Chasing Kiwis

As rare and exotic is Kiwi in a fruit basket, rarer still it is, as a food ingredient. Whenever You hit the kitchen to prepare lunch, Your hand reaches out for cereals, grains, breads, flesh.. but Fruit?? not unless that`s the challenge You`ve taken up.


Now how do You use a fleshy, juicy, sweet fruit to prepare a three course meal. A kiwi fruit salad or drink would seem an easy way out..

Put Your imagination on the main burner and allow it to come to boil. The first thing to come to the surface would be,

Kiwi Marinated Civiche of Clam with Rocket cress. 

        Click on the picture on Your left for a better view. Those leafy red and white shards are meat slices of surf clam, marinated overnight in a heady concoction of coconut milk, lime juice and crushed kiwifruit.

Add to it some rocket leaf garnishing and olive oil dressing, and serve it cold. You have to try this even if You`re not a great fan of seafood. I hate seafood, but I loved it.


There`s even a soup from the exotic fruit, and it goes like this, "Chilled Roasted Pepper, Chinese Gooseberry & Jerez Soup".   Fancy name.. I wonder where they derive the nomenclature from. It`s made by adding nicely cut capsicum to onion and garlic and mixing it with kiwifruit and cooked to form a paste, which is then blended and met with sherry. Garnished with Yoghurt and chilli oil this too is served cold.


Now if You`re thinking, that the fruit can only give You light, intuitive recipes, then I have for You 

the "Loin of New Zealand Lamb with `Kiwi de Menthe` jelly and Moroccan Jam Quinoa" , 

This one has cooked lamb placed with Quinoa, garnished with juliennes of mint & coriander.

Just like the Kiwi fruit, all the dishes we`ve had so far have a seemingly refreshing and light appeal.

Care for some dessert?? A Sushi platter!! Yes.. a Sushi dessert platter.. So Here goes

And How do we get there.. cook some rice with milk sugar and cardamom pods just like kheer until very thick. Now roll the kheer into balls onto a sushi mat covered with cling film and garnish with sliced Kiwifruit.
Just loved this one.. Yummy!!

We had a great time experiencing the Kiwi Menu and bringing it to You with these pics.. 

This came out of a party thrown by the Shangri La hotel, Delhi, where it`s Wizard Chef from Oz, executive chef, Darren Conole was working his magic. The  Kiwis came from the Zespri stable.

Thanks everyone for all the attention, Now go and check it out for Yourself at the ShangriLa.
Cheers!!

More than Words..

A thousand Words! That`s it? Is that all, a picture is worth?? How bout a picture that leaves You Salivating! A sight beyond the realm of linguistics and phonetics.. 

That`s Grilled Chicken Breast, with steamed vegetables on the left and butter Chicken below.

I can serenade You with an `Ode to the spicy Chicken` and still fail to get You Imagining the feel and the smell of the bird in question.

But one look at these pics and all Your senses go online. Click on them for better detail.. Delicious??

Now that is one way of experiencing food without actually eating it.. an act closest to the real deal. 
You can look at it and recollect or conjure up the whole experience in your mind, of the taste, the smell, the texture, the sights...

Some foods actually taste better than they look.. but I`ll never know, cause one look at some of such stuf and I could`nt get myself to put in my mouth. 

And put in my mouth I have some of the below.. to my serious displeasure.

  There is something about thai food that exudes sophistication and finesse making it look so tempting, that it`s 
"one look at it and I just wanna have it". 

I just wish my preconditoned North Indian punjabi palate could let me handle thai, and not go into auto puke mode. 

Stupid Coconut milk!!

But where would a food photographer be without Thai food, the eden garden on a platter

   
                                                                                                                                                                                                                 





  had too much already.. Here`s some desserts for You!! the easiest to photograph, a dessert has simplified and uncomplicated structure and texture, that just always manages to come out beautifully in a photograph

And why are we talking Food..
Well.. Food has come to be the most visually compelling element of ShotStories. All of the above happened when shotstories was a special invitee for food and fotos at the workshops of some of the best foodsmiths in town.
We`ve had our fill, of the food..

anybody out there hungry for such fotos, please let us know.

Lastly.. before leaving.. there`s this song stuck in my head ever since I thought of the title above.. completely unrelated, but just thought of sharing it with You all.. So here Goes!!

A Portfolio of Shot Stories

This time, we are going to be direct and clear, in what we want You to think of shotstories.net,

 cause some of our patrons still can`t comprehend as to what we are all about..

 completely our fault!! To make it easier for You, we want You to look at  just the PICTURES. 

