Last month, Babiche Martens photographed every dish on the Iconic Auckland Eats Top 100 list. Kim Knight tagged along and found out how to keep beer frothy, cheese shiny and other secrets to taking a great food photo. <\/p>\n
\n The last thing Babiche Martens expected to see down the camera
\n lens was a hand, snaking into her carefully framed food shot.\n <\/p>\n
\u201cUmm . . . What are you doing?\u201d the photographer asked the restaurant owner.<\/p>\n
\u201cThirty per cent more engagement on Instagram with a human element,\u201d he proclaimed.<\/p>\n
Later, he pulled out his phone and turned on the torch. The scene, he thought, looked a little underlit.<\/p>\n
Martens recalls the incident with a broad grin and a shrug of her Karen Walker-clad shoulders. She shot her first food editorial in 2004. Today, everybody is a food photographer.<\/p>\n
Burnt Butter Diner’s smoked fish on a housemade crumpet has made the 2026 Iconic Auckland Eats Top 100 list. Photo \/ Babiche Martens<\/p>\n
Meet the professional at an Avondale cafe.<\/p>\n
Martens uses natural light whenever possible. She\u2019s curbside at the Burnt Butter Diner, positioning cutlery on a table the colour of a free range egg yolk, awaiting house-made crumpets with smoked fish, labneh and a soft-poached egg.<\/p>\n
\u201cDoes the dish have microherbs?\u201d she asks. \u201cI\u2019m mindful they might die in the sun.\u201d<\/p>\n
Martens work has graced hundreds of Viva covers, fashion spreads and restaurant reviews but today she\u2019s on contract to T\u0101taki Auckland Unlimited, documenting dishes for the sixth annual Iconic Auckland Eats Top 100 list.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve come along for the ride, grilling the expert for her top food photography tips.<\/p>\n
Actually, Martens confesses, she rarely whips out her phone in a restaurant. \u201cI\u2019m Gen X. It\u2019s too embarrassing.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is, apparently, not embarrassing to set up a tripod and light reflectors 2m from an arterial road choked with morning commuters and the occasional passing fire truck?<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s just the job!\u201d<\/p>\n
At art school, Martens studied painting.<\/p>\n
\u201cComposition, composition, composition.\u201d<\/p>\n
She\u2019s thinking about the entire frame, top to bottom, and the \u201cnegative\u201d or empty space that is just as crucial as the main subject.<\/p>\n
What does she like about photographing food?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t talk back. It behaves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Seriously: \u201cEverybody loves food. It\u2019s really interesting, beautiful and colourful. When a chef has plated something well, it makes your heart sing.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy job is to get the composition right, the angle of the food right, to make it look moreish and inviting. That\u2019s my big responsibility \u2013 to make you want to eat it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Babiche Martens works the angles on an iconic pasta dish at Auckland restaurant Bossi. Photo \/ Dean Purcell<\/p>\n
It\u2019s 10.09am and we\u2019re downtown at Bossi. The kitchen is portioning prawns and blue cheese, there\u2019s a freshly ironed white collared shirt balanced on the end of a wine bottle, and front of house is wheeling miniature hedgerows to the entranceway. Martens has commandeered a corner of the restaurant\u2019s impressive marble counter.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is quite a big guy,\u201d she says, contemplating the fettucine alla ruota – a sculptural tangle of pasta that\u2019s been tossed in a wheel of parmigiano reggiano and laced with truffle oil. \u201cWe\u2019re Italian,\u201d replies restaurant owner Jenna Carter. \u201cWe\u2019re feeders!\u201d<\/p>\n
Martens crumples a napkin and repositions a salad. The large white serving bowl is a challenge and she wants background colour and depth. <\/p>\n
Cheese is, she says, among the hardest foods to photograph. <\/p>\n
\u201cEspecially a cheese toastie. If he\u2019s chunky, it\u2019s good \u2013 you can stack them. But if it\u2019s a flat toastie on a paper plate, there\u2019s not much happening there. I might try to bring in some other elements like hands or architecture. Maybe I\u2019ll go in really close . . . but the cheese can \u2018set\u2019 and you have to be careful you don\u2019t show that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Photographer Babiche Martens uses a brick wall to her advantage as she shoots Aroy Thai restaurant’s iconic Pad Thai. Photo \/ Dean Purcell<\/p>\n
Across the road, at Aroy Thai, she likes the look of an interior brick wall (once she\u2019s rearranged the pot plants – she has also been known to tape things to walls). This will be an action shot. Three-two-one-go! The restaurant manager pours milk into a lemony iced tea and I shower chilli flakes onto the iconic pad thai.<\/p>\n
Again. Again. The kitchen is concerned \u2013 too much chilli. They whip up a fresh bowl of noodles and Martens shifts a lemon wedge so she can see its gleaming flesh. It\u2019s a calculated risk.<\/p>\n
\u201cI might move the cutlery or arrange something in the background, but I don\u2019t usually mess with the food. Once you\u2019ve touched it, it doesn\u2019t go back.\u201d<\/p>\n
She rarely photographs direct overhead views.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the Instagram default but it\u2019s not my favourite angle, unless your food\u2019s really flat \u2013 like a ceviche, or a carpaccio or sometimes even a soup. Chefs will often want me to shoot like that, but then I\u2019ll do a three-quarter angle and they\u2019ll go, \u2018oh, that looks way better . . .\u2019 We\u2019re so conditioned to that bird\u2019s eye view.\u201d<\/p>\n
From pasta to pad thai to pizza. Romani Cafe is just around the corner and a classic of its genre. Red-and-white checked tables, ropes of faux garlic and \u2013 surprise \u2013 a bona fide Auckland Instagram influencer carefully enjoying a spaghetti (her T-shirt is white). She\u2019s a regular. Those events with teeny tiny canapes? This place is her lifesaver.<\/p>\n
