Food Photo Competition 2014 No 5 : Entry Number 54

Smoking kippers. A good graphic subject but it is a hard composition to pull off. Maybe more light on the herring could have been even better, bringing out that scaly texture and its symetrical form some more.

This shot was taken as part of a shoot for Ritchie's of Rothesay smokehouse on the Isle of Bute, Scotland. To achieve the shot, I worked with the local smoker in the smokehouse itself. The kipper was hung from a smoking rack and a small pile of sawdust then lit underneath. I set two soft box strobes on each side of the fish (left 1/2 power, right 1/16) and as the smoke began to rise, I asked the smoker to lower the fish into the path of the smoke so I could capture the atmospheric smoke trail. Taken on a Nikon D3s with Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED lens, camera mounted on Giottos Tripod and wireless shutter release used.