated the cooked shrimp and ate them all with a nice sauvignon blanc. They were delicious!