KEW GARDEN’S SALAD BOOK
I’m delighted to have another 3 photos in the AOP Awards 2020, which takes me to 70 images in these awards over the years, which may be a record.
I like this still life series. It’s very simple so each photo has to be just right.
San Francisco sour dough, seeded and waste less loaves from Gail’s Bakery
You should be able to take a good photo with any camera whether a £50k Hasselblad or an i-phone and in the same way whether it’s in a studio, bedroom or outside in your garden.
I include a few set up examples using my home grown gourds and tomatoes.
It may look a bit precarious but it shows you don’t need a fancy set up, just the idea and the creativity and patience to make it work. It may look a bit mad & wacky but photography is very simple.
I love my camera bag from Florence with a pug with pink bows.
A family of gourds before the magic
Shooting wide open, hand held at 1/40th. I probably took 60 images per vegetable, with variations with slightly different focus, levels and cropping, then quite a bit of post production on the Mac.
I love taking pictures when it’s a good idea, just like a kid in a sweet shop. I could easily spend a week on a shot if I knew i could make it better and better.
As a Food (& still life) Photographer you quickly learn that most food is brown. Cookery writer, Guardian and friend, Rachel Roddy columnist goes as far as to say the ‘Best food is brown’.
With more demand for vegan & vegetarian organic seasonal food, I’ve made a concertive effort to try to increase green & colour into my food pictures.
Home-grown veggies
Fresh girolles, Condé Nast Traveller
Conchiglioni with broccoli
Tomato linguine pasta with pangrattato
Cabbage parcels stuffed with Persian rice
Lockdown shoots
Look at that crispy golden fat!!
Great to be back shooting, first shoot with a lovely Pakistani restauranteur, Riz Dar.
Pakistani food at it’s best http://zaynarestaurant.co.uk
Riz Dar, head chef & owner
Love a biryani, often served only at weekends
Jumbo prawns
Mocktails
Trapped, submerged?
Can’t breathe…
Home alone?
Black child in a white world
Extended paternity & maternity leave
Will restaurants ever re-open?
One glow of light from the Lockdown was having another series in the AOP awards, several successive years and about 100 individual images since I began my career.
I rate the AOP awards as the best photo awards as the judges are either photographers, art buyers or clients that commission photography. Too many awards are judged by people who may not be the most knowledgeable on photography.
Sour dough
Seeded batch
Waste-less bread, such a good use of old bread
Despite the coronavirus we are still working from my environmentally controlled studio. Surfaces are wiped down with disinfectant and no one is allowed in accept for our team.
We’re all prepared to shoot product shots remotely or with an art director present.
We hope to see you soon
Delighted to have won the International Color Awards for the 3rd consecutive and nominated for the Pink Lady Food Awards.
Octopuses Garden in the Shade is part of a 3 image collage shot as a series of tests with Italian School Dinners and Cooked Mussels
Greene King IPA has always been a huge supporter of British sport.
This summer sponsoring the English Cricket and rugby team with their success in WorldCups.
My poster, press and social media campaign using 6 images focussed on sporty chats in pubs over a beer.
Hugh shot bush craft expert Ray Mears new book cover for Bloomsbury Publishing. Wilderness Chef will be available to buy on Amazon in the spring
On very wet day, deep in Ashdown Forest Ray started a fire, gutted and boned a whole wild salmon with his bare hands.
Ray is a lovely man, a black belt 7 dan judo artist who trained with Terence Donovan in the Paddington gym. They became good friends with huge mutual respect of each others craft. Terry loved military precision so would have loved Ray’s skills.
Getting the fire going in the rain.
A fresh wild salmon cooked over birch wood tastes fantastic, especially when you have been standing in the rain for a few hours.
With the harvest season in full swing Hugh was asked to shoot a campaign for Westmill showing the Elephant Atta product, multigrains and their wonderful chapatis. The brief was to shoot the 7 multigrains on a natural kitchen work top scenario
The campaign consists of posters, social media and stop frame animation.
It is an honour shooting this with David Mellor. I have always loved their designs.
Perfect veg patch with wonderful green home-grown rocket.
Thank you to the Slow Food Movement and Soil Association #vegetarian #vegan
Spending a summer’s day shooting cool beer, chilled wine and food on the canal at Paddington was a dream come true. Thank you to all the great people at Vagabond’s Wine Bar.
Fresh radishes
Cheese board
Pain au chocolat. You can’t better French pastries, all that butter!
Skashuka, love this dish
Salmon toasts
Turkish eggs, a decent reason with Imam Biyaldi to go to Turkey. (and kebabs!!)
After Hugh's winning series Italian Ingredients at the AOP Awards it was lovely shooting another lovely project with Sacla, one of the great Italian and British food businesses supplying Italian produce.
Wild garlic
Parmesan
Quadratto di Asti peppers
Fresh n’duja bruschetta
Loving n’duja whether on pizza or pasta
Courgette pasta
A huge thank you to the Romans for giving the planet these wonderful ingredients
‘Only Italians’ - when Hugh saw two Italian telecom workers eating a hot lunch in Soho, he immediately fell in love with the scenario. Only Italians would down tools at 1.00 in a busy Soho street, set up 2 tables and prepare a hot plate of pasta for two with Parmesan, oil & pepper.
Hugh’s photo captures his love of Italians & their culture. There was no conversation between the two workers as is often the case in Italy as they’re too busy enjoying & appreciating good food.
Hugh has four photos at the Association of Photographers Awards on Tuesday 14th May 2019.
(PS - all the rest are rubbish!!)
I love winning awards. My shot ‘Bar Snacks' for Kricket London has won more success, this time at the International Color Awards 2019, NYC.
There were a total of 7,241 entries received from 79 countries. This follows on from winning the Fortnum & Masons Photographer of the Year 2018 and the inclusion of 4 images in this year’s Association of Photographers Awards. Hopefully there’s more to follow….?!
Yesterday I had a lovely day in Tate Britain looking at the Don McCullin show. It made me realise there are now very few photographers attached to newspapers (& record companies etc) and very few gritty Sunday supplement covers featuring wars and politicians. The days of memorable ‘news’ pictures are over. Don McCullin’s work really captures news stories from the last 60 years; it’s like flicking through an old diary. https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/don-mccullin
One painting I really liked in Tate Britain (along with David Hamilton’s Keith & Mick (Stones handcuffed after their 60’s drug conviction) was by Lisa Milroy. I never previously knew her work but now absolutely love her paintings especially one of pairs of black shoes. This really inspired me to shoot a test of mussels based on her idea. This probably sounds a little obscure but they look so similar. https://www.tate.org.uk/visit/tate-britain Please see my test below
Vongole
I really love Lisa’s work. http://www.lisamilroy.net/c/11/shoes