Food photography with a Leica M? Yes we can!
Italy is the heaven for genuine food and whenever I travel to visit my family in my hometown Mola di Bari, Puglia, I’m always tempted to organize a Food photography shooting taking the chance of having fresh fruits and vegetables from my parent’s farm and amazing prepared food from the best chef in the world: my mom! :-p
But I always change my mind as I’m annoyed to carry over big and heavy equipment as for instance, the Canon 5D III, the EF 100mm macro and the EF 24-70mm IS II, for a short and relaxing stay of few days. Recently I’ve paired my DSLR equipment with a Leica M typ 262 and, whenever I travel, that’s my camera to go, other than I want it to become my only equipment for any usage.
I know this will be a challenge, but the more i discover the rangefinder world, the more i love it, and the more i use it.
I was enjoying the time in my sunny Puglia and my father, who knows what I like and what I need, showed me a picture he took whit his iPhone, of a little pomegranate on a nice, old, “ugly” wooden banquet. The overall look and feel of the picture was really interesting for me as for long time I was looking for a wooden background like that, with a natural feel but strongly marked by the time.
But I was there, with “only” my Leica M and a Summicron M 50mm f2 and the Tele-Elmarit M 90mm f2.8 in my bag and I could not take the banquet with me on the way back to Luxembourg… and the good fresh food was there too… the opportunity was too tempting…
why not give the Leica M a try? Even if i could not get close without a macro lens…
So I’ve prepared a very simple set, with the banquet, a light reflector made with a standard aluminium foil and mounted the camera on the tripod right on top of the food.
In this video i’m just showing some behind the scenes and the final result, after some post production improvements with Adobe Lightroom.
[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGGdg_k1OsQ[/embedyt]
Fresh raw walnuts on a wooden background
Fresh raw chestnuts on a wooden background
Fresh raw tomatoes on a wooden background
Fresh raw tomatoes on a wooden background
Raw fresh zucchini on a wooden background
Delicious slice of fresh pecorino cheese from Italy
Natural leaves of Aloe Vera plant
Cute small pomegranate on wooden background
Fresh raw redfish on wooden background
Traditional pasta with stuffed mussels and tomato sauce, typical from Puglia
Traditional stuffed mussels with tomato sauce, typical from Puglia
Typical taralli snack from Apulia region in Italy
Typical taralli snack from Apulia region in Italy
Sasanelli, delicious traditional pastries from Puglia, Italy
Fresh baked bread on a wooden table
Bocconotti, traditional home made pastries from south of italy
Bocconotti, traditional home made pastries from south of italy
You can see the complete set on sale on
