Tag Archives: food photography

Light Is Light

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I asked my friends to hold their phones around this lemon-mint drink at Lameeya. By carefully positioning the LED light from the three phones, I lit the drink as how I would in a studio. Of course in a studio, I can use a variety of light shapers, snoots and diffusers. Here with an impromptu shot at the restaurant, I used paper napkins as diffusers and my palm as a light cutter.

The takeaway here? Light is light. Once you understand how it paints your subject, you can turn the plain into something beautiful. Anywhere.

Olympus OM-D, ISO 200, f1.4, 1/400 sec.

Light Is Light

Putu Mayam

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Putu Mayam is hard to photograph not because it is mostly white. The aroma of the golden brown sugar and grated coconut fluffs makes you want to drop the camera and eat it.

The South Indian (Tamil) delicacy comes in many flavours but generally the vermicelli-like strings are made from rice flour and coconut milk. In this popular street version, the dish is topped with date palm sugar and shredded coconut. I bought this from a pasar malam (night market) stall for RM 1.80 (about US 60 cents).

Olympus OM-D, ISO 200, f5.6, 1/60 sec.

Putu Mayam

You Never Know

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Scallop Americana – Scallops and pasta sautéed with capsicums and black pepper to make a rather spicy dish. The Manhattan Fish Market restaurants have expanded its menu since I last dine in one. Somehow I missed the simpler and bigger servings from the early days. Everywhere, dory fish don’t taste like dory fish any more.

My OM-D EM-5 is being repaired. The LCD screen smashed and the mode dial faulty. The viewfinder rubber eye-cup needs replacement for the 4th time. So it goes in for a much needed service and firmware updates. You never know when you need a backup camera, all of a sudden. My trusty and tiny Panasonic LX-5 acted as stand-in here and it performed admirably well, as expected.

Panasonic LX-5, ISO 80, f2, 1/80 sec.

Scallop Americana from Manhattan Fish Market