Kevin Chelko Photography: Foodshooter.com

I am really into food photography, and as I was searching for some good sites for to review I found Kevin Chelko's Foodshooter.com. This site is full of tips and techniques. The background of the main page is white, with the main menus and images; the name of studio is on the left top outside corner of frame, and a thin dark yellow line along the bottom of the page adds visual interest. It looks really nice and clean, the way food is supposed be. They use Flash to show seven images on the front page, which are obviously food photographs, for about three seconds each in the middle of screen. On the left side, there are five main menus: About Us, Capabilities, Portfolio, Client, and Contact, which are simple and small enough in size font, not to distract from the Flash images.

In the About Us section, they explain about their 2200 foot studio in Charlotte, North Carolina, which includes a full kitchen, a drive-in door, a conference area, a full shower, as well as a separate area for hair and makeup. The Capabilities section has five submenus, which are Props, Styling, Lighting, Digital Workflow each section provides examples of their work. For example, the 'Props' section shows a delicious looking coffee drink with chocolate sprinkles and candy canes set on a bed of snow. The corresponding caption reads: “Searched far and wide to locate seven different types of Holiday Candy Canes for the Art Director to choose from. Then we created authentic snowstorm indoors, in North Carolina, in August.” In the lighting section, for anoother example, the site shows Vanilla ice cream with sliced peaches in the dark blue bowl with a couple of un-sliced whole peaches for a background. The corresponding caption reads: “Created soft window-like lighting to accentuate the shapes and textures of the peaches and ice cream, and to create the feeling of homemade goodness down on the farm.” From the main menu, the Portfolio section shows their portfolios about Starters (like nacho chips, soup, BBQ wings, Onion rings, and etc.), Deserts (cookies ice creams, cup cakes, and etc), Beverages (beers wines, coffees, cocktails, and soft drinks), Entrees (sandwiches, burgers, stakes, and etc), and ingredients (eggs, bread, bell pepper, tomatoes, and much more) separately. In the Clients menu, they list down all of their clients; the contact information is also well organized, and even includes a map to the studio.

This site looks like it would be good for people who are interested in using their studio, clients who want work done, or for other food photographers who want to get an idea of how other people are setting up and marketing their services.

Submitted by Raesok Kim