A Special Visit.

September 1st, 2010

A few months ago at the end of spring, Steve was trilled to have renowned food writer and editor, Janet Fuller write an article in the Sun-Times that consisted of Steve’s ten tips to creating a mouth watering photo. The article was appropriately named, Eye Candy. Janet touched on how food photography is becoming so popular, and that digital point and shoot cameras now sometimes come with a food setting. Janet’s article and Steve’s tips were accompanied by a call for entries for an amateur food photography contest featured in the Sun-Times and judged by Steve. There was an overwhelming great response not only to the article, but to the contest as well.

The grand prize winner of the competition, Sharlene King, presented us with a mouth watering grilled chicken sandwich with roasted peppers, sugar snap peas and mayo. As part of Sharlene’s prize, she was invited to join us in the studio last Friday as Steve and his crew recreated her award-winning image.

Sharlene was a delight. We had the pleasure of hosting her for most of the day. She was on set and in the kitchen conversing with Steve and the crew while the recreation was coming together. Sharlene had used many of Steve’s tips from the Sun-Times article to create her image, such as soft, indirect lighting, a great low angle, a shallow depth of field, a tight crop, and the use of complementary props. Steve’s recreation did not deviate from her winning approach.

Sharlene, Steve and the crew review the most recent capture of the recreation.

The creative collaboration produced a beautiful image. The sandwich looked light, fluffy and refreshing, just as Sharlene had intended. She stuck around the studio after the recreation to watch Steve create great sample shots.

We would like to thank Sharlene not only for the great image, but for making the day fun and successful. Also, she requested the images of the entire shoot so she could create an amazing stop-motion video depicting the recreation from start to finish. Check out Sharlene’s video of the chicken sandwich recreation below, and please, try not to drool!

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The Wedding of Chef Art Smith and Jesus Salguerio

August 26th, 2010

Intro: Chef Art Smith and I met when we were both starting off our careers. A mutual client would rent my studio and he would do some catering for her. Our friendship and careers have grown through the years but we still enjoy working together, most recently on his last cookbook, Back to the Family.

Chef Art Smith, Leah Hamilton, Jesus Salguerio and Steve Hamilton

Art Smith knows how to throw a party, a party that encompasses the better half of a weekend. Over 400 people from all over the world gathered last weekend in Washington, DC, to celebrate the wedding of award winning chef, Art Smith, and his partner of ten years, artist, Jesus Salguerio.

A beautiful setting for the wedding

The festivities were kicked off Friday night with dinner at the Blue Duck Tavern with some of the best movers and shakers in the industry. Everything was served family style. We had the honor of sitting at the chefs table. The entire restaurant felt like a very high end cooking school, with chefs and stations all throughout.

Art kick's off the 5k sponsored by Nike

The next morning was a 7am wake up call, followed by a light breakfast. Then, Guests gathered at Smith’s DC restaurant, Art and Soul, and proceeded to either run, walk or jog an entire 5k sponsored by Nike, ending on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. At the memorial, Art and Jesus addressed their friends by thanking them for joining them both on that special day. Guest speaker, Marianne Williamson, followed the couple in addressing the crowd, offering inspirational words and bringing the mornings events to a close.

Mother Addie Mae, Jesus Salguerio, Chef Art Smith and Marianne Williamson

Williamson kicked off the noon hour by wedding the two men at the Affina Hotel. Afterwards, at Art’s restaurant, there was an unprecedented all-star barbecue featuring 14 executive chefs creations. There were two dishes that stood out as my favorites. The first being Elizabeth Karmel’s (chef at Hill Country in NY) brisket and cucumber salad featuring Lucini Olive Oil products. The second dish was buttermilk fried chicken, prepared by Art’s chef from Table 52, and my friend, Rey Villalobos. Todd Hattoff from Allen Brothers, supplied all the meat for the massive feast.

Steve Hamilton, Chef Rey Villalobos and Roger Herring of Socca

The evening brought on an even more relaxed atmosphere to the day. Guests ventured to the rooftop pool of the Liaison Hotel for a monumental pool party. The evening cuisine was entirely vegan, consisting of pizza, hotdogs, frittata and cupcakes prepared by Georgetown Cupcakes. Guests enjoyed the weather and food all while the DJ (which happened to be Moby) was spinning throughout the night.

