Fratelli Wine Tasting Master Class

The glass of wine kept appearing at our table, one by one, red wine, white wine, each distinct in taste. The waiter came around with the plate of assorted cheese, bacon and toasted breads. It was the fifth glass of wine. Although I had taken just few sips from each glass, (only to taste,) I could feel my head heavy. I still had shopping to do after the wine-tasting event. I stretched my hand to eat something, hoping that munching would dilute the dizziness.. While I nibbled on olives and bread, sixth glass arrived. Stop, I send the glass away. The person sitting next to me, moved his gaze in my direction and smiled.

Did I drink too much to draw his attention? But the event was on tasting different wine. I was at Nature Basket on invite from Fratelli Wine and I was there to taste different wine and get some knowledge on this brand.

It was an interesting event and quite informative too.

Mr. Craig Wedge would smell each glass, shake it, and take a long sip.”You should shake to aerate it, to put oxygen into the wine” he explained. It was interesting to observe how the wine coats the side of glass., the thicker streaks that seem to run down the glass indicates the higher level of alcohol.  “A good wine should smell like a female perfume, it should be clear, crisp and shine like a diamond.” He said, holding the wine glass up in the air.

He explained that the first impression is on its visual impact of its charity, brilliance and cleanliness.

White wines vary in color from clear to yellow to golden brown. As white wine ages, it will lose color and begin to turn browner color.

Red wines vary from red to purple to dark reddish brown. As red wine ages, it will lose color and begin to turn browner color.

The main factors that affect the color of wine depends on the grapes variety, the age of the wine and the amount of time the wine spends in oak barrel. You cannot make good wine from bad grapes. If it tastes stale (like nail polish) you need to throw it away.

The wines that appeared on my table were quite delicious. Mr Fabio Zardetto, the Maestro himself, took us through the the journey of wine culture through his presentation briefing us about Italian passion.

It was an perfect afternoon, tasting wine while studying the finer points behind the Fratelli Wines – Hand-crafted wines by Tuscan icon Piero Masi.

Fratelli wines currently consists of 18 various labels, I taste six varieties, each distinct in its taste.

I completed 30days Food Photography Course Online

Earned it here

Everybody loves to eat exotic food and some of the dishes are so visually tempting, that one wants to capture the image immediately. The food arrives, you drool, but before you even take one spoonful of that delicious food, you click on an impulse. Most of the time you click ‘bad’ pictures. What do you expect on an empty stomach?

Learning food photography is a serious business. It is an art. It has to be done the proper way, preferably from the experts who know it well.

I stumbled upon a post on Facebook that said “Learn food photography in 30days’’ and immediately got interested. I signed up for the free course and shared the link with many friends, hoping that they would be interested too.

Neel is my Guru for this course and he has been the perfect guide. During the month of March, everyday, at 12:30am India time, I found his mail creep into my inbox.

This one-month journey has been the most creative and entertaining month for me, where I have done hands-on assignments that came each day into my inbox. Briefly I have shared my journey along the way, so that I could refresh myself on the go.

You can check my journey by going through my post on Food photography series

Part one Soup Pictures 

Part two Understanding Angle 

Part three Field of Depth 

Part four Frames 

Part five Telling a Story 

Part six Lighting 

Part seven Prop Styling 

Part eight Food Styling 

Part nine Planning a photo shoot 

A lot of discipline is required to do online course, you tend to slag, to become lazy, postpone it for another day, but Neel knew how to keep us on toes. He invited us to a private group on Facebook where we could share pictures with other members who had enrolled into this course. We posted our assignments everyday that not only helped us improve our photographs but also inspired us to post our own. We learnt from each other, pointing out the flaws in pictures, critique work and also to encourage the good photographers. There was improvement in the pictures as the days passed. We learnt, angles, composition, lightings, props and many more aspects of photography.

Everyday there was a new lesson, and everyday a new trick. There were useful links posted everyday that gave great insight to food photography and the famous photographers from whose work we could learn.  There were live sessions too  (mostly during week-ends) whereby Neel came on web stream line and conducted power point presentations. and answered our queries and our struggles during photography.

