Free, Live Online Food Photography/Styling Workshop on Creativelive & More

Hi everyone! Hope all is well over there on your end of the world. We’ve been working around the clock on some crazy new projects that we hope to announce soon. But we finally ironed out one of the first ones and we can share it. 

Wanna join us for a free, live online food photography and food styling workshop in June? We’ll be teaching a 3-day, live workshop on Creativelive . We’ll also be chatting about video and why you should end each shoot day with a round of whiskey sours and gin & tonics. For real! :) 

Register here for our free, live Creativelive workshop  http://www.creativelive.com/courses/story-plate-food-photography-styling-todd-porter-and-diane-cu 

Also, we have a few spots left for our intensive 2 day Food photography and styling workshop at our studio in May. Register here: http://www.eventbrite.com/e/two-day-food-photography-styling-workshop-with-todd-porter-diane-cu-tickets-3134069085?aff=eorg 

Have a great weekend! 

diane and todd

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Pan-Roasted Salmon w/Orange Vinaigrette & Workshop Updates

It’s been a crazy busy 2013 and we’re trying to keep up with our goals and list. So far, so good!

Finally, after so many requests, we have our updated food photography/styling workshop information in one place. And better yet, we finally set up a mailing list for all updates regarding all our workshops, updates and behind the scenes photos from the classes. So for those of you who keep asking us to add you to a list, we have one for you!

Visit our new “Official” Photography Workshop Website: http://workshops.tdphotographers.com/

You can subscribe to our mailing list for all photography workshop new dates and updates here.

And we have one spot that opened up for our February 22-23, 2013 Food Photography/Styling Workshop here. We’re also working on a March date, so keep checking back on our workshop website or sign up for the updates.

Over the last 2 months, we’ve been working on the manuscript edits for our cookbook. Wow, this journey has been so fun. Can’t believe we didn’t do it sooner. Best of all, we’ve had editors red-mark our manuscript and correct us of all our typos, grammar and cleaning up all our mistakes. If you haven’t had a copy editor run their red marks through your work, it’s an eye-opener. But really, it feels so wonderful to have someone help make our writing better and we learn so much from this whole process. Wish we had one for the blog.

Thank goodness we didn’t get a school grade on our manuscript because if it was an English assignment, we’d get a C+. Seriously, who knew that we shouldn’t have water written out on the ingredient list? And the use of too many “uh, of, the, but, and…”. Yup, that’s us. Grade: C- . We’re always working on being better writers but until then, we won’t quit our day jobs as photographer and food stylist.

So in keeping busy, we’re shooting a bunch of fun photographs and project for Food & Wine. Some are recipes and some are lifestyle shots for an upcoming feature. The recipe shots are so fun and eating them is even better. It’s so hard to not dive into each of their recipes but we’ve bookmarked some of our favorites to make for future dinner parties.

One recipe we really loved was this pan roasted salmon recipe that rocked our world. We’ve been craving more seafood lately and the last batch of shots for Food and Wine had plenty of salmon for us. This salmon recipe is cooked to tender-perfection on the pan and dressed with a wonderful orange vinaigrette.  In our region, citrus season is peaking and with our abundance of fresh oranges, a vinaigrette over salmon can’t get any better.

Why we love this recipe even more is that it’s loaded with fresh shaved fennel bulb, baby spinach and radicchio- all of which makes a perfect collage of greens and ruffage. This pan roasted salmon really can’t get any better than this. It’s a healthy dinner that feeds the craving for healthy protein and a generous dose of seasonal vegetables.

For this Pan Roasted Salmon recipe, visit the Food & Wine Site. This new photo isn’t on the site yet, but you got the sneak peak here today!

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Minted Sangria Recipe from our Photography Workshop

It’s funny how this recipe came to mind. We were in teaching our food photography/food styling workshop this weekend and the students were tackling the subject of photographing drinks. Drinks can often be challenging, especially when it comes to reflections, styling drinks and how to add interest to simple liquids.

Diane was quickly setting up to style a drink scene for the students to practice photographing and someone yelled out “Sangria”. Yes! the thought of having a sangria sounded so perfect at the time too. But the visual thoughts of styling chunks of fresh fruit in a fizzy drink was the perfect subject for the scene.

In about 4 minutes, a sangria set was made and propped ready for the waiting cameras and photographers.

After going home and looking at the image again, it made us thirsty just looking at the photo, so we decided to re-create the exact same looking drink with a recipe to share with you all! Enjoy!

This workshop at our studio this weekend was so much fun and the amazing gathering of students from around the country blew us away. We had students come from Seattle, San Francisco, Las Vegas, San Diego and of course, our beloved local people too. What made this gathering so amazing was all the stories we shared with one another about our family heritage, food stories and personal family recipes.

So many of us were from different parts of the world and though we all grew up with different family food traditions, we all shared so many things in common. The laughing didn’t stop. And neither did the food, we ate and photographed till we dropped.

This workshop was sold out, but we added new dates and we still have a few spots left. Register for classes here. Thank you to those who came and look forward to meeting all new students.

-diane and todd

Scenes from a busy weekend of food photography!

Todd & Diane live tethered shooting & styling, talking about light & composition

Kathy setting up in the gorgeous light 

Hands on food styling: working together to compose pretty food 

everyone styled multiple dishes & photographed their final hero plates

Styling soups, sandwiches, salads, meats, drinks, pastas and more!

from conception to final shot! 

