First off, apologies for the lack of updates. Its been a manic couple of weeks. So I thought I’d reward you with a long post about a shoot I did last month with Michelin starred chef & restaurateur Terry Laybourne. I was commissioned by Restaurant magazine to shoot a cover and feature on Terry, perhaps the North’s most famous chef. Having just watched the last series of “Hell’s Kitchen” I had visions of my 70-200 becoming a 35-100 as the result of a swift swing of a meat cleaver. But I shouldn’t have worried. He is a very nice man indeed.
Terry is in the throes of opening another (he owns several already) restaurant in a theatre right on the quayside in Newcastle upon Tyne. The feature was to concentrate on his business as a successful restaurateur rather than his amazing culinary skills as a chef, so there were to be no ‘chef’s whites’ shots.
The cover image called for a shot that not only conformed to the cover layout (leaving room for the masthead etc.) but also had to have the backdrop of modern Newcastle.
I met Terry and Virginia, his PR, down by the quayside. It was a blustery afternoon with sun but lots of ominous looking moody clouds. The light was changing very quickly. After a quick recce I decided to use the millenium bridge to frame Terry, lighting him against the moody sky which I underexposed by a stop to make it look even more menacing. I had my work cut out here as the wind was blowing and the ambient light was changing by about three stops every minute as the sun disappeared behind another cloud! Shot a few variants but this one was chosen for the cover image.
Here’s another from the quayside series. I’ve toned this one down in post even more. I like the drama in this shot that comes from the great sky.
From there the brief called for a shot inside the “Live Theatre” where Terry’s new restaurant is opening. What we didn’t know was that the new restaurant space currently resembled a rubble strewn building site. So a shot inside the restaurant area was a no no (unless I was shooting an ad for jackhammers…).
The theatre itself is small with no great auditorium areas so I decided to go for a close in portrait, lit hard, against a wall with a nice shiny sign that said “theatre”. Sometimes the obvious is the only option. I gave this shot some toning in post to match the feel I was after.
Luckily for us the actual theatre itself was free that afternoon so we had a chance to shoot inside. The first thing that caught my eye was the sumptuous reds of the audience seating. I asked Terry to sit in the middle of the back row and decided to pick him out with a gridded light to resemble a stage spotlight.
To accentuate this I shot on a long lens to compress the scene. I did various crops but this one, with the negative space, is my favourite. It’s actually my favourite of the whole session. I have a self-imposed rule to only put one frame from a shoot on the website portfolio and this is the image that was my choice.
You can see a larger version of the final in the “people” gallery on my website portfolio
Next up was a shot outside one of Terry’s existing restaurants. Cafe 21. This image called for careful lighting angles to avoid reflections in the plate glass windows.
Finally, I shot some variants in the kitchens of Cafe 21. The brief called for Terry to be handling some local produce, the use of which his restaurants are well known. I also finished off with a couple of interior shots to show the interior decor of the restaurant. I’d like to thank Terry for his time and patience which allowed me to shoot so many set-ups. A big thank you also to Virginia who helped admirably as 1st lighting assistant and saved us bags of time avoiding rigging stands and sandbags everywhere!Until later…
J
