Shoots, Eats and Leaves

It is Christmas, After All!

2022-12-04T16:36:00.001+00:00

It's that time of year again, where rich, luxurious Christmas food and drink takes priority over the diet! It would only be appropriate to share some of the images from our festive photo shoot and get you all in the mood for turkey and all the trimmings.
Jewel like colours create a sumptuous setting for the most indulgent food, contrasting with the icy blue-white background for the more traditional dishes of turkey and Christmas pudding.

Hope over the Christmas period, you feast as well as we did and have a fantastic break with your friends and family. It's time to celebrate! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Grains as Mains

2022-03-04T14:37:00.001+00:00

I have been working recently on a book focusing on grains as the main feature of the dish.
Common grains such as rice and bulgur wheat and more unusual ones like teff and amaranth were transformed into flavoursome meals, perfect for any palette.

I am happy with how the photographs have come out- bright and colourful with the food popping out from the neutral props.

Most of the images for this collection were shot overhead which gave a nice consistency throughout and a real graphic quality to the splats of dressing, sprinklings of herbs and the textures of the grains featured. Grains may have a reputation of being a bit bland, however I feel these images make them fresh, exciting and current.

Style your Own Wedding

2022-02-28T14:47:00.001+00:00

Another shoot that has been great fun, was the Style Your Own Wedding book, which gave unique and creative ideas for stationary, table settings and theming. Barn, Blush, Bohemian and Garden were our themes of choice, shown through the starting point of mood boards, right through to the end table settings. Great inspiration for getting crafty!

The props ranged from vibrant, luxurious fabrics for the Bohemian style wedding and accessories to natural decorations that could be found in your own back yard for the barn and Garden style wedding, appealing to all types of budgets and tastes.

Ardens Advertising Shoot

2022-02-28T14:46:00.002+00:00

Ardens specialise in appertisers and nibbles perfect to go with coffee, as a tasty snack or with a cocktail or two. The idea behind the shoot was to create a sense of sharing, such as having a coffee with a friend, stopping for lunch or at a dinner party. The use of props such as the book, flask and fairy lights create a unique setting and atmosphere and a sneak peak into the personal space of the consumer.
I particularly like the cool grey and neutral tones of the background mixed with the pop of colour from the food and drink.

Alpro Milk Recipe Ideas

2022-02-28T14:46:00.001+00:00

Alpro for instance, specialise in dairy free milk from soya, a variety of nuts and coconut sources. The selection of shots for this shoot were to demonstrate recipes that would normally use cow's milk or yoghurt, but here are completely adaptable with the range of Alpro milks.

Visualising Fragrance

2015-01-28T16:39:00.000+00:00

Delicate unique fragrances were the focus of this project for The White Company. The images feature the ingredients used in the company's scents, building a visual picture of the aroma.

It was lovely to work within a different genre to my regular specialism of food, using items such as flowers, greenery and wood barks all bound together with the fragile linens as backdrops. A sense of peace and serenity is conveyed through the photographs, mirroring The White Company's unique branding.

Working With Editorial Text

2015-01-09T11:30:00.000+00:00

Sometimes a shot will receive a text overlay on the photograph rather than in a separate section. This creates more of a challenge when shooting as the food has to be situated accurately before it spoils. The publishers will send over the text example which I then overlay onto the live shot in Capture One Pro software. We then have to style the food around the copy. Despite this being a bit more rigid in terms of creative freedom, I am actually really enjoying photographing food in this way. The shots below were taken for a book project and a magazine.

Berin Made

2014-12-18T11:30:00.000+00:00

This year I had the exciting opportunity to shoot a project for stationary company Berin Made. Working with flowers, foliage and confetti to create graphic, unique images to display their fun merchandise. It was an interesting change to work with stationary items rather than food (which I usually shoot). I think the images are as eye catching as Berinmade's products.

Shooting Tests

2013-10-30T13:03:00.000+00:00

I recently upgraded some of my camera equipment and acquired a lens I had been thinking of getting for a while. In order to test everything out and to shoot a couple of ideas that had been bubbling up in my mind's eye, I organised a test shoot with the lovely Emily from Spook. The results are even better than I had hoped for and proves it is worth continuing to do projects off my own back when I have a spare few days.

Cooking class photography

2013-09-30T11:30:00.000+01:00

Shooting an event or class often means there are factors that will influence your shots which are beyond your control. For example, the location and styling of the setting, the available light, the mood of the people and colours of the products or food. These are all things that need to be kept in mind as much as possible for each shot you take, whilst also relying on your instinct and eye. I would say it is one of the more challenging areas of photography as there is so much to think about.

But then when it all comes together, there's no beating the sequence of shots you are able to achieve. At the time I took the shots below I knew I had some good shots, but when seeing the shots together as a story at my computer afer the event, I was delighted to have captured the mood and look of the day as I recall it.