Moby, Steve and Leah Hamilton

Leah Hamilton and Nate Berkus

Numbers dwindled, leaving only the die hards in the lobby bar at 1:00am. Art was still entertaining. He continued to cut the lavish nine tier cake made by the Ace of Cakes himself, Duff Goldman.

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Splish Splash

August 19th, 2010

A few weeks ago we were presented with a fun challenge of capturing a splash. Getting the shot requires a fair amount of experimentation, preparation, and in this case, some heavy duty rain gear.

Every shot is unique. Every shot is messy. Our special effects man, Geoff Binns-Calvey, returned to help us keep clean, safe, and produce a great image. Geoff had a lot of fun, wearing his knee length yellow rain coat, rain boots and a plastic bag wrapped around his head. The running joke for the day was that the Gorton’s fisherman had joined us for the day to splash around in the studio.

Watch here to witness the fun as Steve and Geoff work together to capture the shot.

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Max At Moto

August 11th, 2010

Last year, Steve’s son Max ate at Moto with his family to celebrate his tenth birthday. Max was blown away and has been a huge fan ever since. His enthusiasm only grew when Planet Green began airing “Future Food,” a reality-type show about the restaurant.

So this year, the Hamiltons thought they would surprise Max with something extraordinary:

They won a chef-for-the-day gift certificate to Moto at a charity auction for “Puppy Love/Love Cats Rescue,” and gave it to Max for his eleventh birthday. As you can see from his time spent with executive pastry chef, Ben Roche, Max was pysched. To top it off, the whole family met Max after his hard day of work and celebrated with the GTM (a whopping 20 course “Grand Tour of Moto”).

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Move Over Weber, Our Grill is Better!

August 5th, 2010
Shrimp Skewers on the Grill

This is the final image Steve captured during the grill session

When you’re trying to capture a grill layout, you normally don’t have that many chances for a winning shot. Since you’re not photographing the food while it’s actually grilling, everything must be prepped, styled, and cooked to perfection by the food stylists prior to even making it on the set. Having an uncontrolled source of flames will cook the food even more once you’re shooting, so it’s a huge advantage to the photographer to be able to control exactly where and when he’d like the flames.

Furthermore, food stylists spend many hours searching for the perfect prototype for each shot. Several boxes of shrimp will be sorted through in order to find just the few flawless shrimp that are needed for a skewer. It’s very important that the chosen shrimp, or hero shrimp, remain optimal until Steve has his final photograph.

So after the photo assistants and prop stylists have constructed the set and placed the lights where Steve wants them, the food stylists bring over a couple “stand-in” skewers to place on the grill. With so much depending on timing and the chaos of the flames, I wonder how a “stand-in” will suffice. But this is where Geoff’s special effects come in.

“This scares the hell out of TSA,” Geoff tells me, as he leads me over to a briefcase-sized wooden box he has in the middle of the photo studio. While unlocking this custom case, he continues, “I usually include an explanatory letter, a copy of all the photo layouts, and whatever else it takes to stop them from taking it out back and blowing it up because they don’t understand it.”

I think this sounds drastic until he reveals what’s inside. A labyrinth of solenoid valves, precision needles, pilot valves, gauges, tubing and wires lines the interior. “Doing special effects is all about control,” Geoff says.

He and Steve proceed to work together with the substitute skewers and bomb-like apparatus until they have the correct flame size, placement, and quantity of flames that Steve wants for his final shot. With the turn of a handle, the flames go out and Steve switches to the hero shrimp. Geoff turns the handle back in position and the flames rise to the exact same place.

Who knew a food photography studio could be so much like the Wizard of Oz? Watch and see…

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Kari Underly’s “The Art of Beef Cutting”

July 28th, 2010

We rented out the studio to a film crew to shoot an instructional video about how to properly butcher a cow. The final video will accompany Kari Underly’s book, “The Art of Beef Cutting: A Meat Professional’s Guide to Cutting Techniques and Merchandising.” Kari is an amazing butcher, educator, and merchandiser, serving those in the meat industry. It was incredible to watch her work on this shoot.

