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| Seriously? Pink light? Just to ruin my photos? |
Of course, everyone should discourage photographing their meal. It's horribly embarrassing and ridiculously geeky. But some of us need photos for the blog, and a few cell phone snaps can be taken discretely, quickly, and without bothering anyone with a flash.
Unless you're a victim of the War on Food Blogs.
The NYT quoted a few irritated chefs, but it missed the fact that chefs have already declared war on dining room photographs -- by calling in their natural allies, the crazy electricians. Their secret weapon: Rotating colored lights that are creeping into too many dining rooms and ruining too many iPhone photos.
Don't tell me restaurants adopt weird neon for design.
No one thinks they look good in a room where a mirrored sign shifts from red to blue to yellow and back to red again. Sushi Yama was the first place where I came home and saw the lights had defeated my phone. Now, Xitomate has rotating lights in the bar. The new Sushi Tendou lit my booth like a circus act. I love eating at all these places, but look at that pink sushi!
The lights are just the start of the War On Food Blogs. I predict chefs using video monitors, watching my table from the kitchen, waiting for the food to be delivered and then -- bang! -- switching the dining room lights to orange.
At this point, I am forced to escalate. I'm planning a backpack photo studio that Mrs. HowChow could wear into restaurants. They serve our food. Mrs. HowChow whips out the cardboard-box-turned-light-box (thanks Strobist!). We blaze a few flashes, and we get our shots.
I hope you won't mind.
10 comments:
For each of the chefs who don't like diners to photograph their food, there's one who encourages it. Homaro Cantu of Moto and iNG restaurants in Chicago, for one. They realize that a photo of a beautifully-composed dish, when shared with the world, can bring in more customers. Not just bloggers are photographing their meals these days.
And whether or not we take photos, they can't stop us from talking about their food. If it's good, we'll praise it, and if it's terrible - well, we'll call it that, too, with or without photographic evidence. :)
People need to chill. I think a few quick snaps is fine. But I can also understand from the chefs' point of view that they don't want some people taking bad pictures of their food. You always take great ones, but there are some REALLY bad food pictures out there. And what ever happened to experiencing a meal and describing it? I know that blogs are photo driven, but there is something to be said for sitting back and enjoying a meal and not worrying about taking photos of it.
If you like, you can easily fix the color by adjusting the white balance. I just used "auto white balance" on your photo in Gimp, and it looks great.
Here it is: http://imgur.com/QKtNQz8
K8 -- You'd be so bored if I was just writing!! Do you know how often I use "delicious," the one word that food reviewers shouldn't use as a crutch? But I promise that I'm just a "snap and go" eater. My usual dinner companion would accept nothing more -- although many of the nice photos are her work.
Anon -- That is spectacular. Thanks. This was just meant to be a lark about those weird lights. I know nothing about these digital skills. Mrs HowChow has fixed a few photos on the computer, but I hadn't know how. I will definitely play with this stuff.
As someone who (sometimes) takes pictures of my food, I don't see what the big deal is. If they put a lot of work into an appetizing appealing plate of food, they shouldn't be ashamed of it.
LOVED this post! Love the sense of humor. I have also taken photos of meals at restaurants in order to write a blog. And in one place in particular, I received a very hostile vibe from the waitress who was really quite rude. It surprised me because I would think that publicity might bring in more customers, to a restaurant's benefit...
I've been told at some high end restaurants the chefs were concerned about other chefs stealing their ideas.
I know you are a snap and go eater, but many people aren't, and I can totally understand some people's frustration with people who need to get "the perfect photo".
And the recommendation that something is delicious is all I need to know :)
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