Always look forward to a chocolate shoot! When it’s John and Kira’s I know it’s not going to disappoint. They are a great client to collaborate on ideas and their vision for the brand. Lisa and myself really have creative freedom to elevate their chocolates every time. Always a great shoot! The difference this time was the limiting of people on location because of COVD-19. Following the previous precautions I’ve taken on other projects since the shut down and insight from ASMP, the leading industry photography organization I knew my clients were in good hands as well as my crew.
B.T.S. Stills + Motion Shoot for Magma Products (Covid-19 Set)
This shoot was a great way to kick of the summer! Magma Products, the leading industry maker of grills for Marina and Camping enthusiasts. The brand was going for a new and updated look so we were able to create high end imagery bringing together the lifestyle these grills appeal to. It was such a cool and challenging shoot because not only did we bring the tropics to Manhattan we brought a boat to the studio! We had a custom built boat ledge made fitted for these grills as they would attach to a boat in real life. This ledge came out so nice we had it sent to the client in California after the photo shoot. This was one of our first shoots back inside since COVID hit; Everyone that was able to attend the shoot was comfortable in the environment. We had plenty of space to socially distance, masks required, and PPE on hand. Can’t wait to see the final pieces out in the wild!
Food Styling: Lisa Homa
Space: Go Studios
Prop Styling: Deb Donahue
Boat: Set Shop
Felicia Perretti is a commercial food and beverage photographer and director based in New York City. She works nationally with food and beverage clients in advertising, packaging, editorial, and video. She has worked with food and drink in all shapes and knows how to craft the right team to get the job done! Her passion for food and beverage shine through on set as well as outside of work in her everyday life. Whether it’s trying new restaurants, traveling, or cooking with her husband Joe. Send her an email or give a call to discuss your next project, she would be more than happy to chat!
B.T.S. Campbell's Photo Shoot
Growing up there were some brands you just dream of working with. Having the opportunity to work with Campbell’s came true! Lisa Russell brought me on as the photographer for this project. We had the opportunity to work with their snack division on some social content photography. This was so fun putting together stop motion and recipe photos. We got to work with The Snack Factory and Synders Pretzels. The recipes were great for upcoming holidays and the stop motion pieces were a playful way to use the brands. The photography had punchy color and light. Propping was great and helped elevate the brands. The Campbell’s team was very hands on and made the whole production run smoothly. In the end we walked away with great photography for them.
Can’t wait to see the images out!
Felicia Perretti is a commercial food and beverage photographer and director based in New York City. She works nationally with food and beverage clients in advertising, packaging, editorial, and video. She has worked with food and drink in all shapes and knows how to craft the right team to get the job done! Her passion for food and beverage shine through on set as well as outside of work in her everyday life. Whether it’s trying new restaurants, traveling, or cooking with her husband Joe. Send her an email or give a call to discuss your next project, she would be more than happy to chat!
B.T.S. Photo Shoot: King's Hawaiian
When I think of bread that reminds me of summer, hands down it is King’s Hawaiian! It was an awesome project to work on that Chuck Studios executive producer Elyse Sara brought me on to. We had 2 days on set with a limited crew because of COVID-19 to capture beautiful kitchen scenes and super tasty recipes using the various King’s Hawaiian products. The kitchen sets were modern, contemporary with warm colors and greens peeking in. Helen Jones styled the recipes perfectly to really elevate the bread and flavor cues! Propping and set dressing was done by the amazing Christina O’Neil. We had all the COVID-19 regulations in place and we all felt safe on set. Also since the client could not be there we were able to setup a private Slack channel and use ZOOM to conference in the team. It was a seamless experience and would do it again. At the end of the day we got some awesome photos. Can’t wait to see them in the wild!
Felicia Perretti is a commercial food and beverage photographer and director based in New York City. She works nationally with food and beverage clients in advertising, packaging, editorial, and video. She has worked with food and drink in all shapes and knows how to craft the right team to get the job done! Her passion for food and beverage shine through on set as well as outside of work in her everyday life. Whether it’s trying new restaurants, traveling, or cooking with her husband Joe. Send her an email or give a call to discuss your next project, she would be more than happy to chat!
COVID-19 Policies and Procedures On Set
As a photographer and business owner returning to work, I have a responsibility to keep my employees, clients, and family safe while on the job and when I return home.
