Rob Andrew Photography
San Diego food photographer for brands, agencies and restaurants
Advertising, packaging and menu photography for food and drink brands. Shot on location or in my Vista studio with a full working kitchen.
What good photos fix
- People eat with their eyes first. Google, Yelp and delivery apps show your food before anyone tastes it. Weak photos end the visit right there.
- Dishes that should sell, don’t. A strong photo moves a dish. That is the whole pitch.
- Your feed goes quiet. A real image library keeps social posts, specials and email fresh without scrambling for content.
- Phone snapshots undercut your prices. If a plate costs 38 dollars, it should look like it everywhere it appears.
Video does the same work in motion. Short clips for reels, ads and your website can be shot the same day as the stills.
One shoot, working everywhere
Every image is delivered ready for:
- Website and online menus
- Google Business Profile
- DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grubhub
- Instagram and Facebook
- Paid ads and boosted posts
- Email and newsletters
- Press kits and local guides
- Printed menus and signage
Photographer or influencer?
Influencer posts rent someone else’s audience for a weekend. A photographer builds an image library your restaurant owns. And the pictures themselves are not the same:
- Consistent color. Calibrated from camera to delivery, so your reds do not drift orange from one post to the next.
- Real lenses. Compression and depth a phone cannot fake. It is the difference between a snapshot of a plate and a plate you can almost taste.
- We bring our own light. No chasing window light, no fighting a dim dining room. The same clean, high quality style at 8 AM or 8 PM, in any conditions.
- Years of food styling experience. Microgreens placed, pickles carefully pulled out of a burger so you can see them, ketchup swirls finessed, steam caught before it fades, rims of bowls cleaned, beers stirred back up for that perfect 1/2″ head. Attention to details allows real food to shine without a lot of Photoshop trickery.
- Real retouching. Stray crumbs and smudged rims gone, texture and honesty kept.
- One brand voice. Every image matches the last, across your menu, your website and your feed.
Monthly imagery for restaurants and local brands
Menus change. Specials rotate. Social feeds are always hungry. If you are a restaurant or a local brand that needs fresh images every month, a recurring shoot costs well below one-off rates, and you always have something new to post.
Tell me you are interested in the form below and I will send the numbers.
Magazine level, plate by plate
Magazines call when a restaurant review needs photography. I have shot restaurant features for Westways, AAA’s Southern California member magazine, since 2013, from neighborhood taco spots to fine dining rooms.
My editorial and commercial photography background means I budget time for each dish and pay attention to the details: the garnish, the steam, the angle of the sauce. We check every frame on a big screen before we move on. Your chef plates the food. I make it look the way it tastes.
Creative direction
I come from advertising and editorial photography, so I know your pictures have to fit layouts. A billboard, a vertical Instagram story, a wide web banner: each needs its own framing, and I shoot with the crop in mind.
I can also help you plan which images you really need, so everything delivered on shoot day has a purpose and a place. That is how a budget goes further. We show up with a mission and execute it, instead of shooting whatever happens to catch the eye. Years of working with ad agencies, creative teams and magazine editors made that a habit.
The room and the people sell too
Diners do not just pick a dish. They pick a room, a bar, a patio, and the people behind all of it. Interior photography sells the experience before anyone walks in the door.
Chef and team portraits put a face on the brand. They are also the first thing an editor asks for when a review runs, and they carry your About page, your press kit and your hiring posts.
Selling the experience
A good dining room photo sells the visit before the first bite. Put the room next to the food and drink it serves and you are selling the whole evening, not just a plate.
Cocktails carry the margin
Drinks are some of the best margins in the house, and they are the most photographed thing on the table. If it drives a second round or a second visit, it belongs in the image library.
An experience piece, not just a drink
A signature cocktail is something people order because they have already seen it. The bar program deserves the same light as the kitchen: cocktails, pours, coffee, dessert.
Behind the camera
Thanks for checking in! I have photographed restaurant menus, people and spaces in San Diego, Orange County and beyond since 2013. We can shoot in your kitchen and dining room, or in my Vista studio, which has a kitchen for styled menu work. Five star rated on Google.
Not sure where to start? Build a free shot list and I will quote from it, or just fill out the form below.
Tell me about your project
A few quick questions so the quote fits the job. Takes about a minute.
Questions first? Email robandrewphoto@gmail.com or call or text (760) 920-6380.