Food Photography | Hester’s Cafe Brunch
When you talk to a local about places to get consistently delicious cookies, muffins, cupcakes, and cake by the slice, Hester’s Cafe typically is within the first few names rattled off. Both of their locations are in the Corpus Christi bay area (within a few blocks of Ocean Drive) and serve their clientele well. The first location opened in the Bleu Frog Mercantile building, which formerly housed a Corpus Christi staple - Cage’s Hardware. On several occasions, my grandfather would need something for maintenance around his house - he would load me up in his car and we’d make our trek down Alameda Street to Six Points to visit Cage’s Hardware.
Funny enough, sometime before I began photography I was into landscaping, and a local mason had hired me to install some concrete pavers at a new building that was being renovated. That building happened to be the Bleu Frog Mercantile building. The next time you visit Bleu Frog or Hester’s Cafe, just know that I have personally handled all of the pink & red concrete pavers between the parking lot and doors.
Anyway, fast forward to 2018 when Jason from Hester’s reached out to me regarding food photography for Hester’s. Needless to say, I jumped at the opportunity to photograph their wonderful food from their Lamar Park location. Working with Jason, Hester, and the rest of the team at Hester’s is always a dream. They have their menu planned out, they always have some standby ingredients I can use to style, and they just know how to plate food deliciously. I have had several of their “breakfast” menu items (I highly recommend the ‘El Campo Scramble’) yet I hadn’t really explored much more of their brunch menu.
Hester’s has a down-to-earth yet classy brunch vibe that I wanted somehow to portray through their food photography. I translate that vibe into airy and light photos with deep shadows where present. I liked letting the colors of the food (and their gorgeous coffee mug) pop off the natural wood surface we were working on. And like almost every time I get hired for food photography, I LOVE getting in close to the ingredients. I want people to see that while their brunch menu is perfection, the ingredients are real and imperfect.
Food photography for your restaurant should be fun and full of life. I come from a family that’s been in the restaurant business my entire life and want to see other local businesses succeed. When you’re ready to get some affordable food photography content for your Corpus Christi restaurant, I’d love to talk to you about making it happen.