The Making of: TKO Punch with Go Shrimpin'

This was a shot that wasn’t planned at all but I love how it turned out. When I was at Joe’s Crab Shack, I went there purposely to create the Shark Bite shot. After I finished with that one, however, I decided to order another drink and some food. I picked the drink for two reasons, because it looked cool, and because it sounded good.

Once the order was placed in front of me though, I knew I had to take some photos of it. I arranged the food, the drink, and the silverware bucket so it would fit in a vertical frame. The exposure was already correct from the last drink shot but I still bracketed just in case.

Creating the shot was easy. The more involved part was the editing. I cropped it a little, took out something in the background that was distracting, brightened the drink’s colors, and removed a distracting reflection.

Looking back at it now that it’s finished, I realize that, yes, I could have done it better but I like how it turned out. I could have turned the camera to shoot it horizontally to get more of the food and drink but by doing it vertical, I took away any blank space there may have been. Also, I could have lit the drink with a flashlight like when I did the Shark Bite photo. It would have been an easier post processing job but it still turned out nice. The last change I could have made is to just photograph the drink without the food but I think by adding the food and the silverware to the photo, it brought more feeling and meaning to the photo. The drink is still the star as it’s so bright but there’s atmosphere as well.