Taleene photographing her beautiful styled sandwich 

Painting surfaces for food shots! 

the ideas and creativity students painted for textures was amazing! 

both plenty of DSLR and iPhone shots were happening

group shot of the small, intimate class! Thanks to all students for attending. Please keep in touch! xoxo 

Yield: 1 cocktail

Cook Time: 2 min.

This recipe is based off of what we had at the workshop (apples, mango, and mint) and came together in a delicious sangria. To compliment the mango and mint, we used a touch of white rum and lime to fortify the sangria. This gets even better if made in large batches and allowed to combined flavors over a couple hours before serving.

2 oz. White Wine (Sauvignon blanc, pinot grigio, or other crisp white)1 oz. White Rum1/2 oz. fresh Lime Juice1/2 teaspoon Sugar1 Tablespoon diced Apples1 Tablespoon diced Mango2 lrg Mint leaves, chopped2 oz. Club SodaCombine all ingredients except club soda and mix until sugar is completely dissolved.When ready to serve, pour over ice and finish with club soda.

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New Workshop Dates for Food Photography-Food Styling & Hello from Mexico!

Hello Friends, thank you so much for the amazing response to our workshops. Our first release date sold out quickly and we’re thrilled to be hosting small groups of students at our studio. The experience of sharing and learning as a group will be phenomenal & we’re so excited to meet and be creative with you!

Since we have a long wait list, we’ve announced two more dates for our food styling and photography workshops.

For those of you interested in our portrait photography workshop sessions, thank you for the incredible response. Wow! We will be releasing those dates later after we secure some final models to be our photography subjects. We’ll also working on securing an outdoor locations for the portrait sessions . In the meantime, you can sign up for the waiting list here.

Also, for the Craft photography workshop, there are still a few spots left!

iphone image from Zihuatanejo, Mexico 

And, at this moment we’re in Mexico for the Food and Wine Festival in Ixtapa, Mexico. We’re excited to be returning this year to document this incredible gathering of food lovers from around the world to celebrate the cuisines of Mexico. We’ll be learning about the history and flavors of Mexican cuisine from expert local Chefs, along with American Chefs Michael Symon, Marcus Samuelsson and wine expert Mark Oldman.

We’ll be sharing some images soon and some lessons we learned, so hope you’re hungry for next weeks posts!

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Food photography, styling workshop & sharing a meal at our studio #AFundForJennie

You are all incredible, each and everyone of you in this food community. The Twitter hashtag #APieForMikey event appeared to kick start a movement, a staggering response of support and love for Jennie. Now Bloggers without Borders (founded by Maggy, Erika) are working tirelessly around the clock with Shauna to organize #AFundforJennie, a funding raising event to assist Jennie and her two girls.

We’re witnessing something truly amazing here: food bloggers from all around the world are participating in the most community driven event ever. You must visit the auction gallery page to see really comprehend the scope of how wonderful the event has blossomed too. This auction page is filled with offerings from the heart and full of love from worldwide bloggers.

Now it’s our turn. Our offering is a full day food photography/styling workshop, followed by a family style meal that we will all cook together and share. The location is at our brand new kitchen studio that is just 7 days old.

some vintage collectables in our gallery room

All funds from these ticket donations will go directly to Jennie at Bloggers without Borders. We (Todd & Diane) will personally fund the cost of hosting the workshop.

Please join us for a day of learning, friendship & community. Here is the agenda (subject to change): 

Our Studio Location: Orange County, CA. on Saturday October 15, 2011 8am-8pm

Morning Welcome: You will be greeted with a big bear hug, pumping music, light & fresh breakfast, a quick tour of our new studio & dancing (not required).

Discussions & topics: Storytelling, vision, finding your voice, making an impact with your photos, the power of an imperfect photo, lighting, basic principles.

Live demonstration: we will be demonstrating a live shoot, from ideas to storyboarding, workflow to final image.

Hands on time: you will have an opportunity to practice making your food photographs.

Lunch: Fresh meal cooked from our studio kitchen, more music & discussion of morning shoot

Discussion & topics: Basic Food Styling, how to integrate color, texture, movement to make a photo stand out, shooting on location

Live Demonstration: we will be demonstrating some dishes being styled, then photographed & editing

Hands on Time: you will have opportunity to practice styling, playing with props & photographing

Dinner: Family style fresh spring roll feast (gluten free) where we will grill on the table. We will all be cooking and eating together.

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*** Donation Details: The cost for this complete day is $1,000 per person, all funds go to Jennie.  Space is open to 10 attendees. If spaces fill up quick, then we might open up more spots.

How to sign up (please read carefully) : The workshop is limited to the first 10 people. Go to the Bloggers Without Borders Donation Site Here. Make your $1,000 donation by clicking the square BWOB Donation button on the side bar. Once you make your donation, you will receive a confirmation from pay pal. Send that confirmation to us at: td (at) Whiteonricecouple (dot) com to secure your spot in the workshop.

Thank you again and hope to see you there!

Our 7 day old kitchen studio where food photo/video shoots happen

play with our prop room and with Sierra

Other studio half filled with natural light to shoot in. & studio will be cleaned, promise!

Our live demonstrations will show you how we achieve these food shots

The #APieForMikey Video we made for Jennie & Mikey:

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