Food Trucks! Mac’D-N-Loaded!

Next up on our “world tour” of Los Angeles food trucks–Mac’d-N-Loaded! This was a fun job, to be sure. Got to use some lenses I rarely use, and meet some really cool chefs.

So–how do you separate yourself from all the hundreds of food trucks out there?  Especially in LA? One way is to have one of the coolest logos on the planet.  (I mean macaroni “loaded”  in a revolver for a graphic – can we say creative?) We had fun on location with this, conjuring nicknames the likes of, “Macaroni Mohaska,” “Rigatoni Revolver,” and “The Penne Pistol.”

Most importantly, of course, you stand out by serving up really great comfort food ( macaroni and cheese), great service with a smile, and of course the mobility of all this deliciousness being on four wheels. Above are Dwayne, Tetsujin and Dwight, the principals of our second food truck shoot in a series of environmental portraits in collaboration with Samy’s Camera.

This truck, called Mac’d-N-Loaded, is a staple in LA. They work all manner of events, large and small, and honestly, when you want some mac’n cheese,  (and who doesn’t?) they are a welcome sight.

Different strategy here in terms of light. With the other trucks, I was dealing with shiny interiors, and in another instance, working at night, creating highlights with Speedlights spotted down or controlled with grids. In this instance, though, it was broad daylight, late afternoon, and I had to cover these three wonderful faces. So I went the other direction, using a Lastolite 4 in 1 umbrella as a broad shoot thru, and it was fitted with a Lastolite tri-flash, so I could get three SB-5000 units going to match the strength of the daylight. Needed some power, and some smoothness to the light, which is a strategy that translated into a fairly sizable f-stop. Which I wanted–with a truck like this, you really want to see it, right? The pic up top is 1/250th, f/18. FYI, also, the light source is stuffed right into my left shoulder. I got it as close to my subjects as possible.

Thanks to the video crew who was with us again and provided BTS film support which will become videos on the Samy’s Camera site.

Dwight (CFO and hardworking young entrepreneur)  was fantastic to work with. Enthusiastic and up for spending time with us in the course of his busy day. Can’t thank the crew enough. Here they are below. Shooting this from the driver’s cab of the truck, with a 16mm f/2.8 fisheye and that big umbrella, hand held this time, with the tri-flash, stuffed into the tiny confines of the cab. Quick shot, fun to do.

More tk….