The number one way for us to return to work safely is to respect the social distancing policy introduced by the CDC, as well as OSHA. These best practices are currently being adopted by Hollywood and Commercial productions as well as smaller productions across the country.
As a major metropolitan area, New York City was highly impacted and these health and safety guidelines have to be undertaken now as part of all production processes.
Obviously shoots and the creation process have a social and collaborative component. As we try to work through these new guidelines please understand that these restrictions are new for all of us and we will do our best to deliver the highest caliber of work while keeping everyone safe.
https://www.asmp.org/covid-19
Felicia Perretti is a commercial food and beverage photographer and director based in New York City. She works nationally with food and beverage clients in advertising, packaging, editorial, and video. She has worked with food and drink in all shapes and knows how to craft the right team to get the job done! Her passion for food and beverage shine through on set as well as outside of work in her everyday life. Whether it’s trying new restaurants, traveling, or cooking with her husband Joe. Send her an email or give a call to discuss your next project, she would be more than happy to chat!
Create In Place
Excited to join forces with Create In Place, a production option to photo and video shoots while following stay at home orders. Let’s create something great! *Clients* Please inquire for additional info with password protected access. https://www.createinplace.com/
Felicia Perretti is a commercial food and beverage photographer and director based in New York City. She works nationally with food and beverage clients in advertising, packaging, editorial, and video. She has worked with food and drink in all shapes and knows how to craft the right team to get the job done! Her passion for food and beverage shine through on set as well as outside of work in her everyday life. Whether it’s trying new restaurants, traveling, or cooking with her husband Joe. Send her an email or give a call to discuss your next project, she would be more than happy to chat!
Food Face Mask Fundraiser! Help support the cause!
COVID-19 has shaken our economy globally and locally. You might of seen this first hand in your own neighborhood, or someone directly in your family. When restrictions start to lift we will still have an up hill battle ahead of us, one area that was hit hard and is close to me is the restaurant industry.
Article Reference Forbes.com
”Many independent restaurant owners have used personal savings or taken on new debt to support their employees. Restaurant workers accounted for the largest share of unemployment claims in March but less than 8.9% of approved PPP loans went to restaurants and hotels combined.
The IRC says restaurants contribute $1 trillion to the U.S. economy each year, and only 30% of them will survive the crisis if it lingers four months or longer.
Those who do emerge may face even more difficult tribulations after reopening their doors. The first thing survivors will need to do when they reopen is pay old invoices. Then they’ll have to hire and train a skeleton staff to help unveil a newly configured, socially distanced dining room that’s expected to be legally required to cut previous capacity by 50%.
Many restaurateurs will decide it’s just not worth taking on more debt and will permanently close shop. Some will have to reimagine their concept to accommodate a new dining room layout, no large groups and reduced tourism, plus either less service or higher menu prices. The rest will go back to business fully expecting to ring an average of 50% less revenue over the first 12-18 months than when the virus forced them to suddenly close.”
Please consider supporting this cause by purchasing a custom face mask. CLICK HERE
Profits of EVERY SALE goes to https://www.jamesbeard.org/openforgood Open For Good, campaign to support the recovery and rebuilding of the independent restaurant industry.
Felicia Perretti is a commercial food and beverage photographer and director based in New York City. She works nationally with food and beverage clients in advertising, packaging, editorial, and video. She has worked with food and drink in all shapes and knows how to craft the right team to get the job done! Her passion for food and beverage shine through on set as well as outside of work in her everyday life. Whether it’s trying new restaurants, traveling, or cooking with her husband Joe. Send her an email or give a call to discuss your next project, she would be more than happy to chat!
Melbourne's Yarra Valley
I haven’t had much time to share on here my photos from our trip to Australia. As you saw in my last blog post we came home and immediately had to self quarantine, then the country went into shut down mode. Nothing we could do! I did have time to work on my scrap book album with trip highlights but I want to share some of my favorite moments abroad.
As you know Joe and I are big fans of traveling to wineries and tasting locally made wine. Australia of course is home to one of the world’s most beautiful wine regions; Yarra Valley, about an hour outside of Melbourne. It DID NOT disappoint. We mapped out a few days to stay in the Yarra Valley going to various vineyards (14 total?) and see some of the most spectacular views.
