Phoenix Restaurant Photography for Lenny's Burger
Restaurant photography is about more than getting a great picture of the food. A strong restaurant marketing library should show customers what they can order, what the restaurant looks like, how the food is prepared and what it feels like to actually eat there.
I recently photographed and filmed Lenny’s Burger in Phoenix, Arizona for a restaurant marketing project coordinated by Pretsl. The goal was to create a broad library of photo and video assets covering the food, restaurant environment, preparation process and customer experience.
The shoot included everything from burgers and loaded fries to salads, hot dogs, restaurant signage, exterior photographs, guests dining inside and behind-the-scenes food preparation.
Photographing the Food at Lenny’s Burger
Food was naturally one of the biggest parts of the shoot.
We photographed a variety of dishes including burgers, loaded fries, hot dogs, salads and other menu items. Rather than photographing everything against a completely separate studio background, I incorporated the restaurant's existing red-and-white interior into many of the images.
This helped keep the photographs visually connected to the Lenny’s Burger brand while still making the food the focal point.
For restaurant photography, I like having a mixture of tighter individual menu photographs and wider compositions. Close-ups highlight texture, ingredients and details, while wider photographs provide restaurants with more flexible images for websites, advertisements, social media and other marketing materials.
Creating a Full Restaurant Marketing Library
Individual dishes are important, but restaurants need more than isolated menu photographs.
One of my goals on commercial restaurant shoots is to create enough variety that the client can use the photographs across multiple platforms without every image looking the same.
At Lenny’s Burger, that included photographing several dishes together to create larger menu spreads. These images work particularly well as website banners, promotional graphics, social media content and advertising assets.
The red booths, checkerboard walls, branded cups and food wrappers also gave us a strong visual identity to work with throughout the shoot.
I particularly like including overhead photographs during restaurant shoots because they provide a completely different composition from the traditional eye-level food image. They are also useful when a restaurant wants to feature several menu items together.
Behind-the-Scenes Food Preparation Photography
Another part of the project involved documenting food as it was being prepared.
These behind-the-scenes photographs add something that finished menu photography cannot. They show the process behind the food.
Photographing burgers being assembled allowed me to capture melted cheese, grilled patties, fresh toppings and other details before the finished dish reached the customer.
These types of images can be especially useful for restaurant websites and social media because they help tell the story behind the final product.
Bacon cheeseburger being prepared inside the kitchen at Lenny's Burger in PhoenixCapturing the Restaurant Experience
Restaurant marketing should also show people what it feels like to visit the location.
For this project, I photographed customers ordering, dining and interacting inside the restaurant. These lifestyle photographs help connect the food photography with the actual customer experience.
Lenny’s Burger has a distinctive retro diner look with red booths, checkerboard floors, neon signage and chrome throughout the restaurant. Wide environmental photographs were important because the location itself is part of the brand.
Restaurant Exterior and Branding Photography
I also photographed the exterior of the restaurant and its signage.
Exterior photography may seem secondary compared with food photography, but it is valuable for restaurant websites, location pages, Google Business Profiles, press releases and advertising campaigns.
Lenny’s Burger also has one of the more recognizable restaurant signs I have photographed in Phoenix, which made it an important part of the overall visual story.
Restaurant Photography and Video in Phoenix
For this project, the coverage extended beyond still photography. I also captured 4K video footage of the restaurant, food preparation, dishes and customer experience for the client's marketing team.
Providing both photography and video during the same production allows restaurants, franchises and agencies to create a much larger content library from a single shoot.
I work with restaurants, hospitality businesses, marketing agencies and brands throughout Phoenix, Scottsdale, Tempe, Mesa, Chandler, Gilbert and the surrounding Arizona market.
Restaurant photography projects can include:
Menu and food photography
Restaurant interiors and exteriors
Staff and customer lifestyle photography
Food preparation and kitchen photography
Restaurant branding photography
Social media content
Restaurant video and B-roll
Multi-location restaurant photography
Agency and franchise photography assignments
Looking for a Phoenix Restaurant Photographer?
Whether you need photography for a new restaurant opening, updated menu, website redesign, advertising campaign or a complete library of marketing content, I can build the shoot around how your restaurant actually plans to use the images.
