Bob Archibald Photography

This newly opened restaurant in downtown Berkeley hired me to photograph the food and to show the ambience and feeling of the Café. Photographing food displayed behind glass was a challenge given light reflection and depth of field issues. I decided to use ambient light with a tripod with a fairly low shutter speed and was able to achieve focus, lighting and depth of field that highlighted the beauty of PIQ's pastries and other baked goods. What's not to like about well prepared Italian food?

Another PIQ assignment involved a night shot of the restaurant showing its full storefront and the street sign in front. When PIQ was built, they had special LED lighting installed to highlight the historic building. I wanted to use blue as blue is the color that is the café color. I decided to use a two second exposure to light both the outside structure and customers sitting at tables inside.

The third assignment was to photograph the kitchen operation including the chefs and equipment. After 20 minutes of patiently taking a few photographs the chefs came around and we had 15 minutes of complete cooperation. The cooks loved the results and asked for prints.

My PIQ photography has been used in on-line media including the Chronicle, the DBA annual report and in PIQ’s promotional material.