Sweeeeet

Call me cynical, but I didn’t think that there was much room left in today’s mechanized world for handmade cakes. I certainly didn’t think that the cakes you buy by the half-dozen or dozen at the supermarket could be handmade. Let alone by proper bakers. Surely, you just tip in the ingredients at one end of an industrial smokestack and the cakes come out at the other end, ready packed?

No.

At least, not over at Old Mill Confectionery here in Cork, where I was shooting earlier this week.

Yes, they use machines, but most of what they do is still done by hand. Turns out that machines just can’t do what humans can. Something to do with opposable thumbs.

The assignment brief was to capture images that convey the human involvement in the production process. Specifically, the agency that hired me was keen to include hands in the photographs. The pictures are for packaging and promotional use, and the client wanted B/W photographs. Nice.

At the end of the morning, the two owners of the company sent me on my way with a large box of cream cakes. A thoughtful gesture that made me look like a hero when I got back to the office in time for the mid-afternoon teabreak. As long as the staff are happy.

Here’s a quick sequence of shots of cakes being iced.

(c) Roger Overall 2008

(c) Roger Overall 2008

(c) Roger Overall 2008

(c) Roger Overall 2008

And a couple of other quick grabs from the day:

(c) Roger Overall 2008

(c) Roger Overall 2008

(c) Roger Overall 2008

Honest Food

We’re not short of quality local food here in Co. Cork, and you don’t have to look to hard to find it either. There are plenty of farmer’s markets about and local supermarkets do stock local products and produce.

Just before Easter I was commissioned to shoot a series of pictures for a supermarket chain of one of their local franchise holders visiting some of the producers in the area whose products he stocked – one a baker, the other a dairy farmer. The brief was to show a nice, relaxed and natural interaction between the franchisee (John Hurley) and his suppliers.

We met up at Jack Cuthbert’s bakery on a business park on the outskirts of Midleton, Co. Cork, and decided together with Jack that we’d get a picture with loaves coming fresh out of an oven on a huge tray. There was no possibility of relying solely on the natural (strip) lighting in the cavernous bakery, so I set up a single off-camera flash to light John and Jack (and Jack’s son, also Jack) as they talked over the loaves. In fact, I suggested they talk rugby and they completely lost themselves in the conversation.

Jack, Jack and John – Cutherbert’s Bakery, Midleton, Co. Cork
(c) Roger Overall 2008

From the bakery, John and I traveled in convoy to Arsallagh Farm, where Jane Murphy makes renowned goats cheese – so renowned that chef’s as high up the culinary pecking order as Gary Rhodes and Gordon Ramsey source cheese for their restaurants here.

The lighting set up was pretty similar to the one at the bakery. A single off-camera flash lit John and Jane as they discussed cheese over a freshly produced vat. I was also quite keen to get a shot with the pair of them and a goat, so we also spent some time in the barn where the goats live.

John and Jane – Ardsallagh Farm, Carrigtwohill, Co. Cork
(c) Roger Overall 2008

John, Jane and Billy – Ardsallagh Farm, Carrigtwohill, Co. Cork
(c) Roger Overall 2008