If I had to pick our top three wineries we drank/ate/toured at it would be 1. Oakridge Wines 2. Tarrawarra Estate 3. Yering Station
Good resource here for the wineries: https://visityarravalley.com.au/
OAKRIDGE: The views were unmatched. The design of their winery was able to transport you into the vineyard as if you were walking through it. The large windows surrounding everything made that possible. We stayed for their pre-fix lunch and I had the best EMU. Business casual, but not stuffy at all, which I love about modern dining.
TARRAWARRA ESTATE: I don’t know if I really want to call them second, they were equally as good as Oakridge. The views were beautiful. Again the architecture (award winning!) was amazing to witness. The cellar door was really really cool! We also stayed for their lunch, I had the kangeroo, it was prepared like a sausage, really good.
YERING STATION: Entering their cellar door was breathtaking. They had up a sculpture art exhibit that made it feel like a museum walking through. Beside the overcast skies that day it was very cozy inside. Their wine selection was so good and you could tell they had a passion for their wines. This is a must stop!
A Few Others Highly Recommend:
-Coombe
-De Bortoli Yarra Valley Estate
-Domaine Chandon
-Punt Road
-Yarra Yering
Felicia Perretti is a commercial food and beverage photographer and director based in New York City. She works nationally with food and beverage clients in advertising, packaging, editorial, and video. She has worked with food and drink in all shapes and knows how to craft the right team to get the job done! Her passion for food and beverage shine through on set as well as outside of work in her everyday life. Whether it’s trying new restaurants, traveling, or cooking with her husband Joe. Send her an email or give a call to discuss your next project, she would be more than happy to chat!
Bondi Beach
Working Remotely
How are you doing?
Looking back at my February email to this months, wow, what a stark difference. End of February my husband and I left for a much needed vacation to the beautiful country of Australia. The brushfires were clearing up and the trip as a whole was fantastic. The food, views, and people were great; really a trip of a lifetime!
In those short 3 weeks away, we were leaving Australia on one of the last normally scheduled flights by Quantas to America. We landed in San Francisco to see the news coverage of the travel ban to Europe. The immediate following days everyone’s world turned upside down. Business came to a halt and an illness was creeping among us.
As I write this we are starting to adjust to the new normal. We are creating a virtual routine with friends, family, and co-workers. The same goes for me while running my business. I’ve reached out to several of my clients to see how they are doing and what I can do to help. When the time is right to get to the new normal of working I’m there for support. Like others adjusting and working from home, I have a home photo studio setup and working well. In addition to email, text, and phone, I have ZOOM the virtual platform where you can share screens live and I can mirror my tethered screen so you can see the images come through. If you have food or product that needs to be captured please know I’am here for you. COVID-19 might of removed me from my normal studio, but it certainly didn’t take my creativity.
Felicia Perretti is a commercial food and beverage photographer and director based in New York City. She works nationally with food and beverage clients in advertising, packaging, editorial, and video. She has worked with food and drink in all shapes and knows how to craft the right team to get the job done! Her passion for food and beverage shine through on set as well as outside of work in her everyday life. Whether it’s trying new restaurants, traveling, or cooking with her husband Joe. Send her an email or give a call to discuss your next project, she would be more than happy to chat!
Zoom Communications: Food Backgrounds For Your Meeting!
What a crazy moment we are living through of moving virtually only and social distancing. The process doesn’t have to be ugly, but an opportunity to be creative! I’ve used Zoom myself and was excited to learn I could change my background. This little tip puts a smile on my face and brings some personality to the online meeting that can only be felt in person. I express myself creatively through photography and I feel others should be able to do the same.
I’ve pulled just a few of my favorite foodie images together that you might enjoy for your next Zoom meeting. Just let me know and I can send it over! Bell Well!! -Felicia
Felicia Perretti is a commercial food and beverage photographer and director based in New York City. She works nationally with food and beverage clients in advertising, packaging, editorial, and video. She has worked with food and drink in all shapes and knows how to craft the right team to get the job done! Her passion for food and beverage shine through on set as well as outside of work in her everyday life. Whether it’s trying new restaurants, traveling, or cooking with her husband Joe. Send her an email or give a call to discuss your next project, she would be more than happy to chat!
