At the end of August I shot a short film highlighting Ubuntu’s Concierge Dinner; this was composed entirely of stills shot on a Nikon D700 camera, with ambient lighting.
Chef Aaron London worked furiously on an array of delicious looking dishes; I didn’t get to sample anything that night, but came back a few nights later to try some of the things I saw being prepared and was not disappointed by my anticipation…it was fantastic!
Last week I did another shoot at Ubuntu’s wonderful biodynamic garden. I shot close to sunset, and I was feeling a bit frustrated with the images until the lack of light forced me to bring out my studio strobes (lugging those around along with the hundred foot extension cords was a lot of fun). With better control of the lighting situation I was able to create a few really nice images that felt much more painterly than the sunlit ones.
Last week I did a shoot with the executive chef of Ubuntu, Aaron London; we were shooting a bean soup recipe for the September 2010 issue of Food & Wine magazine, and managed to sneak in a few other shots destined for an update of the Ubuntu site, including a lovely salad and a vegetable “dragon” with poached-egg head.
When brainstorming ideas for Ubuntu Restaurant’s new website, I had the idea of using x-raying vegetables from Ubuntu’s biodynamic garden for icons. These shots, styled by Chef Jeremy Fox, were originally intended just to serve as style guides for the x-rays which I would take at the Palo Alto Imaging center with the help of my friend, radiologist Dr. Larry Chan.
Above, beets and radishes with Chef Fox’s “edible dirt;” below, squash and squash blossoms.
In the end, some of the above shots made it into the site, while the x-rays will be used in a future project.
This past March we did a fun staff photo shoot up in Ubuntu Restaurant’s biodynamic & organic garden; though I was there to shoot the staff, the real star of the shoot was their Scottish highland hairy cow Coco, who just had a baby, named Guinness. Click here or on the image above to see a slideshow video of the shoot.
The Ubuntu staff, including executive chef Aaron London (on left)
Ubuntu Staff; top row (from left): Louis Vargas, Aaron London, John-Paul Kuhn. Bottom Row (from left):Stagiare, Stephen Thorlton, Carl Swanson, Justin Yu
This was one of the first shoots I did together with Chef Jeremy Fox at Ubuntu Restaurant in Napa. We were tasked with putting together some images for tasting cards for Lion’s Run Winery (for which I’ve also done some print & web design work). The image is of olives with pesto, with some nasturtiums and some of Jeremy’s famous “edible dirt” scattered around.
A wide angle shot from this series also became a large poster hanging in the window of Ubuntu Annex:
