Food Photography Workshop by Hein van Tonder.

The photo above is of me taking an overhead shot.Photo taken by Hein van Tonder.

I’m a big fan of Hein van Tonder’s work, he makes photographing food look effortless and oh so exquisite! So when I heard that he was doing a food photography workshop, I indeed jumped at the chance to book my spot. Before, the workshop was held at one of the collaborators’ house, Isabella Niehaus’ place off the West Coast. This one I attended was one of the first held in central Cape Town in the opulently trendy Inner city Ideas Cartel office space in Loop street. Walking towards the building is rather misleading, it’s quite an old building,as many other in the CBD. Taking the lift to the third floor, doors open and it immediately feels as though I’ve fallen down a completely trendy, opulent rabbit hole into a whole new dimension. Steampunk meets opulence that’s my humble opinion on the space. 

This photo was taken by Hein himself and styled me.

Most of you will know Hein from Heinstirred and having won numerous awards for his beautiful work, this year he has won Pink Lady awards for Food Photographer of the year in the Marks&Spencer category and Food Photographer of the year for the Food bloggers category. He constantly does freelance work for food magazine giants like Woolworths Taste and Food and Home magazine. Francois Pistorius, one of the other hosts at the workshop, like Hein, is also a renowned professional photographer and comes from a fashion and lifestyle background and also dabbles in food photography. I love his style of photography, he aims to take concise style photos that tells a story. Isabella Niehaus, the third host/collaborator also stems from a fashion background having worked for Sarie magazine. She is a professional food stylist and cook that has this amazing zest for life. We started off with an introduction into Hein’s style of shooting and capturing, followed by Francois doing the same and giving us an insider’s view into the photographing and styling of a cookbook they shot together http://www.quivertreepublications.com/books/the-story-of-a-house/ 

Isabella gave us some sound advice regarding styling too! They all encouraged us to play around with the gorgeous produce they had purchased at a farmers market a day before and pair them with whichever prop we think goes best. The entire day was based purely on theory, practice,fun and of course food! 

Isabella made us a scrumptious meal to sustain us hard workers, shared over bubbly and chatting with new friends. I couldn’t have asked for a better setting with better people. After lunch we headed back to our natural light setting, where the rain had stopped and the sun came out a bit. We got to practice some action shots, pouring of sauce and sieving of icing sugar. Just when I thought the day could not be more fun filled! 

Much to my dismay, and just like that it was over and it was time to leave. Before the workshop I can attest to being an awkward photographer with not much confidence behind the lens. This workshop gives you the confidence to play around and explore your setting, styling and style and I definitely recommend this workshop to any budding and aspiring food photographers in Cape Town. 
For more information on the workshop, please go to Hein’s website: http://heinstirred.com
*this post was not sponsored.