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/ Comments Off on How this Gold Coast restaurant grew their online bookings 40-fold in 4 weeks

How this Gold Coast restaurant grew their online bookings 40-fold in 4 weeks

An image of the bar at The Lazy Lobster restaurant, Gold Coast. Food venue photography by Gold Coast Food Photography - Gold Coast and Brisbane

 

Here’s a very good example of how great marketing can benefit Gold Coast restaurants.
The Lazy Lobster is a seafood restaurant in Labrador. A large venue with a modern, fresh interior, it offers lunch and dinner guests a range of areas to enjoy – their cosy interior, bar area or sun-drenched (and air conditioned) window-frontage dining area that overlooks a stunning view of the Gold Coast’s Broadwater and it’s esplanade.

While the waterfront scenery alone is offered by only several other seafood restaurants along the whole Gold Coast, coupled with truly great food, The Lazy Lobster’s offering is very strong. Testimony to this is the almost 20 years that they’ve been in business (the equivalent of about 6 lifetimes in the restaurant game)!

Even so, an out-dated website and sub-standard food photography was letting the owners down for too long – an issue that they recently addressed by getting in touch with a good food photographer (moi!) and a good web designer, to get themselves quality image content that’s not repeated on their pages – plus free them of Google’s SEO penalisation for having a site that’s not mobile-friendly.

Take a look at the old food image they had been previously using across multiple website pages:

 

An example of poor food photography (NOT shot by me)!

NOTE: The above is NOT my shot!  😉

 

Wisely, the owners recognised that it was time to invest in imagery that did their fantastic food justice…

An image of a cooked salmon fillet on a black rustic timber restaurant table

An image of a plate of seafood pasta

An image of a cooked King Prawns served onto a black rustic timber restaurant table

An image of seafood platter served on a contemporary black stone restaurant table

An image of dessert served on a contemporary black stone table in a fine restaurant

Together with the owners, myself and my food stylist met to discuss a more contemporary art direction to showcase their food, it’s beautiful presentation and the generous portions that they still serve. The results speak for themselves and within four weeks, this Gold Coast restaurant’s online bookings went from one per month to 10 per week and still rapidly climbing.
Get in touch today if your Gold Coast or Brisbane restaurant’s reservations could use a boost like this.   😉

/ Comments Off on How to utilise good food styling to tell a story

How to utilise good food styling to tell a story

Last week a 5-star Gold Coast hotel client asked my advice on how to best photograph the food being served at their Vegan buffet.

They obviously wanted beautiful photographs, but needed to ensure that these particular food shots weren’t misleading – the meal offering is a buffet, after all – not a-la-carté…

I thought that the table styling could help to tell this story, while avoiding simply showing a line of hot platters on hotel trestles. I suggested that I photograph a single plate of food that their highly-awarded Chef has plated up nicely (unlike the physics-defying pyramids that many diners construct when embracing a buffet)! Plating-up the food this way communicated the fineness of the food on offer at the hotel, while the surrounding table styling made it clear that this was not an a-la-carté dish for one.

This was achieved with stacked plates and serviettes as well as scattered handfuls of cutlery, rather than a place-setting for one.
A great story-telling solution for a suite of images that the client was super happy with!

 

A_Vegan_mushroom_dish_with_capsicum_onion_herbs_served_on_a_white_dish_with_a_stack_of_plates_condiments_serviette_in_the_background

 

A_fine_dining_vegan_dish_of_tofu_beans_carrots_onion_sesame_seeds_chilli_served_in_a_white_bowl

/ Comments Off on My guest post for the ‘Good Food Gold Coast’ food blog

My guest post for the ‘Good Food Gold Coast’ food blog

Recently I was invited to write a guest blog post for the excellent ‘Good Food Gold Coast’. As one of the best food blogs I’ve come across, which keeps readers abreast of any and all additions and improvements to the Gold Coast food scene, it’s WELL worth checking out. Good Food Gold Coast attracts a very wide audience of restauranteurs, cafe owners dedicated foodies – and no doubt a large number of amateur food photographers and Instagrammers, so I thought a few pro tips may be a good topic to add to the menu…
Bon appetit!

 

Syrup_being_poured_onto_a_dessert_with_excellent_texture showcased_by_food_photography_back_lighting

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