So today I hear of Degustando Prato

Degustando Prato is a gastronomic festival dedicated to specialty gourmet products featuring restaurants and estates.
Throughout September experience exquisite typical menus in restaurants and fascinating wine tours in estates scattered in the province territory, with visits to cultivations and local wine tastings.

It’s not only about the tender local gastronomy though, there’s something I’ll miss because it comes on September 8th, less than a week from this post. It’s the display of the Sacred Girdle. I am not at all happy that I will be missing this event.

Any young man who came of age in the early 60s will remember the challenge of the girdle and the age of liberation which came later…and none to soon. But I digress (nevertheless, we heard those heraldic trumpets in our heads upon the sacred removal!…)

The display takes place late in the afternoon, around 6 p.m., when trumpeters, musicians and the historical parade march through the city centre. From the pulpit built in 1400 for the occasion by Donatello and Michelozzo, the bishop, accompanied by the mayor, show the Sacred Girdle to the crowd.

Prato is a nice city. You should go. And eat. And remember girdles. I know I will.

The food photography course is being run by professional Italian photographer, Alessandro Guerani, who aims to teach people how to photograph food.

OK, OK, I know some people out there will say, ‘Hey, it’s easy to photograph food.  You just point your camera at it and press the shutter button. It doesn’t even move!’.  Theoretically, this is true, but, in practice, there is much more to creating appetising images of food.  What helps is being able to “see” properly.  Actually, although it may seem simple, it’s not.  Being taught how to see, by someone who can, and Guerani can, will make all the difference.  You can see examples of Guerani’s tasty food photography on his website: Alessandro Guerani

Can You See?

Once you can “see” – note the inverted commas – you will be able to create images that attract buyers, whether your buyers are magazines and websites or simply lovers of food flavour photographic art.

With the advent of the internet the thirst for good images has become virtually insatiable, but there are still not too many people capable of producing the kind of captures which capture the imagination of visitors or readers, and lead them to visit a restaurant, or purchase a product, either on or off-line.  Enter the skilled photographer who has devoted some time to learning the craft, thus setting her or himself apart from the rest.  The kind of person whose work gets featured on big foodie sites like Food and Wine, or Wine Spectator, Condé Nast Traveller, and even popular sites like Time, and many others. Don’t forget are devices like the Kindle, the full colour Apple iPad, iPhone, and Sony’s eBook reader.

These electronic readers of eBooks, magazines, and websites allow people to take content with them anywhere and everywhere.  Innovative and fast becoming popular, these devices can even be used as electronic cook books.  Cook books need enticing photographs.  I think you get the idea – good photographers have a life time of, profitable, work ahead of them.

With a little luck, I’ve whet your appetite for Mia’s Digital Food Photography course in Siena, Italy. But to further tempt you, Mia and I have come up with a kind of group discount, so you can learn about food photography and save enough to get a good tripod – which you will need, if you decide to do this course (Try Amazon.com).

If you hunger for more, then read on.

Digital Food Photography in Siena

A little about the course:

An appetising food photograph

Join Photographer Alessandro Guerani in Siena, Italy and participate in a unique one week Food Photography Course.

Alessandro will teach you food photography at a range of different levels. His lectures and workshops will include: exposure, lighting, food and prop styling, different composition techniques, lighting set-ups for studio and location shooting, camera and lighting equipment, as well as post-production skills.

To help them understand how to style food, participants will have the opportunity to work with professional food stylist Barbara Torresan.  They will come to appreciate the difference between non-styled and styled food and thus understand the impact of well-styled food.

Real cooking will take place during course.  This part of the program will allow participants’ to develop a feel for food photography, and permit them to reach their optimum potential. The course foresees three culinary sessions at a professional level for different food areas. Emphasis is put not only on the preparation of a wide variety of dishes, but also on the study and use of essential extras such as wine, spices and olive oil. The photographing of ingredients and methods of preparation will also form part of the course.

Forming part of the course, the cooking sessions will provide participants with the perfect opportunity to combine food styling and photographic skills, producing an improvement in both.

The course is aimed at photographers from beginner to semi-pro.

With regard to photographic gear to bring along, Alessandro Guerani advises that a tripod is essential, whereas on the camera front, while a digital SLR is ideal for this kind of work, compact cameras can also be used.  And if anyone has any macro lenses in his or her gear bag, they may be useful too.

Here are some highlights of the course:

Highlights of the Program:
• Italian Culinary classes with professional Chefs
• Lecture/workshop on Digital Food Photography
• A fascinating program of educational and sightseeing visits to places of interest such as a vineyard, wine cellar, local food market are included in the course, as is the participation in a social activity program
• Available One to One Photo Critique & Tips, Private Digital Photography Tutoring and Portfolio Build and Review. (Additional fees apply).

Oh, and the course is in Siena which is one heck of a beautiful place, a great location for a photography course, and for photographers in general.  And Siena is in Tuscany, which is a photographer’s delight.  I’ve been to Siena, and I loved it.

Now, the discounts.

10% Discount, if 10 People Sign Up Via BlogfromItaly.com

If ten people sign up for the Digital Food Photography Course via BlogfromItaly.com, then they will each receive a 10% discount on the course price of €1600 (£1,300 UKP, $1637 USD) – but the 10% discount will only be applied if 10 people sign up.

The ten people can be anyone interested in doing this course – a group of friends, or members of a photography club, for example.  You could sign up, and then hope another 9 people do the same, or, you could tell a few friends, spread the word, and make sure you get the full 10% discount.

If rounding up 10 people sounds difficult, then don’t worry too much, as if 5 people apply to do the course via BlogfromItaly.com, they will still get a 5% discount.

To recap:

• 10 people sign up via BlogfromItaly.com, and each get a 10% discount.

• 5 people sign up via BlogfromItaly.com, and each get a 5% discount.

If only 4 people sign up for the course via BlogfromItaly.com – then nobody gets any discount, and the 4 people concerned will have to pay the full cost of the course – and do it!

Learn How to Create Mouthwatering Shots of Meatballs, and more

How To Become Eligible for the Discounts

What you need to do to obtain a possible 5% or 10% discount off the course price of €1600 (£1,300 UKP, $1637 USD), is to enrol on Mia’s course using this code: DFPS2010

Book Your Place Here

You’ll find more information on the course here, as well as details of how to contact Mia to book your place: Digital Food Photography in Siena, Italy

After contacting Mia, you must then send an email to contact at blogfromitaly dot com – just copy and paste these words into an email (or if you prefer, you can leave a comment on this post):

Hi, I’ve just enrolled on Mia’s Digital Food Photography Course this October using the code DFPS2010.  Best, (your name)

and then encourage another 4 to 9 people to sign up for the course to be sure to get a discount.

I’ll update this post with the number of bookings received via the DFPS2010 code.

Over to you! If you do the course, don’t forget to come back here afterwards – if you send BlogfromItaly.com an example of your work, it’ll be published on BlogfromItaly.com for all to see.  This might even help kick-start your food photography career.  You never know what opportunities the world wide web holds!

Photo credit: All photographs by Alessandro Guerani.
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In the interests of transparency, please note that BlogfromItaly.com stands to earn referral fees if people book the photography course via this offer.