2020 Food Reel!
Kicking off 2020 in big ways! Excited to share this new year with a new food reel highlighting everything delicious about food. It was great to work with Micah Morton, food stylist extraordinaire on this work. We shot at Go Studios and worked with Adorama renting the necessary gear to make the vision come to life. I put together several storyboards and with myself, DP Desmond Reich, and gaffer Crystal Rodriguez we had 2 days in studio capturing the fun actions. In the end Vince Perretti editor, put the cherry on the top with coloring and sound design! Great work team!
Some sketches below of the storyboards
Felicia Perretti is a commercial food and beverage photographer and director based in New York City. She works nationally with food and beverage clients in advertising, packaging, editorial, and video. She has worked with food and drink in all shapes and knows how to craft the right team to get the job done! Her passion for food and beverage shine through on set as well as outside of work in her everyday life. Whether it’s trying new restaurants, traveling, or cooking with her husband Joe. Send her an email or give a call to discuss your next project, she would be more than happy to chat!
B.T.S. Clemens Food Group Campaign Photo Shoot
It was great to get a call from the Chicago office of The Food Group. It’s been a dream to work with these guys because we all share a true passion for food! We worked together on a B2B campaign for The Clemens Food Group showcasing a wide range of their quality pork products. The shoot consisted of 2 concepts over 2 days. The first day was to capture this large overhead scene of their raw pork products styled beautifully. Food stylist Nicole Twohy was perfect for the job. Her and her team in the kitchen brought out the prepped pieces while Kristine Trevino the prop stylist helped place them on the set. We had a layout to follow which was key to reference during the shoot.
The next day was fun; we got to create beautiful cooked pork recipes each plated uniquely for a table scene overhead as if you were dining at a restaurant. We had a hand model from Bella agency serving a platter into the top of the frame featuring juicy ribs, yum! Each recipe was carefully tested and chosen prior to the shoot so we knew which plating would work best and the colors all complimented each other. In the end we walked away with some great photos, couldn’t of done it without the team. Can’t wait to see these shots in the wild!
Felicia Perretti is a commercial food and beverage photographer and director based in New York City. She works nationally with food and beverage clients in advertising, packaging, editorial, and video. She has worked with food and drink in all shapes and knows how to craft the right team to get the job done! Her passion for food and beverage shine through on set as well as outside of work in her everyday life. Whether it’s trying new restaurants, traveling, or cooking with her husband Joe. Send her an email or give a call to discuss your next project, she would be more than happy to chat!
Conceptual Series: Pop Art!
This was a fun series to shoot because popcorn, as simple of a product it is every piece popped has unique traits you cannot repeat twice. I’m a fan of popcorn and being in the food business, why not?! I wanted to challenge my technical capabilities in this series with use of macro photography, lighting, and focus stacking; things I would apply to my other commercial work.
The results were so fascinating and fun to see unfold in the stacking process. You might sort through bags of popcorn and hold a piece that looks interesting but once it’s in the light it’s not, and vice versus. Focus stacking allowed me to showcase the depth in the miniature scale of the food and make it feel much bigger when fully in focus. Also allowing the popcorn to be shot on black by itself removes the illusion of the scale of real popcorn and lets your imagination take over.
Felicia Perretti is a commercial food and beverage photographer and director based in New York City. She works nationally with food and beverage clients in advertising, packaging, editorial, and video. She has worked with food and drink in all shapes and knows how to craft the right team to get the job done! Her passion for food and beverage shine through on set as well as outside of work in her everyday life. Whether it’s trying new restaurants, traveling, or cooking with her husband Joe. Send her an email or give a call to discuss your next project, she would be more than happy to chat!
Thank You for a great 2019!
Happy Holidays! Ending the year on a sweet note. 2019 was packed with amazing projects, new clients, returning clients, and travel. My dream as a business owner! Thank you again for trusting me with your creative concepts, working as a team to bring the vision to life. I look forward to this with every project and with every new year creates these new opportunities. See you in 2020!!
I will be starting the year off right with a trip to Australia end of February to early March. Any food or sight seeing recommendations please send them my way.
Sincerely,
Felicia
Felicia Perretti is a commercial food and beverage photographer and director based in New York City. She works nationally with food and beverage clients in advertising, packaging, editorial, and video. She has worked with food and drink in all shapes and knows how to craft the right team to get the job done! Her passion for food and beverage shine through on set as well as outside of work in her everyday life. Whether it’s trying new restaurants, traveling, or cooking with her husband Joe. Send her an email or give a call to discuss your next project, she would be more than happy to chat!
