My day at Toki Underground was typical of pretty much any shoot in that it presented a pretty major change in plans. The original framework for the day was to start with the staff around 10:00am as they prepped the restaurant for the day’s lunch service, followed by a portrait of founder & head chef Erik Yang with additional photos of a few menu favorites during the slow hours between lunch and dinner rushes. Then came the last minute email: “Erik won’t be available tomorrow afternoon so can you be ready to take his portrait right at 10am?”
It was only a few short months ago that I started to shoot food & beverage photos. Brandon Wetherbee, editor of BrightestYoungThings asked if I wanted to check out the media preview of Bar Dupont's Fall Cocktail menu (holy warmth) with him and grab some photos. I hadn't really done any food & bev work before but I decided to check it out anyway. I had a pretty good time and figured out the pace of the work pretty quickly; listen to the bartender introduce the cocktail in question, grab some photos of him or her making it, figure out a complementary composition for whatever color the drink is and the glass it's served in and then drink away.
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