Órale! Taqueria Mexicana
Tuesday, March 29, 2011 at 1:59PM Did you know that the word "Orale" is like OMG in Spanish?
A month ago, I was commissioned to do a menu shoot for an upcoming Mexican Restaurant in the Fort called "Orale! Taqueria Mexicana", little did I know that it was going to be one of my favorite shoots ever!
The owners, Nikki and Lek were open to some crazy ideas and I had such a fine time working with their brand managers, a branding firm called Vgrafiks—They even made a customized distressed wood floorboard for the shoot!(freaks out)
The first layout we did was a shot of their main ingredients. One of my biggest inspirations for food photography would probably be Helene Dujardin of Tartelette. She loves shooting ingredients, laying them out in a gridlike pattern. Her shots look amazing and I guess this shot in particular is my tribute to her awesomeness! I shot these ingredients on some swimming pool bench. The scattered ingredients blended so well with the rustic finish of the wooden surface and the vignettes helped create the dramatic look I was going for.
We also shot their tacos, burritos and quasadillas. They tasted so good with a bit of creamy yogurt and salsa. The food styling was handled by Orale's food consultants, Monday Chefs, while I handled the prop styling. The props were not difficult to put together since most of the pegs they sent me were just what I had in mind for their layouts. I just love playing with vibrant colors!
I wanted to work with a lot of patterned napkins for the layouts to create a more playful vibe and it worked well with the food items which were all so very colorful themselves. The distressed surface was beautifully made and complimented well with the props I chose.
I've never actually tasted Corona beer, but they sure look good with the food. Nikki said that Corona tastes best with some sliced lime inside, it's probably common knowledge to a lot of drinkers out there, and I'm such a noob for not knowing but hey, I'll definitely try it when they open this Saturday!
Thank you Vgrafiks team for the wonderful gift! They gave me the distressed wood surface they made for the shoot. It's such a grand new addition to my collection!! Orale!
Reader Comments (7)
What a beautiful photo shoot. Luv all the textures and vibrant colors. Great compositions!
Well done on a great shoot! Love the colors, everything looks gorgeous :-)
Love the pattern and texture of the props, the colors are also nice!
Wow. The photos look spectacular!! I would definitely eat at this restaurant solely based on your exquisite photos. Good job!!
P.S. LOL @ Devin's comment. Devin is right, though. Mexican is not a language, but Spanish is. Also, since the owners of the restaurant knew to put an accent mark on "órale", they should also put an accent mark on the "i" of "taquería", too. Without the accent, the word is misspelled and would be pronounced differently since the "i" is a weak vowel without the accent mark. I have seen one too many taquerías with that word misspelled, and the Spanish linguist in me cringes every time. Since this restaurant is a new place, I hope they spell it right! :=
Corona! I had a share of funny experience with that when I was in the US, first time I met Corona. I kept on removing the wedge of lime stuck on the bottle lip because I didn't know the purpose of it being there. I thought it was just for aesthetic reasons LOL. People thought i was odd. Anyways, your shots are inspiring as always, Mylene. I always look forward to your creations! And I must mention VGrafiks guys are awesome people to work with. We had a project with them in the past ;).
@Cristina: Thank you so much! glad you like it!:D
@Sneh: Thank you so much!
@Jun: Thanks Jun! I'm glad it didn't look too cluttered with color.
@Devin: Oh I'm sorry!! I definitely have to correct that. I'm really not too familiar with languages that's all. Thanks for correcting me though!:)
@Memoria: I'll definitely tell the team that handles their branding to take note of the taqueria accent mark. Glad you like the shots and thanks for correcting me on that! hehe!
@marvie: I know! Their team is just awesome and so versatile! haha! At least I'm not the only one who doesn't know about that Corona lime thing! I also thought the owners wanted the lime in the bottle for aesthetic reasons and I was like "that's such a good idea" and they go "you really do that when drinking corona!" hehe!
first deliberation is leafleting method which gives the best results Make the copy "you" focusedt relate to numbers or corporatespeakHome raised and fed