The Brief
This year has thrown so many twists and turns for local businesses and events. When I first connected with Merchant’s Daughter shooting product photography, we were only a month into the pandemic, but ever so hopeful that life would turn to normal by summer. As the summer approached, so many events planned for 2020 were cancelled for the year. Cider Week, however, decided that a virtual experience would benefit their clients, so Christine from Merchant’s Daughter reached out in need of both video and photography with a 72 hour window. Knowing that Chef Dan Sabia would be commanding the food and flames, I felt the momentum of synergy from this project.
What I Did
Luckily, I have a background as a producer and coordinator for the Food Network, not to mention extensive experience as a food photographer, otherwise a request like this might have been over my head. Under tight budgets, with my iphone 11 Pro as my video camera and my Nikon D800 as my still camera, I embarked on a 3 hour hyper-focused shoot. My attention was mostly on the video, relying on good blocking instead of a second camera for broll. My little time for still photography channeled the importance of only capturing poignant moments. Intuition guided me on this shoot, along with the edit. Food tv formats are old hat to me, so I was able to work quickly with ease. Now if I only had a boom operator… don’t judge me on the sound!
This episode airs on Cider Week’s YouTube Channel on Father’s Day 2020 at 1pm.
Merchant’s Daughter Cider Maker Dan O’Brian
& Chef Dan Sabia from Wood Fire Food
