I entered my first public photography competition with a big bang. As written on August 4th, I won several awards on the food photography competition for the Cebu Food Expo 2010- one actually won third place. So here are my photos that made it as top 10 finalists:

Peking duck scones with ingredients

Duck scones marching out the door

Stonehedge choco bars

The scones with ingredients took a lot more thought in it. Taking a picture of the duck scones alone doesn't really look appetizing, but I decided to use its ingredients- hoisin sauce, green onions and lemons (although not part of the recipe)- against a wooden board background.

For the choco bars, I've always been fascinated with stonehedges in Europe! I used a brown cloth as background for this shot.

And presenting the 3rd placer out of the 50+ entries! I shot this during my workshop at AICA so kudos to the chef who did the styling. I just had multiple shots of it (if you follow my blog, another version of this dish also won first place during my workshop for the still life category). Surprisingly, this came out nice even though it was taken with only a Nikon d40 kit lens. You can see the grains on this photo since I had to amp up my ISO to 1600. FYI- I mostly do shoots with a D80 and never a kit lens.

Fettuccine with fish roe cream sauce

I am proud to say that even though I made it only to 3rd, I was up against professionals in this competition. The guy who won first place is a seasoned food photographer, mind you :P