Rachel Allen's Everyday Kitchen

2013-09-16T11:25:00.000+01:00

Another shoot for the Good Food Channel, this time for Rachel Allen's new programme. I really loved these recipes which were utterly delicious and rich, perfect winter comfort food. I shot this a few weeks ago while the weather was still hot and sunny. Now the colder climate has set in these shots get me in the mood for the cosiness autumn and winter have to offer; wellies, woollens and lots of time huddling around log fires with friends and family. Can't wait.

Scandi food

2013-08-27T16:45:00.000+01:00

These images were shot for the Good Food Channel to accompany their new series Valentine Warner Eats Scandinavia which will air in September. I love the styling by Linda Berlin, who was a perfect fit for the job being Swedish herself. The greys and light blues really make the food stand out.

The versatility of shooting Raw

2013-06-07T15:11:00.000+01:00

I recently completed a cookbook for a bootcamp. As the recipes were healthy and nutricious the brief was to shoot them with light and bright lighting. I however wanted to create some darker moodier pictures for my portfolio. By shooting Raw I had the versatility to change my exposure, contrast and white balance to create two different versions. A cooler darker version for myself and the warmer lighter version for the client.

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'Made in Chelsea' star Jamie Laing's Candy Kittens book

2013-05-20T22:30:00.000+01:00

Earlier this year I shot a fun and cute book for Candy Kittens, the boutique / sweet shop creation of Jamie Laing of 'Made in Chelsea' fame.

Out in the shops today here are a selection of some images from the book.

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James Martin's United Cakes of America

2013-05-10T20:00:00.000+01:00

Alongside James Martin's recent Good Food show on UKTV I shot a beautiful selection of recipes from the series. Inspired by favourite American cakes James put his own twist on much loved classics. I do love nothing better than a cake shoot. And no, not because I get to try them all, I just think they make such pretty easily shot subjects.

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Alpro "Deskfest" Campaign

2013-05-02T21:00:00.000+01:00

Alpro launched their 'Deskfest' campaign earlier this year. I shot a range of images based around the idea of a quick and easy breakfast on the go or at your desk. It gave me lots of new breakfast ideas and a new found passion for desk accessories.

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Cawston Press juices

2013-04-30T20:16:00.000+01:00

Cawston Press' cocktail and mocktail shoot really got me in the mood for sipping summer cocktails in a sunny english garden. The flavours of their apple juices and sparkling juices are really zingy and such delicious easy mixers. The mixologist created a very punchy range of drinks that were hard to keep my hands off, the bourbon cocktail being a firm favourite.

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Sweet and savoury preserving class

2012-11-26T13:10:00.000+00:00

I am not entirely sure how I chanced upon the Culinary Anthropologist's website (a.k.a. Anna Colquhoun) , however it has been such a great discovery. I have now completed two of Anna's cooking classes. The first, which is documented here, was the Riverford Early Autumn Preserving workshop. I learnt such a great deal that day, met some lovely people and gorged myself on the perfect lunch complete with some of Anna's outstanding jellies, jams and chutneys. It is simply a wonderfully cosy and inspirational way to spend a day. The classes take place in her purpose built kitchen which is the ideal size and light filled space for her select classes of eight. Below my pictures from the day taken on my iphone which hopefully tell the story better than my words can.

My perfect kind of lunch: cheese, preserves and sourdough bread.


Passata - image © Charlotte Tolhurst

Piccalilli - image © Charlotte Tolhurst

Hedgeroe Jelly - image © Charlotte Tolhurst

Plum Jam - image © Charlotte Tolhurst

My jars from the course sat proudly on my counter for a week before being put away. It interested me that out of the five gorgeous jars, every person who laid eyes upon them exclaimed great interest in acquiring the Piccalilli. So, if you are wondering what home made gifts to make for Christmas, I'd say Piccalilli would be a good bet. Below you will find the recipe kindly given for use here by Anna.

Piccalilli
Makes: 7+ 1lb jars

2 kgs prepared vegetables: choose a colourful mix of cucumbers, carrots, onions/shallots, courgettes/marrows, bell peppers, cauliflowers, green beans, green tomatoes, sweetcorn kernels etc.

approx 8 tbsps fine pure salt

1050ml cider vinegar, white wine vinegar or malt vinegar

400g white granulated sugar

1 tbsp coriander seeds, crushed

1 tbsp cumin seeds, crushed

1 tbsp celery seeds

2 tbsps yellow mustard seeds

40g cornflour, or 60g plain flour

2 tbsps mustard powder

1 tbsp turmeric

1 tbsp powdered ginger

1.     Cut all the vegetables into matching 1cm dice, or bigger if you prefer. Layer them in a big bowl with the salt and leave for several hours or, preferably, overnight. Don't skip this step - salting is important for drawing out excess water which would otherwise dilute the pickle.

