Paul Williams

I chose to incorporate some of the restaurant's decor into the background of this shot, as the colour palette complimented the dish and it helped to establish that sense of fine dining.
Masterfully plated by Chef James Fiske on Australia's Gold Coast.
BTS: Lit with 2x Bowens 500W monoblocks (with softboxes) and a bounce card.

I love back-lighting my images to capture the most challenging of aspects on a dish, such as the thin streak of black sauce drizzled here across the black plate. Back-lighting accentuates texture to great effect in this way, allowing photographers to capture the most elusive of aspects within a dish.

This shoot was a particular favourite of mine as a case study success story. The clients are really nice people and very hard workers. Though they hadn't embraced the importance of marketing, or online booking systems. Spending money on a big shoot and a new website was a real leap of faith for them, though they took our suggestions on board, took a 'risk' with the low-key lighting style (as opposed to the over-used high-key lighting for most seafood restaurants) and gained brand differentiation.
They also gained a 40 fold increase in their online bookings within two months of their campaign and site launch and are now positioned to sell their business with very healthy-looking books. A very happy ending! :-)

This dish was plated by the Chef in such a graphical way when viewed as a top-down, there was no need to over-style the table. I love the stark simplicity of this shot. Good lighting was all that was needed.

I love how succulent this dish looks and the vibrance of it is undeniable.
Fresh edible flowers that complement the berries against the dark promise of the chocolate sauce just says 'licking optional, though highly recommended'!
Shot for a popular local cafe producing terrific food to a market that demands a health conscious offering - while ordering just the opposite! Taste vs tone. It's an ageless battle. ;-)

This shot encompasses all that is fresh, rustic, social, natural, healthy and trendy in Australia's cafe scene right now.
It's a shot that really does speak for itself!
Food Styling: The always amazing Peter May.

The Goodmix is an Australian health food brand that was created by a Naturopath. Lots of great paleo/keto solutions for the health-conscious and the image suite that we created was a fun mix in itself - of styled shots like the above, as well as raw ingredients 'explosion' shots for the packaging.
Shot in studio with 2x Bowens 500W Esprits.

A simple hero shot of a green smoothie mix that leaves plenty of negative space for the designer to work their magic.
As an ex-designer, I know how important it is to leave some breathing room in my shots for cropping options, as well as negative space to reverse text against, for instance.
As photographers, it's so important that we give consideration to not just our shot, but how that shot will be applied to the marketing collateral and how we can give our client/creative agency some latitude to work with our shots.

Shot for Janice Wong in Singapore. Janice was named Asia's Best Dessert Chef (twice), her creations are unlike anything I had seen before or since.
She is a force of nature when it comes to dessert creations, was a pleasure to work with and quickly learned that I am as obsessive with crafting light as she is with her own craft. Which was a beautiful synergy!

This was shot for clients who initially needed to be convinced about the value of food pro photography. Nonetheless, they gave my Stylist and I their full trust - I was pleasantly surprised when we suggested a low key shoot to stand out against their competitors, who were all using light & bright high key images.
It paid off. Very shortly after their new website launched with new suite of marketing images, their online bookings grew 40-fold and their business is now in the position that they wanted to get to; turning a profit with healthy numbers and ready for sale so they can retire! Feels great, as they were really nice people... :-)