Capturing the Flavor of Newport Cooks: A Journey in Culinary Storytelling
This year, I had the opportunity to create photography and a video for Newport Cooks in Newport, RI. Their mantra is "Cook it good. Teaching the world to cook one good cook at a time." The owner has a wonderful personality, and as I discovered, their classes are fun, and I walk away with new friends and memories.
At Newport Cooks, you can expect lively and exciting classes that will instill confidence in the quality of the teaching. I visited twice to photograph two classes with a photojournalist approach. This approach brings me back to the roots of my career. Being a photojournalist for newspapers and magazines, I genuinely enjoy this style of photography.
The first photography session was documenting children in class. They arrive, put on their aprons, review the recipes they will work on that day, and prepare food. It was fun with a whole class full of children with an enthusiastic focus and good questions. They worked together as a class with mini-teams that each had their own task. Creating three courses of delicious food. In the end, they sat down and enjoyed their freshly cooked meal and talked about the experience they had and any questions to help build their cooking skills
The adult class was a journey of personal growth and learning. Participants not only learned new cooking skills but also connected with friends and made new ones. The experience was not just about cooking but about personal growth, inspiration, and building new cooking skills one can bring home.
Another visual deliverable was to create a Short-Form video of Mary Weaver to introduce her business for her website and social media promotion. We did this video with low production and created it quickly so she could get back to prepping for the cooking class. Beforehand, we spoke about what she wanted to deliver, and it only took a handful of takes. These short-form videos are lovely for subjects that can speak from the heart and share insights into the business and their personal stories. In addition, we took a few additional b-roll videos, and I also took b-roll videos during the two children and adult classes to help create this video.
Experiencing these two classes firsthand was so enjoyable that I couldn't resist attending the next one just to soak it all in—this time without my camera. Photography and video are powerful tools for any business looking to connect with their audience and expand their brand's reach. These short-form videos, with their lower production demands, offer an accessible way to quickly create and share engaging content that resonates. Whether you're a small business or a larger corporation, capturing genuine moments like these can elevate your brand and create lasting impressions.