2.     Place your clean jars in the oven and turn it on to 140C to sterilise them. Leave the jars in there until needed. Rinse the vegetables in several changes of cold water and drain very well.

3.     Reserve a little cup of vinegar and place the rest in a large pan with the sugar, coriander, cumin, celery seeds and mustard seeds. Heat to dissolve the sugar and simmer for five minutes.

4.     Stir the cornflour, mustard powder, turmeric and ginger into the reserved vinegar to make a paste. Add some hot vinegar to this to loosen it, then pour the paste into the pan, stirring briskly as you do to avoid getting lumps. Simmer for a few minutes, stirring.

5.     Now add the drained vegetables and simmer everything together for five minutes, stirring often. I like the vegetables half-cooked, so they retain a little crunch.

6.     Pack the hot pickle into the hot jars, making sure there are no large air pockets, and seal immediately. Wait one month before opening and use within a year. Once opened, store in the fridge.

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School project continued....

2012-08-09T13:35:00.001+01:00

Unfortunately my new year's resolution of updating my blog more regularly had to be put on hold due to a very tough personal start to the year. A friend, who also writes a blog, told me to never make such promises in the first place as they are rarely kept and you then enter into a downward spiral of continuous apologies that you are not updating your blog enough. So, no more promises, I'll just crack on with showing you some more of the school portrait and food shots I completed earlier this year.

The circumstances of each shoot were not ideal: a dish brought along in some tupperware, styled by me using a box of props which lived permanently in the back of my car and a busy school refectory that we regularly got chased out of at break times. My set up being mostly something along these lines for the food photography.

The portraits were taken directly after shooting the food. Shooting "real" poeple comes with its own complications/limitations. Not many people like having their picture taken and are terribly camera shy. I therefore tried to make it as quick and painless as possible by using only natural light and shooting within the school grounds. Other "tricks" are to ask subjects to look away and only turn back to the camera with a smile at the last minute and generally prancing about being silly helps put people at ease too (I have learnt to leave my pride at home for shoots with kids or animals!). Thankfully the weather cooperated with us and so did the kids ... well actually, there were some wonderfully cheeky attempts at sabotaging the shots, but I think I managed to pull off some lovely shots nevertheless. You can view more images from this project under the new heading "People" on my website.

All images © Charlotte Tolhurst

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People and food - a new project

2012-03-01T19:37:00.000+00:00

I tend to promote myself as a food photographer to keep things simple, however I have a lot of experience shooting portraits as well. I was excited when I was asked to contribute a day's food photography for a charity cookbook in aid of Surrey Square School in South London. In order that the book would be visually consistent I suggested I be the only photographer on the project. However, I can now admit the real reason was that I was keen to gather together a new body of portrait work on a project I felt passionately about.

The idea behind the book is rather heartwarming. Parents at Surrey Square School were asked what they felt their strengths were. A vast majority lacked confidence in many things, but cooking they identified as something they were good at. The idea of a cookbook was born, which would show off the culinary talents of the school's parents and give everyone something to be proud of. The brief for each parent was to prepare a signature dish or something with a particular story attached to it.

My first shoot was with Nazma, who had had her fourth child eight days previously. I went to her house where she presented the leftovers of a beef curry, which was made in honour of her newborn son. In Bangladeshi culture, she said, it is customary to make a meat based curry for one's friends and family to celebrate a birth. They had in fact made the curry for a party with 350 of their friends and family, so we were rather lucky there were any leftovers!

Below are some of my favourite images from the shoot. I always feel a certain amount of trepidation going on location to shoot as I will not know the lighting, props and decor until I arrive. In this case everything miraculously came together. The daylight was good in Nazma's flat and the blue walls and flowery table cloth all worked out nicely to form a consistent looking set of pictures. Everything was shot in daylight, very simply and very quickly. I got to taste Nazma's delicious curry after the shoot and can verify her cooking is truly something to be proud of.

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Sourdough crackers

2012-01-31T12:22:00.000+00:00

I am glad to report that my passion for sourdough bread making has continued. So much so that I would say 90% of the time I am eating my own sourdough bread for breakfast (rye with lashings of butter and damson jam) and sometimes for lunch as well. If I'm not eating the bread, then I can almost certainly be found eating sourdough crackers with strong cheese and a flick of chutney. The sourdough crackers have gone down tremendously well with everyone I have shared them with. In fact I have to limit how many I put out as they will all be gone if I turn away. The recipe below makes a large quantity of crackers, say around 30. They do take a while to roll out and bake, I think I have got it down to just over an hour to get through the whole batch of dough. However, they store very well, so it's worth making a batch which should last you at least a month... Well, saying that, if you like them as much as everyone seems to, they may disappear a lot quicker!

