Food photography in Naperville, shot in your kitchen.
Food photos that make someone new hungry.
I photograph food for the people who make it: caterers, kitchens, and food brands. Plated dishes, a spread for an event, the menu, the product in the package. The job is simple to say and hard to do. Someone who has never eaten there sees the photo and wants to.
What the photos are for.
Most food photos have one of four jobs, and the job decides how I shoot.
The menu. One dish at a time, plated the way the kitchen plates it, lit so the food looks like the food. For the website, the printed menu, the board, and the delivery apps, where the photo is the only thing between someone and the order button.
The spread. A catering table, a buffet, a tasting menu laid out together. These sell events, not dishes. The client needs to see what fifty guests would see walking in.
The kitchen. The people and the process: hands plating, the line during prep, the chef at the pass. These go on the About page, the socials, and the hiring post, because people buy from people.
The room. The dining room full and empty, the bar, the private event space. For the venue page and the Google profile, where someone decides whether to come in.
Who I’ve shot food for.
Clarify Kitchen, a kitchen and event space, and BusyButternut, its catering brand. My Chef Catering. Mr. Steak, a meat brand I worked with for seven years, including the steaks for their website and their subscription. Packaged products are on the commercial page.
Photos and video, same day.
If you need video too, a dish being plated, the kitchen at work, a short spot for social, it can happen on the same day as the photos.
How it goes.
Before. Tell me what the photos are for and which dishes matter most. We pick a window when the kitchen can plate without hurting service, usually before open or between lunch and dinner. If there’s a list, send it. If not, the menu is the list and we rank it.
On the day. I set up in a corner you can spare, by a window if the room has one, with my own light if it doesn’t. The kitchen plates, I adjust what needs adjusting at the table, and each dish gets a few minutes before the next one lands. The kitchen is back to normal before the first ticket.
After. The finished files, cropped for the website and square for social, licensed for the uses we agree on in the quote: website, menu, social, delivery apps, print, your Google profile.
Where I work.
Naperville kitchens, mostly, and the towns around it. If your kitchen is in the western suburbs or the city, I’ll come to it. The light and the setup travel.
Questions people ask before they book.
Do you shoot during service?
If the photos need the room full and the line moving, yes, and I stay out of the way. For menu photos, a quiet window before open or between services is better for the food and for your staff.
Do I need a food stylist?
Usually not. Your kitchen plates it the way a guest would get it, which is what the photo should show. If a dish needs more than that, say so when you ask for a quote and we’ll talk about it.
How many dishes can we do in a session?
Enough to cover the best sellers and the new items in one visit. Rank them before the day so the ones that matter most are shot first, while the kitchen is fresh.
Can we use the photos on DoorDash, Grubhub, and Google?
Yes. Delivery apps and your Google Business Profile are two of the best places for them, and both are named in the license when you ask.
Do you do video?
Yes. Plating, the kitchen at work, a short spot for social, shot the same day and quoted with the photos.
Who owns the photos?
Licensed for the uses we agree on in the quote, for as long as you like. I keep the copyright, which is standard and doesn’t limit what you’ve licensed.
Do you photograph drinks and the bar?
Yes, and they’re often the best-looking thing in the room. Cocktails, the beer list, the coffee program, the bar itself at the hour it looks best. Put them on the list with the dishes and they get shot the same day.
Can you photograph a restaurant before it opens?
Yes. Opening-week photos are the ones the first reviews and the first Google searches see, so a session a few days before the doors open is time well spent. The kitchen plates a short menu, I photograph the room finished and empty, and the photos are ready for the listing on day one.
Selected work.
If what you need is somebody who handles the whole story of your business, not one shoot, that is the other half of what I do. How I work