I started my journey as a professional food photographer about 13 years ago, when I embarked on a journey to Hong Kong, a city known for its awe-inspiring food.
Food photography has allowed me to travel to so many different places, experience different cultures, taste many different foods, and live a life of freedom.
My first food photography experiences were in Hong Kong at various cha chaan tengs (Hong Kong cafes) and Santana Row in my hometown of San Francisco Bay Area.
I’ve worked with many amazing brands over the years. I’ve shot all genres of food, from very hold-in-the-wall mom-and-pop shops to fine dining, Michelin classics. I’ve worked with many restaurant empires and met many restaurants tycoons and food brands including Michael Mina, SAJJ Mediterranean, Mixt, Tsar Nicoulai Caviar, Ghost Culinary, Market Hall Foods, Homegrown, DOSA, and many more.
My day-to-day is different every single day of course as I manage a creative production agency called Dish Crawl, where I wear many hats in creative, marketing, strategy, and paid advertising. I manage a small team of 9 who consist of primarily designer, account managers, creative strategists, and photographers.
I sit in front my computer for hours on end, talking to partners and clients on Slack, communicating closely with my team to make sure the job is done well, designing various collateral for clients, and taking sales calls to grow the company. I also have designed an automated outbound system using various tech tools such as Gmass and Mail Merge to ensure that we are always doing outreach to potential clients. This system helps us constantly get new clients. I am constantly refining our system so that each touchpoint with the potential prospect is a delightful and easy experience.
When I do have a photoshoot, it is often somewhere in SF or LA. I wake up, make myself some breakfast (usually some eggs, bagel and cream cheese, and fruit, maybe some orange juice). I pack my bags, usually a few cameras, a few different lenses, some food photography plates, and marble board. Once I have packed my bags, I drive to the client who is usually half and hour to an hour away. The shoot itself is usually intense - it takes anywhere between 4 hours on the short end and 12 hours on the long end. A lot of the time is spent prepping for the shoot, styling the dish, wiping down the dish, and making sure that lighting and composition are right. It also takes time to cook and prepare the dish. As a whole, it is very fun work, where I get to travel to many destinations and try experience different cultures.
After the photoshoot is over, I go home and edit on Adobe Lightroom for many hours on end. I edit the saturation, exposure, and colors of each photo to make sure it is to the client’s liking. Once I have finished all the editing, I release the deliverables to the client via Google Photos. The client uses these photos for social media, website, advertising, and marketing collateral.
My work is very satisfying because I give my all to every photoshoot that I’ve done. I know these photos are used every where. I’ve even seen my work being used whenever I walk down the streets of SF. I sometimes pass my clients in Financial District and see my work up on the side of the restaurant or the menu.
Currently, I live in SF and LA and travel to markets where there is a thriving food scene. This year I’ve worked with more restaurants than that of any year so far. My goal in the short-term would be to completely dominate the Orange County (where I currently live - but SF restauranteurs, please feel free to reach out to me still as I can come back often), Los Angeles, and San Diego markets. I am also happy to travel to Canada (Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal, I’m looking at you), where the weather is much colder, there are more animals, diversity and mutli-culturality is valued, and there still is a thriving food scene.
Food photography has been a fun journey so far and I can’t wait to meet all of you in Los Angelees, Orange County, San Diego, and beyond.
- Jer