SFU: Sears Grilling Photography Final Portfolio

I can't believe this is the last week of my SFU Sears Grilling Photography Class.  The past seven weeks have just flown past.  It was more challenging than I thought it would be to plan ahead and grill so many meals that needed to be photographed in a week.  Probably more so because I tend to look in the fridge mid-afternoon and that decides what I'm making for dinner.  Planning is a lot harder.

My last week's assignment was to pick my favorite ten photos from all the photos I took during the class.  Easy peasy, right?  WRONG!  If you've been following along the past month or so you've noticed that most of my posts for each week have had close to ten photos each if not more.

It's hard picking favorites.  All the photos in my previous posts were favorites.  That's how they ended up in the post and not just saved on the computer.  So I'll try really hard to narrow it down to ten favorites.

This shot was from before we got any instruction on how to take photos.  It's from the Jellies exhibit at the Shedd (I know, totally doesn't have anything to do with grilling!?!?) but I used it in my first post as an example of what the settings on a camera could do to change a photo.

I really like the photo of this pork chop on the grill because it just looks so juicy and yummy.  This photo focused on using indirect light and proper white balance to get a good photo.

These next photos are examples of staging.  Staging is when you put a product in a realistic setting to make the photo look more natural.  This first one is a close up of a Jucy Lucy burger (these are stuffed with ooey gooey cheese in the middle).  I love this pic because of all the colors in it.  

I love these mushrooms too (even though onions aren't my fave) because they look succulent.

This is such a dorky pic but I love it because its a "grilled" grilled cheese.  I'd never thought to put these on the grill but they took no time at all and tasted amazing.  Just make sure to use real butter as the fake stuff turns black pretty quickly.

Are you seeing a theme yet in the photos I've been picking?  Most of them are close up shots focusing on something in particular.  This kind of photo shows the most detail and highlights what I think are important in my dishes.

The last set of photos is from my grilling party that got rained out.  Our assignment this week was to utilize all we'd learned to show off our skills.  This first photo is a close up of pork tenderloins cooking on the grill.  Don't they look juicy?

I like this photo because the fruit salad has so many colors in it.  The photo makes it look bright and inviting.

This cheesy garlic bread not only looked amazing it tasted pretty darn good too.

This photo is an example of focusing on the fruit salad in the foreground while the rest of the plate blurs.  This draws your eye to the salad and makes it the focus of the photo.

The last photo I picked is a good example of staging.  The cupcake liner has been peeled back to show the viewer how awesome the cupcake looks inside.

All in all I feel like I've learned a lot taking the #SoFabU Sears Grilling Photography class.  My blog food photos have definitely improved.  I'm so thankful to Sears for sponsoring this class.  Without it I wouldn't have had a chance to grow as quickly as a photographer.

*I am a member of the Collective Bias Social Fabric Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias and Sears #CBias #GrillingIsHappiness.  All photos and opinions are my own.*