Shutterbug: Ranji

Meet this week’s Shutterbug - Ranji Thangiah - a food photographer based in London. “I got into food photography while I was working on my blog Tooting Mama which is a recipe blog that focuses on family heritage recipes. Through that, I got interested in photography and that’s now expanded into my job. I work with brands, companies, restaurants and small businesses”. For aspiring food photographers, Ranji advises, “just go for it. You’ve got nothing to lose. Practice is what it takes. And you don’t need fancy cameras. You can take incredible pictures with just your smartphone”. In this week’s Shutterbug, Ranji shares her favourite images captured during her shoots. You can follow her work on Instagram - @tootingmama.

Mackerel curry

This image is part of a visual story I did of the start to finish of making a Sri Lankan mackerel curry. I wanted the image to reflect the time when you take that peak into the pot to see how your curry is cooking. That time when you do a quick taste test to make sure the gravy is on point.

The red holds the story together. My recipe uses tomatoes, which give a rich red gravy and the curry is cooked in a bright red cooking pot. Colour is an important point in food photography and can really make your image.

Still life mangosteen

I’m lucky to live in Tooting and have ready access to fresh Sri Lankan ingredients. Who doesn’t love mangosteen?

This image is still life. I wanted to draw attention to the purple leathery skin, that when you break open shows the pearly, iridescent white flesh, the fruit has a seed, often jelly-like that you can eat with the sweet white flesh. Mangosteens aren’t well known in the UK. Photography is a great way to shine a light on ingredients, especially on ingredients that aren’t well known. I’ve chosen to capture this image using the chiaroscuro style, dark and moody, reminiscent of Dutch-style paintings. I’ve used a high aperture and low shutter speed to capture the detail of the fruit. All of this was shot in natural light.

Friday night eating in

Since lockdown, dining in has boomed. In our house getting a Friday night food delivery was a treat. I did a shoot for Ammi's Serendips. It’s a Sri Lankan start-up, cooking Sri Lankan food that gets delivered to your door. They cook all the Sri Lankan favourites, cutlets, patties, kottu roti, and curries. The food is cooked well and tastes authentic. The challenge here was to express the joy you have when your food has arrived and you can’t wait to sneak out a little patty. But, all you have is take-out boxes. Here I’ve had to create the scene. The hero of the shot is the take-out boxes, piled high, a little movement in the shot helps tell the story, too excited, and got to sneak in the patty before everyone digs in!

Red is my colour

Drinks photography is hard. It seems easy, there’s no cooking, simply glass, drink and a garnish or too. But with drinks photography, there’s nowhere to hide.
This is my shot of a bloody mary, a spiced tomato juice which normally has vodka in it. It’s a simple drink and of course, the stand-out colour is red. To create this shot I used a strobe light, which helped create these dramatic shadows. It’s given a moody nighttime feel. The red of the dress and the red of the drink fill the space and is contrasted by the green of the celery.

Shot on an iPhone

I snuck this picture in when I was at Paradise Soho, it’s one of the new breeds of Sri Lankan restaurants that have recently opened in London.

You can take amazing images on your smartphone. You really don’t need to spend hundreds or thousands on cameras and lenses. It’s all there for you in your hand. What it does take is practice, and work on understanding light, what makes a good picture, composition, colour, and styling. There are great free apps like lightroom and Snapseed that you can use to edit your images and create amazing images. Just get out and start taking pictures. What I love about the image is the greys of the walls and the bar against the row of bottles which are reflected onto the bar. The bar stools invite you to take a seat, while in the corner is the bartender getting ready to make you an arrack cocktail. 

Chicken curry

Styling and composition and colour are important parts of food photography. And when you’re trying to style a curry this is really important. Curry is notoriously hard to style and many people get stuck.

For this, I have chosen to create a scene that tells a story, an ensemble piece. A homemade chicken curry served with some dhal and a few vegetables on the side. It’s how we’d typically sit down to eat a chicken curry that I might have cooked for the family. 

The curry is placed on the plate, ready to eat, there’s dhal on the left side of the picture. You’re not eating alone as there’s another table setting poking into view.
The main colours for this story come from the food, reds and greens with some oranges and browns.

I’ve used red rice, a nod to Sri Lanka! And a little katta sambol too.

Telling stories 

What I love about photography is telling stories without writing or saying a word. Krish lives in Tooting and has a small start-up brand. Krish and her partner have been making curries and packaging them up in glass jars to sell at a local market. Each curry is based on a family recipe. The jar signals the sustainability and environmental credentials of the brand.

Portraits 

This is Pri with his sister, Siv, they run Kamala, a street food stall on Maltby street. They specialise in kottu roti and string hoppers. They are bringing freshly cooked Sri Lankan food to London’s streets. I love this portrait. It captures the energy, dynamism and passion they have for what they do. I captured this image just before they were due to start cooking for the day. There’s the anticipation of what the day was to bring, the food they are going to cook, and the people they’d be serving.

The Tamil Prince

I got the opportunity to shoot for The Tamil Prince just before they opened, and since opening, they have been the subject of rave reviews and now their evening sittings are fully booked. The Tamil Prince is a pub in North London serving Tamil food. The chef Prince Durairaj is from Tamil Nadu and brings his influence to his food. They have a tiny kitchen which you can view from the pub and watch Prince create these amazing dishes. The roti throwdown action is spectacular. From this tiny kitchen, Prince and his team create fantastic food. It’s definitely worth the trip to North London to taste Prince’s cooking.