Sourdough Crackers as taught to me by Jane Mason, original recipe Helene Johannson from the Brunkebergs Bageri.

500g full fat milk
40g honey
30g rye sourdough starter
500g light rye flour
250g white wheat flour
20g salt
5g bicarb of soda
10g ground fennel (or ginger, cinnamon, cumin, caraway. I use whole fennel seeds)

*Combine ingredients and knead for 10-15 minutes. It will be very sticky so a scraper is recommended.
*Pop the dough in a bowl and cover and let it rest overnight.
*The next day divide the dough into little balls of 50g or so, the size of a ping pong ball.
*Flour the board well with rye flour and roll very thinly into flat rounds or oblongs. Prick liberally with a fork, a pokey swedish rolling pin or, in my case, a meat tenderiser as pictured below.
*Transfer to a baking tray lined with baking paper.
*Spray with water and sprinkle with any of salt, poppy seeds, sesame seeds, cumin seeds, fennel seeds, caraway seeds or dried herbs.
*Bake at 210˚ for 10-12 minutes. Let them cool completely on wire rack.

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New year new resolutions

2012-01-10T12:27:00.000+00:00

Guess what one of my new year's resolutions is? Yep, to update my blog more, shoot more of my own recipes for it and get tweeting. It occurred to me that I really do cook a fair bit, visit supper clubs and restaurants, attend cooking courses and in the course of all this activity find myself having something to say about things. So, why not write about it. It'll be a good diary for myself of my exploits and hopefully of use to others. So here goes.

Linking up nicely to the idea of new year's resolutions, one of my many 2011 resolutions was to learn how to bake sourdough bread. Come November this had not been ticked off the list. Then I came across Jane Mason's one day sourdough course which happened to be on a Saturday I was free, in November, thus still in time to fulfill my 2011 resolve. I booked it immediately hardly even reading up on what it entailed. In hindsight I suppose it was just meant to be. What a wholly inspiring, fun, carb laden day it was. Here some snaps to give an idea of things.

Not only did we learn how to make rye and wheat sourdough breads and sourdough crackers, Jane had also prepared various breads and cakes to eat during the day and gladly shared each recipe with us as we all scribbled madly in our notebooks. She also made thoroughly sure we all fully comprehended how to refresh our starter and tend to it, or rather not tend to it. Not capable of keeping up household tasks on a regular basis, I was excited to hear her sourdough method does not require laborious daily feeding of your starter. You simply need to remember to wake a portion of it up the day before you want to bake.

Since the course I have been madly baking with varied results. Or rather, myself and my flatmate love what I bake, but others who are more used to white fluffy tasteless loaves, I sense, need to get used to "proper" bread. Loaves are handed over to friends and family with statements like "you know this is better for you?" in the hope this will aid their appreciation. I am glad to report that by Christmas the naysayers had been converted at least in part by my mini rye loaves, which were great sliced thinly topped with smoked salmon and provided great fuel during present opening. Below my spelt and rye sourdough loaves.

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"LOVE" and "Defuse your food" advertising shoots

2011-09-09T15:19:00.000+01:00

Over the last couple of years I have started shooting more advertising work. It is very different to shooting editorial where the brief is relatively open. To explain further: with editorial the exact props I use and what angle I shoot at is largely decided on the day by me with the help of the others present (a combination of stylist, home economist, art director, cookery editor etc.). With advertising the visuals, i.e. the props, layout of food and angle, are already 90% locked down and it is then my job to meet these precise expectations of the client...and ideally exceed them!

Below is the work I have done for GSK on their "LOVE" and "Defuse your food" campaigns, quite different to my usual style I think you will agree.

100 Cook Books

2011-08-06T11:23:00.000+01:00

Client: Pulp Media
And finally, I did a project for a publisher who is producing a collection of books with one hundred specialised recipes in each, e.g. 100 asian or 100 tapas recipes. Unfortunately I did not shoot all the recipes for the books as time would not allow for it. The brief was very open so it allowed me to be a bit more creative styling wise and try a few new things. All shots were taken in my new studio in North London where I am just loving the light.

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Baby shower sugartastic spread

2011-08-05T11:23:00.000+01:00

Client: TBC
A very good friend of mine asked me to throw a baby shower for her a few months ago. Kate and I made a joint effort out of it and it all looked so pretty we decided it would be a shame not to take a picture of the spread. The shoot would make a good story for a magazine and has not been used anywhere yet, so do get in touch if you know a good outlet for it. Also, myself and Kate are hugely inspired by our shoot and would love to cater another baby shower, so get in touch if you are interested. Here not only the shots, but also a list of Kate's sweet baby inspired creations.

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