dn.jy | Blog

About “Retrospect” :: Dan and I started this blog quite a while after we first started shooting, so we have a lot of projects that have never been blogged but that we have a lot of fun revisiting. Hope you enjoy them!

This post showcases Bollywood Cafe’s Salads :) Bollywood Cafe was great to trust us with their yummy product even though this was our first product/food shoot :) We had waaayy too much fun :)

Also check out our blog on the Cafe’s drinks and lassi’s!

How about a refreshing strawberry salad, and caprese?

Dan and I agreed that the mango salad was amazing…mmmm

Canon 5DMkII, 50mm f/1.4, 70-200mm f/2.8L IS

Before I begin, I would like to extend a special thanks to Raj Armani of Bollywood Cafe for believing in our photography and for sharing his vision with us. When we first met Raj, we immediately caught on that he had an awesome concept for a restaurant, as well as the passion to carry out that concept successfully :) 

Ever craved movie magic, friends, and good food? Well, the Cafe is a one-stop gratification, with good shakes, games, and entertainment on the side! Besides giving you a taste of the food and culture of Bollywood, the Cafe provides a modern, colorful, and festive environment for a wonderful overall experience. 

Personally, I was most excited about the touch-screen menus they have installed, featuring photography of the food items by us, super fun to play with, and ensures that you get the dish you want for the meal…especially if you’re not familiar with the Indo-fusion dishes, the touch-screen menus provide a detailed description of what is in each dish :)

Here are some of the Cafe’s signature juices:

That grapefruit juice is our ALL-TIME favorite shot…one of those “lucky” shots, as we realized after one more hour of trying to replicate it for the other drinks :D So we decided to go with the pouring action instead. Product stills need to show action; otherwise, they are dead, and no one likes a dead food item :)

Setting up the decorative elements was a challenge as well, as there were about 40 drinks we had on the list for one day, with single and combination of fruits — we didn’t want them to look too similar to each other…the key is uniformity (so they look good together)+creativity (so they look great and enticing!) :)

Onward, to shakes and smoothies! Color-sense is important as well :)

These next two are specialty shakes — they use yoghurt in them! They’re called Lassis, and are delicious :) Besides, the watermelon smoothie, I think the lassi is my next fav

Also check out their specialty cocktails…the ones photographed here are virgin.

Yums! Stay tuned for the other parts of the blog for Bollywood Cafe appetizers and dishes!

Copyright note: Please respect the All Rights Reserved licensing on these pictures. They belong to Bollywood Cafe and DN|JY Productions.

Technical Deets

Location: Bollywood Cafe

Shtuff:
- Russell, our Canon 5DMkII
- Canon 50mm f/1.4

Set-up:
Camera on tripod. Backgrounds were fabric we got from JoAnn’s Crafts Stores. Products lit from behind camera, right, high-angle, and behind product, left, high-angle. Lowepro hotlights and separate diffusers were also used.