Wedding Cake Photography

It was shot two weeks ago for a bakery in Burlingame that sells wedding cakes. I figure I'll proudly post this image that represents warmth, texture, sweetness and class. It's definitely a beautiful cake.

A Victory at Trader Vic's

Trader Vic's is a wonderful Polynesian-themed restaurant that has locations worldwide. The founder of the chain, Victor Bergeron Jr, is reputed to have invented the notorious Mai Tai around the time of World War II (yes, this restaurant chain has been around a LONG time).

As you'll see from this collection of photographs, what the restaurant needed from me, a food photographer, was pictorial representation of a number of its menu items for use at international locations to standardize the look of their food. And with restaurants in locations ranging from Palo Alto to Los Angeles to Atlanta to Abu Dhabi to Beirut to Berlin to Tokyo…and the list goes on, you can see how the customary local cuisine presentations might vary and would benefit from these photos!

(Click on an image, then use your RIGHT and LEFT arrow keys to go through all of them)

As we all know, kids and animals are the traditional bugaboos for photographers. At Trader Vic's in Palo Alto, I discovered a third problem model: the lowly sterno. As I mentally prepared my blog before this shoot, the titles "Mai Tai, Oh, My" or "Oh, My, Mai Tai" were rolling around in my head. However, this next picture—which took nearly FOUR HOURS to shoot—changed all that.

This photograph contains many elements that are typically a challenge to get right. Reflective containers dare not reflect the camera gear, for one. The beverage ice cubes in the Mai Tai at the front had to be frozen and the mint had to look refreshing to the eye. Minutiae required attention…burning faux grill marks on the skewers, for example. Food stylist, Randy Mon and I had our hands and eyes full indeed.

But I'll cut to the chase. The dancing flame over the little silver kettle took the most time of all, and it became a head game between us and the can of sterno. Everything would be set: lighting, ice cubes, Blue Hawaiian, skewers…and the sterno would die down. Reset. Sterno wouldn't flame well. Reset.

I think you get the idea. It was either the sterno, or us. And a picture tells a thousand words. Michael+team: 1; Sterno: 0!!

— Michael Soo

A Model Portfolio from & for the City of Angels

 
It's always humbling when I'm chosen as the photographer for people whose professional careers depend on my pictures. So Cal model Elizabeth is a special case.

For years she has used photographs from her modeling gigs as her portfolio. But recently she decided to create a collection of pictures specifically for her. After canvassing websites of many, many photographers, Elizabeth found me; and she chose to drive eight hours all the way from Los Angeles to come here to Cupertino...TWICE!

We worked both days and had some fun setting up different categories of shots to create a complete portfolio: headshot, commercial, athletic, and business-style photos.

The collaboration brought us from the studio, to San Francisco downtown, to the garden in my backyard, to a local park. We really covered her comp card in more ways than one. Tiffany Chiang did the makeup wonderfully.

Being a model is about versatility and acting. By creating photographic situation for the model to act out her role will dramatically increase her chances of being cast into a role.

My best wishes follow Elizabeth back to Los Angeles, and I hope my photos will bring her great luck with her modeling career.

- Michael Soo