While doing some background research to for my own food photography portfolio, I put together this collection of, only in my opinion, the 10 best contemporary food photographers. Leave a comment below if you think I overlooked anyone.

Nicole Stich and Oliver Seidel

http://www.deliciousdays.com
The food photography of Nicole Stich and Oliver Seidel on the Delicious Days website is arranged not by anything as mundane by country or by food types, but by colour. The website is a glowing testament to photographers that really care about food. All their photographs share an intimacy and a fine-art understanding of conveying emotion though the simple, close compositions, subtle lighting and strong colours.

Marcus Nilsson

http://www.marcusnilsson.com
Marcus Milsson takes a strikingly original angle on food photography – his pictures make no apologies for not portraying the food in an attractive or even edible manor. Marcus’s work all about impact. Edgy and gritty is all here – gone are the perfectly presented plated compositions, in come pictures of 1/2 eaten food and raw meat. A truly original voice.

David Munns

http://www.foodphotography.co.uk
David Munns food photography work shares a common theme of being shot in strong but diffuse light, giving a very light and carefree summer feel to his work. David often favours classic angled for plated food – the part cropped plate with a low viewing angle. Lovely images.

Mittongtare Studio

http://www.mittongtarestudio.com/
Food, Still life and lifestyle photographer Pornchai Mittongtare brings together vibrant colors and shapes in obviously very carefully planned shots. Rarely will you find Pornchni settling for a ‘straight’ plated food shot. Pornchai works from a natural light studio in California, giving almost year round constant sunlight to his shots. Indeed, you can see the light in his work.

Miki Duisterhof

http://www.mikiduisterhof.com
Miki Duisterhof covers a range of commercial photography, but his food photography show in galleries Fresh + Local and Food for Thought is outstanding. His subtle lighting and often still-life composition approach to food offers style to complex dishes. Miki even manages to makes a place of chips look stylish!

David Lofus

http://www.davidloftus.com/
David Lofus brings a unique twist to food photography – he specialises in catching the ‘lifestyle’ as well as the food itself. As an example thing the Jamie Oliver series of books – love them of hate them, they are rich in selling the dream of cool food through the photography, food effortlessly thrown together while enjoying life with lots of people around.

Beatrice Peltre

http://www.beatricepeltre.com
The food photography of Beatrice Peltre has a refreshing innocence and natural simplicity about it, both in terms of her choice of simple home cooked foods, but also in her documentary approach to food styling. Beatrice uses the bold colours and shapes of raw ingredients to her advantage, both in her dishes, and in her props. Coupled with a selection of natural backdrops, her work sings of the beauty of food.

Clare Borboza

http://www.clarebarboza.com/
Clare Borboza prefers not to be labeled as just a food photographer since her work often about more than just the food. She captures also the story behind the food; the people that grow it, the chefs that prepare it, the communities that celebrate it, the people that gather around the table to share it. In spite of this wider perspective, Clare seems to love producing her blend of artistic food still-life images.

Carl Warner

http://www.carlwarner.com/
Carl Warner is a photographer in the enviable position that most people will have seen a piece of his work, in one guise or another, even if they are unlikely to know his name. Carl make cartoon-like scenes, or foodscapes, creating forests of broccoli and seas of smoked salmon. His imaginative work has been widely used in food advertising both in the press and on television.

Keiko Oikawa

http://www.keikooikawa.com
The self-taught photographer Keiko Oikawa learned to love food photography through producing her own food blog. Now, with a formidable client list, Keiko shows a very strong portfolio of documentary style food shots on her website. Her style is delicate and sensual, while remaining true to the foods she photographs.

Tim Hill

http://www.timhill.co.uk/
Tim Hill is a London based commercial stock photographer, with a strong portfolio of food scenes. What stands Tim out is the fact he does not shy away from building complex scenes around food. Many food photographers tend towards simple compositions with little to distract from the food. Tim using a wealth of stylish backdrops with his food, showing the food in context.

There is something quite refreshing about taking less pictures in the snap-happy world of flash memory cards and cheap hard-drive space. On this hour long ‘golden light’ photo walk, I took just two pictures and in such dramatic light, didn’t even to touch them in post-processing. Here are my two.

These images were shot on a recent workshop I ran in Llangollen. The good folk of Llangollen were surprisingly open to having strangers with big cameras roll up and stopping them on the street. We got a few good portraits from the session and also learned a lot about working with people and being prepared in advance to work really quickly when we had the right people in our viewfinders. These girl at the top is my favorite picture from the session, purely because she was able to immediately relax and have fun in front of the camera. Thanks for that!

There were a few days this January it was just too cold to stay outside for long around these parts. The dense cold air was channelling down to the valley floor for days, creating a freezing fog that stopped the sun heating the ground. After three days though, the fog departed, leaving the landscape gripped in a deep freeze and covered in a thick hoarfrost.