B.T.S. Photo Shoot Fine Cooking Magazine
Connecticut is a beautiful state and I’m so lucky to work with my client Fine Cooking Magazine there! That is also the home of Taunton Press where beautiful food stories are published. The team I get to work with is very passionate about food and cooking which makes the photo shoots all the better. I don’t always get to see my work in print so these projects have been really special to me. Also it’s great to work with the talented food stylists Nicole Twohy and Heather Meldrom! Pick up the latest copy of Fine Cooking today!
Felicia Perretti is a commercial food and beverage photographer and director based in New York City. She works nationally with food and beverage clients in advertising, packaging, editorial, and video. She has worked with food and drink in all shapes and knows how to craft the right team to get the job done! Her passion for food and beverage shine through on set as well as outside of work in her everyday life. Whether it’s trying new restaurants, traveling, or cooking with her husband Joe. Send her an email or give a call to discuss your next project, she would be more than happy to chat!
B.T.S. In The Raw Photo Shoot
What a great time shooting with the In The Raw team! This concept was so fun incorporating identical cakes made slightly different using In The Raw products. Also we had the opportunity to work with talent posing as bakers. BLOC NYC was a great agency to work with and several models to choose from. There was great energy and discussions on set making the shoot a hit! In the end we walked away with a great variety in poses and expressions. Bringing ideas like this to life reminds me why I love what I do. Can’t wait to see this out in the wild.
Felicia Perretti is a commercial food and beverage photographer and director based in New York City. She works nationally with food and beverage clients in advertising, packaging, editorial, and video. She has worked with food and drink in all shapes and knows how to craft the right team to get the job done! Her passion for food and beverage shine through on set as well as outside of work in her everyday life. Whether it’s trying new restaurants, traveling, or cooking with her husband Joe. Send her an email or give a call to discuss your next project, she would be more than happy to chat!
B.T.S. Photo Shoot John and Kira's Gourmet Chocolate
A favorite and challenging thing to photograph is chocolate. My team and I are always up for the challenge and love the sweet shots we walk away with! John and Kira’s a gourmet chocolate client of mine wanted to create some new imagery for their catalogue and website. The look and feel for this project was to convey moodiness and drama using the chocolate. Telling their story through high end imagery and propping is always our goal. The chocolate itself is always the hero! Working with Lisa Russell and team we were able to capture a beautiful variety of their chocolates over 2 days. We had layouts to reference while we were shooting to make sure they fit within. Having the client and chocolatier on set is always a plus because they get to help bring the photo concepts to life and they know their product best. Of course we taste tested along the way and their chocolate never disappoints.
It was great to have them on set and I can’t wait to see our final shots out.
Felicia Perretti is a commercial food and beverage photographer and director based in New York City. She works nationally with food and beverage clients in advertising, packaging, editorial, and video. She has worked with food and drink in all shapes and knows how to craft the right team to get the job done! Her passion for food and beverage shine through on set as well as outside of work in her everyday life. Whether it’s trying new restaurants, traveling, or cooking with her husband Joe. Send her an email or give a call to discuss your next project, she would be more than happy to chat!
Screen Grab From Website
Interview with TheLuupe: Photography and Career
It’s so exciting to be apart of a great community of women photographers working in the commercial field. I met Keren Sachs when she was at Offset and was wonderful to work with. She recently started TheLuupe which I’m so happy to be apart of! They recently featured me on their blog. You can see the whole interview here! https://theluupe.com/blog/2019/08/27/felicia-perretti-breaks-food-photographys-cliches-with-pure-imagination/
Felicia Perretti is a commercial food and beverage photographer and director based in New York City. She works nationally with food and beverage clients in advertising, packaging, editorial, and video. She has worked with food and drink in all shapes and knows how to craft the right team to get the job done! Her passion for food and beverage shine through on set as well as outside of work in her everyday life. Whether it’s trying new restaurants, traveling, or cooking with her husband Joe. Send her an email or give a call to discuss your next project, she would be more than happy to chat!