Yes, Pictures. You can completely ignore the masonry of words in between, and You`ll know what we are talking about. Ladies and Gentlemen, that is what we do. And those did`nt come out of chance encounters, they came out of photo assignments that we sought and continue to seek.

 
Starting with Beauty, these shoots happened when a few lifestyle and Beauty industry brands converged and got us to shoot a showcase of their products. You don`t always have to be part of a convergence summit, to make us work for You. We can customize a shoot for Your brand, a brand which could even be You yourself. Are You interested in a portfolio??

Click here for more of Beauty

Food
It could be made from the entrails of a Pumpkin and deep fried in Mustard Oil, but if it looks good I just might try it. And I did try all of these below and they were delicious even after they had gone cold as I shot them first. 

We shot most of these at some of the most well known eating places in Town. 

Your patrons may get to see what`s cooking inside Your kitchen before the dough hits the stove. How bout a nice photo album for the facebook page of Your cook shop!! 

Click here for more Food.




Products 
Product photography is like the arts and crafts assignment that we had in school. This one over here is what we do at home in our studio. It`s amazing what satin and a sheet of paper can do to a shot. Equally amazing is how You can showcase Your product without a showroom.
 Allow us to amaze You.

But this is not all how we shoot products, check this  out. 
some more Product shots here 

People
And we`ve shot people, individuals in ways they`d never expected, and those folks have been featured in publications using our shots
You don`t have to be a fashion model to have a few good pics clicked. 
Atleast Your profile picture needs a serious upgrade

so Think about it and let us know.

Cheers!!

Look of the locks

   We`ve shot Beauty lately, or Beauties rather, but this time the beauty shoot had us look at the assingment like we do at a product shoot. We`ve shot Products before, with the elements of the human anatomy as props, and we`ve shot Beauty before, with the human form as a wonderful canvas for our photo illustrations.
This time however, things got a little tricky. The theme was Hairdo and Makeup at the Mojo Salon.
Tricky, cause I had a tough time reconciling to the fact, that a pretty face was not to be part of the picture.


But we were determined to get Shot Stories to have a human face and a pretty one at that.

 And Ekta, on the left is our Prop/Canvas for the tufts and locks fashioned for a bridal look.This one time Ekta had to have her back to the Light, firstly to highlight the theme/subject, which is hair in this story and secondly, with less light on her face, You are more likely to pay more attention to the hairdo.

The faces got prettier with Sakshi joining us for the shoot, and things got trickier, trying to forget the face and focus on the hair.

















We seated Sakshi between two opposing Flash heads, with asymmetrical power settings to get just a trickle of light on  her face and a torrent of illumination down the back of her head.
Are we getting a little technical here? Relax! You can just take a good look at a picture and learn... Learn what makes the picture click. At first glance, you`d be looking at her  hairdo, if You were looking for one, but otherwise, it`s her face that would strike You first, before Your eyes scan the rest of the frame. Agree?

My fault! Sakshi can`t probably help her attractiveness. Right?




With Akriti on the left we are determined to regain focus, and one look at the picture, You know we are talking tresses. This pic can`t be about anything else but Hair makeup.


But there has to be a better way of picturing locks, than just shooting heads, head on.







Check out Sakshi on the right and Akriti below, in a different look and setting. What do You think, do the pictures work as well as the one above?
Now if You`re still fixated on the faces... we can`t help it!





This shoot was`nt about hair alone, rather it was about the complete bridal hair and makeup. I wonder why we worked so hard on the hairdo of the bride, cause a bride with the head uncovered is a rarity.. Sigh!
And here are our brides in full wedding regalia.


































What makes working with all the three pros such a cakewalk is not just their extraordinary physical traits but also an ability to convey mood and emotion. Makes my life so much simpler.
It may seem unfair of us to employ extraordinary women to showcase products and services meant for the average Indian woman, but the fact is that this manner of model selection is not entirely a matter of choice.
 A model is supposed to have a somewhat exaggerated frame with a better than average height, longer arms, broader shoulders, bigger eyes, palms, cheeks etc..
On a person with a smaller frame I as a photographer would have to struggle trying to fit all the details and You would find the frame crammed and cluttered on a smaller canvas... remember the canvas?


Photography is all about the play of lights and shadows, and so a chiseled look helps a lot. Check out Sakshi`s shoulder bone.

Check out the entire Action with the video below

  Thanks,

 Editor                                                            Models
          Dr. Supriya Himanshu                                Akriti (Elite Model Agency)
 Photographer                                                           Ekta (Elite Model Agency)
          Himanshu Verma                                         Sakshi (World Connection Production)                     Dresses                                                        Styling

           Bhumika Grover                                       Sumukhi Saini, the Mojo Salon