Here’s a sampling from a shoot we did in Phoenix, Arizona for Donovan’s Steak House last fall. We spent day one in the kitchen shooting back of house images (see here), and day two shooting front of house plated dishes and lifestyle imagery for their website and general marketing. A special thanks to our Phoenix assistant Erica Montgomery for all her hard work on this shoot and for the recommendation for where to get great mole (“moh-lay”) in town. We enjoyed Phoenix. We hope to get back soon. – Kyle

Food Photographer • Kyle Dreier  |  Food Stylist • Ellen Straine

I wish I could take credit for the results from a well produced shoot. Here’s a case of our team putting together a super shoot complete with neat location, talented stylists and seasoned models. The combination made for a quick but fun afternoon at Old Glory, a unique bar in Edgehill Village here in Nashville, where we shot some of their unusual cocktails. Special thanks to Alexis Solar for letting us invade Old Glory for a couple of hours. – Kyle

Photographer • Kyle Dreier
Art Director & Wardrobe • Emily Pierce
Producer • Erica O’Rock
Hair & Makeup • Jillian Savage
Talent • AMAX

We recently did a photoshoot at Nashville’s Henrietta Red oyster bar showing off twenty different varieties of oysters for national magazine. (I’ll show that photo in a later post as it’s not public yet.) I was so inspired by the unique textures of the different oysters from all over the country, I had to bring some oysters back to the studio and do a little personal shoot of my own. I’m amazed at the unusual delicate details within these rugged shells. – Kyle

Food Photographer • Kyle Dreier

I’ve been working with freezing motion lately. Here are some recent compositions. I continue to marvel at what working with liquids can produce. There’s a certain amount of control but a healthy dose of random. Always fun. – Kyle

Food Photographer • Kyle Dreier  |  Food Stylist • Whitney Kemp |  Prop/Set Stylist • Emily Pierce

So many of my childhood memories are built around food.

My mom made THE BEST peanut butter & jelly sandwiches when I was a kid. Her secret? Spreading margarine on both slices of bread before putting the peanut butter and jelly on. This made the sandwich extra smooth and creamy. I think it made it more healthy, too…but I could be wrong.

While we’re on the subject of mom’s sandwiches, I remember being disappointed, and probably very ungrateful, about how she would cut my sandwich…triangles. I was in the first grade, surely I deserved to have my sandwich to be cut into rectangles. That’s what the all cool kids got from their moms.

Apparently lunch was a really important thing to me as a first grader—my memories are very vivid and have become somewhat nostalgic. Sandwiches cut into triangles, wrapped in wax paper (yes, wax paper—my mom had an art to that), and the ultimate first grade medium for self expression—the lunch box. My lunchbox was based on the TV cartoon the Hair Bear Bunch. I remember sitting in the lunchroom at Brandenburg Elementary in Irving, Texas, studying the cartoon scenes on my coveted box. Those were some hip bears for sure.

What about today? I still enjoy a PB&J but for me, the days of the margarine coated white bread version are long gone. Now I typically opt for a whole wheat bread, sun-butter (made from sunflower seeds) and grape jam sandwich.

-Kyle

ps. Nothing like a good story to prompt an excuse to play with peanut butter and jelly. Below are the results.

Food Photographer • Kyle Dreier  |  Food Stylist • Katelyn Hardwick

I get a great deal of pleasure and satisfaction when an art director comes to us with a concept she presented to her client and says “We want you to make this happen.” In this case, her comps showed food nicely packaged, well contained, but her concepts also showed food misbehaving, flying without any consideration for the consequences. All I could think was “Yes!”

Airborne food and splash photography makes me happy. Sometimes it makes the studio floor sticky. Most of the time it makes our clothes messy. (Note to self…ponchos for everyone on set.)

– Kyle

Here’s a fun outtake we did after we wrapped. The magic of weightless doughnuts.

Food Photographer • Kyle Dreier  |  Food Stylist • Callie Blount