B.T.S. Honey Nut Cheerios Shoot
I recently got to work with CANTEEN on a Honey Nut Cheerios campaign, Director Etienne Proulx on the video side and myself on still photography worked to capture beautiful shots of the products. I was able to shoot beauty shots of their Honey Nut Cheerios in a branded environment. We had a hand model for the 2 days, who allowed for more dynamic shot options. In addition to shooting stills, we came up with really creative stop motion concepts, being playful with the cereal. This was a great job to be apart of, can’t wait to see this out!
Client: Honey Nut Cheerios
Studio: Be Electric http://www.beelectric.tv/
Agency: 72andSunny
Set Build: Swell - Makoto Aoki http://swellnewyork.com/
Felicia Perretti is a commercial food and beverage photographer and director based in New York City. She works nationally with food and beverage clients in advertising, packaging, editorial, and video. She has worked with food and drink in all shapes and knows how to craft the right team to get the job done! Her passion for food and beverage shine through on set as well as outside of work in her everyday life. Whether it’s trying new restaurants, traveling, or cooking with her husband Joe. Send her an email or give a call to discuss your next project, she would be more than happy to chat!
Summer Fancy Food Show 2019
Another great year in the books for the Summer Fancy Food Show held at the Javits Center in New York City. I only had time for 1 day this year, but managed to hit almost every aisle. By the end of the day I walked about 8.5 miles…. not bad, snacked along the way too! ;)
As always there are so many innovative and amazing products being introduced and displayed at the show. Things already on shelves and items just being released. I could write a novel if I discussed every single item I saw from National to International! My post will consist of some of my personal highlights and products that peaked my interest.
I started the morning with breakfast; booth #274 had fresh, tasty Mina shakshuka at the ready. Sunny egg with dipping bread! The shakshuka was hot, a little kick at the end, but a great earthy flavor. This product was made by Casablanca Foods. They also had harissa to try but I had a lot of things ahead of me.
I came across a lot of companies selling coconut water, which has its audience (not me) but there was 1 company Eliya that had a great presentation with the slickest bottle I’ve seen. Very dynamic and peaked my interest to try their coconut water. Other than coconut water there was a spike in oxygenated water brands showing. Being an avid exerciser I’ve seen and read about these brands but never decided to try them. I know it has its benefits, it’s better for you than Gatorade, but I still need to do more research on my part.
On the topic of drinks, today’s consumers are drinking less alcohol. The market for non-alcoholic drinks is climbing. Consumers want to enjoy the drink, socialize, and not leave with a buzz. The show usually has companies promoting their drink mixers, but also a handful of companies were playing off the flavorful drinks without the alcohol. One company showing was called Mingle Mocktails. I believe they were at the show before? Either way, this is a great time to be in the market. Their flavors were great and I felt worked really well in this marketplace. Also their drinks are available on Amazon!! Perfect for our generation. A new vendor showcasing their sparkling drink was Spindrift Beverage Co. Again, a great stand along sparkling water with real fruit. Their website does offer drink recipes but this can be consumed as is. I tried it and really loved the flavors they offered.
The list goes on with drink vendors, coconut water, and cold brew coffee. If I had more time I would love to talk more about the drinks.
Overall I’m a healthy conscience eater and I do love cauliflower. So it was exciting to see the company Caulipower at the show. I believe they have showed in the past. I got to try their pizza and chicken tenders, boy were they amazing! Coming to stores in September, I think they are going to do really well. I highly recommend checking out their products. YUMM.
Some buzz words shown around the show were KETO, Protein! Nothing wrong with that, and they were great products to back up the names. These products relate really well to today’s consumers so it is important to see those and try them. Dang Foods was premiering their new keto bar which was amazing. The right chewy texture and bite your looking for. Will keep you full and feeling good. A product under Elma Farms was The Protein Ball Co. Again that was really tasty. A good amount of chewiness and flavor. To wrap up my post I was lucky enough to try BNutty! Beyond peanut butter, gourmet peanut butter. I had irresistible pretzel and was hooked. Check these guys out!
Already planning for next year. If you want me to come by your booth and check out your latest products just let me know. In the meantime, send me an email or connect on LinkedIN!
-Felicia
https://www.specialtyfood.com/shows-events/summer-fancy-food-show/
https://www.casablancafoods.com/products/mina-shakshuka-16oz