Although I took a free course (there was paid course too called VIP, that might help more serious photographers, with video lessons and more details) but this course helped me a lot.

I am not saying that I have become expert in 30 days, no, that is not what I mean, but this course has helped me understand the basics of food photography and I plan to improve on the tricks that have been furnished till now.

Improving the skills is not just doing the course, it is all about practice, practice, practice, after you have learnt the basic. Someday, I hope to print out my photographs and decorate my kitchen walls.

I have already made one picture that I hope to print this one and put it up in my kitchen...seriously!!

                                                 “It’s not the hand but the heart that cooks”

I would recommend this course to all my friends who love food photography.

Thank you Neel, May you continue to share your knowledge with many more. 

Food Photography: Part Nine- Planning a Photo Shoot.

Before we begin to photo shoot, planning is quite important. One needs to know what you plan to do. The best place to get ideas and inspiration is to study the good pictures and try to understand what make it stand out. Pinterest has some beautiful pictures where one can be inspired. You could deconstruct the picture to help you understand the decisions the photographer had made while creating the photo.

let us study this picture for example : photo credit: Lara Ferroni

Points to be noted while reading a photograph

What is appealing about the photograph?

Who is the main character?

What do you think the story is?

Can you identify the direction of light?

What props do you see in the photo?

What can you tell about the harmony and the balance of the photo?

How is the space used?

Can you identify the camera angle and where was the camera in relation to food?

How is the background?

What can you say bout the location of the food photos?

Knowing and understanding all the details then you can plan your own photo shoot.

To prepare for photo shoot, start by creating a list of shots that includes all the possible combinations of camera angle, depth of field, prop arrangement, food styling, framing and everything else that you would like to capture during the shoot. Write down the list of all possible shots that you would like to capture. Will you like an overhead shot? What about silverware, one without any napkin? Another from different angle? List all of these down. Also make a list of what you do NOT want to use.

This will help you not only when you are ready to shoot but also save time in looking for things the last minute.

Next step is to sketch your shots.  Sketch all the possible ways you would like to photograph the subject. Creating a sketch helps you visualize the frame before you start creating a photo. The process of sketching begins with identifying the main subject, then secondary or supporting characters like props, lights, angle and other things that are essential to the story.

Then you are ready to shoot.

On the days, when you are not prepared and you wish to click pictures instantly, you may click a bad picture then go to photo editing app to do the post processing of a photograph.

If you wish to add copy then you have to create positive and negative space. Positive is  space occupied by food and other things and negative is the blank space around the subject where you can add copy script.

Would like to Thank Neel for his guidance in understanding Food Photography.

Food Photography: Part Eight -Food Styling

Food styling is easily the most challenging aspect of food photography.  Harmony and balance are the key principles of design. Using these two principles, you can improve the composition of the scene and make decisions like where to place certain props and what color to use.

There should be certain kind of balance in arrangement of the dishes so that it does not weigh heavily one side, and the colors should be in harmony, with focus mainly on the subject.

Garnishing is the easiest way to style the food and different garnishes can be used to enhance the plate, like chopped nuts or seeds, creams, shredded cheese, herbs or spices. It should balance with the dish and be used in limited proportion.           

We can store the collection of different tools that are used in styling. Getting acquainted with the tools and practicing how to use these tool becomes very important.

Essential tools for food styling are things like tweezers, cotton swabs, brushes, squeeze bottles, paper towels, tooth picks, scissors, cutlery board, straws, twines and many other things. Normally, I take whatever is handy and in my vision. But for this exercise, I opened the kitchen cabinets and found quite a collection....

There are many images on the net from where one can draw inspiration. The most useful images can be found on Pinterest.

I wanted to click the pictures of puffs and  saw many pictures on Pinterest. that inspired me to pick up the puffs from my cabinets and go click, click , click....

Studying, deconstructing and analysing the photographs of professionals can make us understand how food styling has been done.

PS: Thanks to Neel for his guidance in his30-day food photography Workshop.