Steve was able to capture some behind-the-scenes footage on his iPhone, so I’ve put some of those videos together for you to give you an idea of what an undertaking this film was. They had a crew of over 25 people, with four cameras, grips, an art director, a director of photography, lighting specialists, camera operators, and people on hair and makeup. The cow itself was almost 1000 pounds, so there were people specifically designated to handling it before and after the shoot as well!

Steve’s friend Johnny White provides some additional information towards the end of the video. Enjoy!

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It’s a Pizza Pull!

July 14th, 2010

This is the final image Steve shot for the pizza pull

What makes pizza look so appealing? It’s pretty safe to assume that across the board, people are attracted to the gooey, freshly baked look of hot melting cheese. And what better way to showcase it than to snap a photo as one slice is pulled away from the pie?

Sounds easy, right?  But with lights, props, sets, and cameras, the timing just isn’t that simple to coordinate with the kitchen. And as for the pizza itself, the type and age of the cheese (even slight variants), the thickness and ingredients of the crust, and the type of kitchen equipment at hand all impact the quality and look of the pizza pull. It’s actually quite a balancing act.

Watch here to see how food stylist Kim Hartman works with Stephen to get this shot.

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Raymond Builds a Set

June 23rd, 2010

Steve’s main assistant, Raymond Barrera, often works as a second shooter at the studio. But he’s never taken a photography class. He has an interesting story.

Years ago, when he was not quite sure what he wanted to do, he followed a lead based on his love of movies. His sister played soccer with a man who worked in various film jobs, doing videography, production, and post production. Thinking he’d be a great contact for Raymond, she arranged for the two to meet.

By chance and a little twist of fate, Raymond arrived at the man’s rented studio space only to hear that he’d be late. Instead, Raymond met the owner of the building, who happened to be a photographer. They got to talking, and as luck would have it, the photographer needed help building out his newly acquired space. He offered to trade services with Raymond by teaching him everything he could about photography. Slowly but surely, Raymond fell in love with the business and became a talented photographer in his own right.

Steve came into the picture about two years later – after Raymond had been photo assisting at all different types of photography studios. While Steve was working on a shoot, his main assistant quit, and Raymond was recommended.

Now Raymond’s been working with Steve as lead assistant on and off for the past six years. As you can see in this video, he’s gotten very efficient at building sets!

Music sampled from Thom Yorke’s “Atoms For Peace”

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The Art of the Wine Pour

June 9th, 2010
Art of the Wine Pour

the final image Steve captured with the help of Geoff's rig

Everyone knows that wine is an art. Making it, storing it, decanting it, and serving it all have specific protocols. But what about capturing it? How do you turn the wine pour itself into art?

To capture the allure of wine in a single shot, ideally, you want to conjure up all the senses. Steve back lights the glass to give it a nice glowing hue. He displays the barrel in the background to suggest the taste of rich oak notes. And most importantly, by showing movement, he simultaneously evokes the sound of the wine pour, and the feel of wine in your mouth.

Geoff Binns-Calvey is an incredible resource here at the studio. His special effects expertise eases the challenge of catching time sensitive imagery, making the task of shooting a flowing liquid a lot less daunting.

Watch here as Steve and Geoff discuss the challenges of shooting wine “the old fashioned way,” and how Geoff’s rig helps by creating a continuous flow for Steve to shoot.

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Matt and Stevi Savage Visit the Studio

May 26th, 2010

Thinking about taking the leap from photo assistant to photographer? Of course everyone’s path is going to be different, but it’s nice to hear a success story every now and then to offer some guidance and encouragement!

A few weeks ago, husband and wife photographer team Matt and Stevi Savage came by the studio to shoot new head shots for Steve. Before going into business for themselves entirely, Matt and Stevi were photo assisting here at Stephen Hamilton Photographics. During that time, they had the opportunity to travel with Stephen to Italy for a photo shoot. This trip turned out to be an amazing learning experience for everyone. It was here that Steve really advanced his understanding of shooting natural light. When he returned, he made the decision to renovate his space into a daylight studio.

Now traveling around the world with their own photography business called Avery House, Matt and Stevi shoot in a style they call “modern vintage.” You can check out images from them at www.averyhouse.net.

In this video they discuss how they got started, what they do, and the advantages of working together.

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