Laura Ponts takes photos with her mobile and does not use filters, however she has become a successful photographer and gastronomic stylist thanks to her colorful and sophisticated still lifes. Her nearly 250,000 followers on Instagram make her a true influencer for lovers of food and good food.
Since she was a child, she likes to eat well, even then she was a lover of everything related to gastronomy. The most excited gift he could give him was to be taken to eat at a restaurant. His favorite toys were pans, plates, and pots.
Laura is the author of "Foodie Art"; a book in which he shows some of his photography tricks, the hotels and restaurants that have made him fall in love, the recipes he likes to cook and some tips to find the best products.
We chatted with her and she told us a little more about her way of seeing food through her smartphone camera and how she got to where she is.
1.- How did you come up with doing this type of still life?
This idea came about five and a half years ago when everyone I followed on Instagram shared photos of restaurants. I came up with the idea of buying a lot of materials, different dishes, and without knowing what to do very well… I started to assemble my still lifes. I was taking photos and testing.
Nowadays they have nothing to do with it (laughs). People liked what I did, I began to see how my followers increased, so I did more still lifes with new ideas, playing with raw and cooked, with colors….
2.- What is the part that you like the most when making these still lifes? What do you enjoy the most?
I like to be alone at home, with music, for me it is a moment of relaxation. I choose noon, when I have the best natural light, and in that environment I create. When I have finally achieved a beautiful photo is a special moment, and then see how the followers value it positively. The worst moment is clear ... is to collect everything and clean.
3.- How much time have you used to make the most complex still life?
It depends. If I cook and want to create a still life with a complicated recipe, I can take about four hours, or four and a half hours. If what I photograph is raw product and I only have to place it, I can have it ready in an hour.
It also depends on the light that I have, if I like the result or not and I have to repeat, change the background or move furniture and put everything back together ... Sometimes the ingredients change color in that process and that complicates it and I can finally spend an hour and a half.
4.- Do you follow some kind of strategy to take your photos or is it pure instinct? What are the tricks of Laura Ponts?
Color is very important to me. My images are full of color, I rely a lot on red, yellow and bright green. I am looking for variety and a large number of elements with a lot of color. It's what people expect to see on my Instagram.
Natural light is very important. I always try to photograph from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m., in summer even until 4:00 p.m.
The composition is also essential; I think a lot about how I put things. Nothing to improvise. You cannot put the ingredients in any way and in five minutes, you have to think a lot, look for an aesthetic.
Finally I look for inspiration in the markets, I look at the product display, when I have it at home I think how it can look better.
5.- How do you choose the dishes you use in your still lifes?
Good dishes and a good background are also important. I like those that look like old wood, that are black.
I would never use plates with patterns, flowers or borders, since for me the important thing is the recipe or the still life.
I really like clay, and white or beige dishes . Sometimes also black or gray but I always avoid bright colors since I use these tones in the product, which is what I want to highlight and make it visible.
Laura Ponts has a predilection for neutral tableware, and lets the color of everything else wash over her. But for us, if Laura were a plate, it would be Peces: A plate full of life, illusion, fantasy with its red fish in circles; geometry, order, and movement, lots of life!