Still life and food were the bread and butter (pun intended) of RRP “Ryan Roessler Photography”. Fashion, especially in the later years, was non-existent when the catalogs stopped being produced in Chicago. Still life and food were shot with view cameras- cameras with bellows you see in the old westerns with flash powder.

  The only thing that differed from the 1880’s was the use of tungsten (hot) lights and flash coming from 2400 and 4800 power packs that produced the same “light” as the tungsten or flash powder. On many food shots, there would be 36 inches of bellows and the twist or tilt of the back camera, as well as the front with the lens. I would compare shooting with a view camera to trigonometry and 35mm and 120 mm to addition and subtraction- perhaps math if you were being kind.

  So even though there would be 9,100 watts coming out of my light box on cables with 36 inches of bellows and F64 on the lens, there would be multiple exposures. This meant that everyone, clients and other staff members, would sit or stand still. The” house lights” as they were called, would be turned off and the lens would be left open while the film holder was put into the back of the camera, the slide pulled, and then the power pack would be “flashed” numerous times – sometimes 12 or 14 flashes.  Always there was a bracket and if you thought the appropriate exposure was 10 flashes, you would shoot 5-7-10-13-15 to go from darkest to lightest so you were covered. Even though, after all the years of shooting, 95% it was a “10”- but the other 5% saved the day and you had a good exposure. Some days on food shoots, it would take 8 hours to set up the shot and 20 minutes to shoot it with the multiple exposures and bracket of film. The film was then sent to the processor and you saw it the following morning.

Since food photography in Chicago was my main source of business, I had a very large kitchen, 3 extra freezers and 3 extra refrigerators. Particularly with fish as Gorton’s Fish was a client of mine, the whole kitchen had to be wiped down with disinfectant since ½ cooked fish (which was what was being shot) was highly poisonous. The food stylist would even wipe down the phone receivers. 

Food was the other end of the photo business as compared to portrait and some degree of still life. The amount of time to shoot the food was very narrow from the time it went on the set to when you received the OK from the client and Art Director to shoot- turn off the lights and shoot your bracket of 5-6 sheets of film. Fashion, location, still life, and portraits were all much easier and thus more enjoyable to shoot. That being said, it was very creative and challenging in a good way!