Martens has turned off the overhead lights and is working with the owner\u2019s daughter at a window seat. The owner, meanwhile, is offering multiple pizzas, a salad and a tiramisu.<\/p>\n
I ask Martens the inevitable.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone wants to know that! Yes, most of the time I am invited to try the food.<\/p>\n
\u201cMore often than not, I will decline to eat it on the spot . . . it feels a bit unprofessional. I will sometimes take it away, because you can see the disappointment on their faces . . . it\u2019s a perk of the job, but it\u2019s not my job. I\u2019m not there to eat the food.\u201d<\/p>\n
Natural lighting is always preferable when photographing food, says Babiche Martens. Photo \/ Dean Purcell<\/p>\n
The Top 100 Auckland Iconic Eats have been determined by a panel of judges who, this year, sifted through 2400 public nominations. Sample winners: \u201c16 Tun\u2019s buffalo chicken wings are made for sharing. Sticky fingers, big laughs, and \u2018just one more\u2019 energy. Bold flavour, great heat, and even better with an ice-cold beer as the chat rolls on.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the Wynyard Quarter freehouse brewpub, the owner pours a lager and its amber glow reflects off the copper wall where Martens has set up a plate of glossy, rosemary-flecked chicken. She\u2019s working fast. As the chicken cools, its sheen will lessen. Brown food is almost as challenging as cheese.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou get a steak or a beef cheek, and that\u2019s when I get the comment \u2013 can you throw a bit more light in there? And yeah, I can, but it\u2019s brown. There\u2019s not that much more I can do. I try and play a bit with reflections and highlights to create depth.\u201d<\/p>\n
Buffalo chicken wings from 16 Tun – one of the dishes that made the 2026 Iconic Auckland Eats Top 100. Photo \/ Babiche Martens<\/p>\n
Advice for the average punter trying to phone snap a ribeye?<\/p>\n
\u201cA mirror from your handbag?\u201d<\/p>\n
I write this down and Martens is aghast. \u201cYou know I\u2019m joking, right?\u201d I\u2019d reply, but my mouth is unprofessionally full of buffalo chicken wings.<\/p>\n
At 2.45pm we hit Milenta. Viva reviewer Jesse Mulligan once called this Victoria Park restaurant \u201cmy number one place to spend a balmy Auckland evening\u201d. They grill on open flames and when the roof is back, the decor is pohutukawa tree au naturel.<\/p>\n
Right now, it\u2019s closed for a private function. Martens is working outside on an uneven courtyard. A glass of beer slides towards disaster and restaurant staff tear up cardboard to wedge under the table legs \u2013 they\u2019re about to deliver an entire kilogram of bone-in ribeye with smoked bone marrow and fresh chimichurri.<\/p>\n
Milenta’s one kilogram platter of bone-in ribeye with smoked bone marrow and fresh chimichurri has made the 2026 Iconic Auckland Eats Top 100 list. Photo \/ Babiche Martens<\/p>\n
Martens forages for greenery, holding it slightly in front of her camera with one hand, firing off shots with the remote control she holds in the other. The beer is going flat. She plunges a knife into the glass and whirls up a tornado of bubbles and foam. Done!<\/p>\n
Is she getting tired? At Gemmayze Street a fire alarm in St Kevin\u2019s Arcade threatens to derail her tight schedule. \u201cI\u2019ll lock up and you can leave your gear here,\u201d says chef and owner Samir Allen. She leaves her tripod but grabs her camera. Just in case.<\/p>\n
Would anyone notice if the restaurant window was not polished to within an inch of its life? If someone missed a spot as they swept the floor? It\u2019s a treat witnessing a restaurant gear up for service. There\u2019s music in the kitchen and pide on the counter and golden hour light on the officially iconic fetteh with a fried eggplant twist but Martens has one more stop before she can get home to her children.<\/p>\n
\u201cBlack chopsticks or white chopsticks?\u201d She likes the colour of the wall and the architectural sweep of the back of a chair. <\/p>\n
Her eighth shoot of the day and Uncle Man\u2019s nasi goreng is getting just as much respect as a $144 prime rib.<\/p>\n
Five tips for better food photography \u2013 Babiche Martens<\/p>\n
1. Avoid artificial lighting. Use natural light wherever possible.<\/p>\n
2. High food usually looks best towards the back of the shot.<\/p>\n
3. Add condiments, drinks and tableware to tell a story that makes sense.<\/p>\n
4. Bird\u2019s eye views tend to be the Instagrammer\u2019s default but three-quarter or close-in shots often look more appetising.<\/p>\n
5. Hot food left to go cold can lose its gloss, shine and flavour. Don\u2019t focus so much on the photograph that you forget to respect your dinner.<\/p>\n
More food and drink<\/p>\n
Eating in a city of food icons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last month, Babiche Martens photographed every dish on the Iconic Auckland Eats Top 100 list. Kim Knight tagged…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":414297,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[33846,51,213009,30084,9442,33055,48220,7490,156,14768,564,1874,213011,16773,221,16569,809,13635,685,10005,213010,4486,111,139,69,193,12663,61122,5920,51041,13843,39657,151119,199,4758,3765,61],"class_list":["post-414296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-along","tag-auckland","tag-babiche","tag-beer","tag-better","tag-cheese","tag-dish","tag-eats","tag-entertainment","tag-every","tag-food","tag-found","tag-frothy","tag-great","tag-how","tag-iconic","tag-keep","tag-knight","tag-last","tag-list","tag-martens","tag-month","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-other","tag-photo","tag-photographed","tag-photographs","tag-pro","tag-secrets","tag-shiny","tag-tagged","tag-take","tag-taking","tag-tips","tag-to"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=414296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414296\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}