I was interviewed by Wicked Local. Read it on their website here: https://www.wickedlocal.com/story/regional/2022/06/22/katie-ring-salem-explains-art-taking-pictures-food-food-photography-ice-cream-fried-chicken/7580291001/

Katie Ring talks about the finer points of being a food photographer

Article by Chris Stevens & Photography by Paula Muller for wickedlocal.com

Katie Ring in her studio by Paula Muller

To all the kids out there who have been told, maybe repeatedly, not to play with their food, Katie Ring says to take it with a grain of salt because for her it turned into a career.

“I like what I do,” she said. “I get to play with food all day, just what they tell you not to do when you’re a kid.”

As a teen, she knew she wanted to be a photographer so headed to Syracuse where such students had two options: journalism or commercial photography.

“I’m one of those strange people who actually did what they went to college for,” she said from her light-filled, airy studio in Salem.

But while most of her peers were gravitating toward fashion or portraits, Ring knew she wanted something different. After graduation, she headed to Boston and sought out food photographers to assist. Jim Scherer, an award-winning shooter who has worked with the likes of Julia Child, proved to be a valuable teacher.

After getting her masters in fine arts, “because why not,” Ring went to work as the in-house photographer for Stonewall Kitchen, a specialty food company based in Maine. After Stonewall, Ring said she worked as an in-house photographer for Staples, the office-retail giant, and did a brief stint at Wayfair before striking out on her own.

She said her time at Stonewall and Staples helped her build confidence that carried her from being able to work a large shoot to knowing she could run one.

“The Stonewall experience was good because I did some editorial work as well,” she said.

That taught her to keep space in mind when shooting a project. A client might need room for print copy or a photograph might need to fit a particular shape, she said.

“It’s a strange sort of artist … I like that technical piece,” she said.

It's all about the timing

Product shots can be interesting and setting up a whole room is a challenge, but it’s easy to get lost in shots when you can manipulate the product all day long, Ring said. But food has a shelf life. Well, most of it does.

Ring pointed to a pile of cookies on a pedestal plate, covered with a glass dome sitting on a nearby counter.

“They’ve been there for months,” she said. “I use them as a prop, don’t eat them.

“Certain foods are easier to deal with,” she continued. “Baked foods will sit on a set all day and they don’t wilt.” But cheese congeals, soups can turn gloppy, sauces break, and meat is a whole other ballgame.

“Certain foods have a short amount of time where they look good,” Ring said. “It does become a challenge.”

There is also the expense to consider.

One ad Ring shot shows a squeeze bottle of syrup poised above a plate of fried chicken and waffles. Once that dish is covered in syrup, the shot is done, you can’t uncover it, she said. Ring said sometimes cooking up another dish is crucial if the shot simply wasn’t there, but often it becomes a question of “do you really want to remake the dish for one little change.”

“I like that we can’t obsess over food. We need to shoot it and move on,” she said.

Before you take that shot

Ring likened shooting food to shooting a celebrity. She uses a stand-in for the time-consuming part of staging the scene and setting the lighting then she brings in the star for the few minutes of actual camera time.

And setting up that star sometimes takes a professional. Ring said she learned a fair amount about food styling while working at Stonewall Kitchens, but depending on the client and the number of shots she’s dealing with, often she brings in a professional.

“A stylist knows how to make small movements,” she said. “They know how to go in with tweezers to fix a garnish.”

But she can also wield a mean pair of tweezers and likens some sets to “building a food sculpture.”

Ring said if she’s shooting a burger, she will have the chef bring her a tray of ingredients so she can build it the way she needs it to look for the photo.

“Then I’ll go in with a baby dropper and add ketchup, make it drip in just the right spot,” she said.

Likewise, if it’s a salad, she can put the tomato exactly where it should be and add dressing where she needs it.

“If you toss a salad with dressing that will look great when you serve it to a customer, but not in a photo,” she said.

A good rule to remember

Another important thing she learned about food styling and something she drives home with every new assistant is to never eat anything from a set.

You never know what item might have been sprayed with glycerin or something else to make it look good or how long it’s sat out, or who’s handled it, she said. She described a Thanksgiving shoot where a turkey was browned just enough so that the skin was crispy then it was painted with gravy master, a liquid that aims to enhance flavors and coloring.

“It looked delicious in the photos, but it was so gross,” she said. “It was still raw inside.”

It's all about the ice cream

Ring did admit to taking food home from a shoot once. She called it one of her favorite jobs, where in her early days, she assisted Scherer on an ice cream shoot for Hood.

Because ice cream practically melts on-demand, multiple gallons were brought for the shoot, and because they weren’t labeled, the unused ice cream couldn’t be sold or even given away to a local food bank.

“I took home 10 gallons of ice cream to three roommates,” she said, laughing. “We were poor post-college students eating ice cream for weeks.”

Ring said she’s been happy working on her own and her career has become a nice mix of food and product shoots and the flexibility has been great for her family. And when it comes right down to it, “people pay me to play with food … if you can take that rebellious attitude and find a job – it’s great.”