Food
Cafe Crawl: Bag of Beans (Twin Lakes)
Okay, so this is not your typical Cafe Crawl since you would have to trek about 1.5 hours (on good traffic conditions) out of Manila for this. I know Bag of Beans has become synonymous to Tagaytay, but this particular branch was interesting enough to visit. It was also the stopover we took coming from a shoot in Batangas. It’s way past Tagaytay City and already in the Laurel vicinity so don’t bother looking for any landmarks anytime within the city limits.
The interiors of these newer branches is a bit more manicured from the original one most of us know. The original Bag of Beans was an eccentric motley of extended areas seemingly to have mutated out from a simpler makeshift home / restaurant. Don’t get me wrong, that place has a character of its own, and still worth to eat in if the waiting time is still bearable. This country theme befits places like these pretty well, though gets more faux the longer you stare at them. It’s not something that bothers me though. The bakery / country store + cafe combination has been the staple formula for most if not all places in Tagaytay too. If you’re satisfied with your meal, there’s a big chance you might just swig off knick knacks from their store on the way out.
Service
Food is above average, and servings are good for two (2) people. It also came out fast, which is a big factor to me. Though the waiter who serviced us wasn’t that knowledgeable of the menu offerings and had to go down the kitchen just to ask for the soup of the day. It’s a slight pet peeve of mine, and I tend to look for these nuances. Not a deal-breaker though; maybe it’s this OC side of me kicking in every now and then. Asides from that, service was quite attentive.
Price-wise though, it has become more expensive in exchange for the ambiance.
Photo Gallery
Verdict
It’s something I don’t mind going out of town for, time and traffic notwithstanding.Check out my youtube channel for your regular glimpse behind the scenes! While you’re at it, drop buy the online store and get goodies from your favorite models!
For those interested in my commercial work, check out pointblankstudios.net and follow us at @pointblankmnl in IG.
Shooting Food
Shooting food has always been one of my favorite genres, I just don’t get to blog or post about it much. Sharing some stuff we’ve done in the past year.
For those who are not familiar with food photography, not all what you see in the camera are edible. Yes, they look good especially when you’re hungry, but they would taste way different from what they intend to be. Though a good number of food we’ve shot are really prepared dishes.. it’s just that the food can get man-handled to the point you’d lose your appetite.
Most ingredients are half-cooked to preserve the water and color. What you see in the camera is prepared on the spot. This is particularly noticeable when you work with greens. The leaves wilt away over time, so they have to set right away and shot immediately after. Pastry and drinks are easier to handle since not much is going on with them after they have been set. The challenging parts are dealing with various textures of the plating and the food itself. I have particular difficulty shooting soup. Since it’s liquid, it behaves the same way as shooting water. There’s a reflection that happens on particular angles. This is where you circular polarizer would come in handy, but there are times where it’s at the expense other textures found within the frame.
As a rule of thumb, lighting food shouldn’t be directly in front. When you do, the textures tend to flatten out and the food doesn’t look appealing. Most lighting are soft, and would come from a top-behind angles. Everything else is bounced back to the plate via various reflectors depending on the size of the dish. My personal favorite is chopping up styrofoam boards and blocking them in front of the food to control certain parts I want bright or dark.
Photo Gallery
Production Credits
- Clients: City of Dreams Manila / SUSI / Marby Food Ventures
- Food Styling: Bianca Mabanta SUSI), Zack Hillberry (City of Dreams), Sharlene Tan (Marby)
Check out my youtube channel for your regular glimpse behind the scenes! While you’re at it, drop buy the online store and get goodies from your favorite models!
For those interested in my commercial work, check out pointblankstudios.net and follow us at @pointblankmnl in IG.