Food Photographer in Los Angeles
Justin Mein is a Los Angeles food and beverage photographer shooting for restaurants, CPG brands, and hospitality clients: menu and dish photography on location, plus studio-lit product and beverage work built for retail, web, and social. Day rates start at $2,500, with a small portrait and product studio in-office and larger space rented when a shoot calls for it.
What I shoot
Restaurant and menu photography. Dishes, plating, bar programs, interiors, and the people running the kitchen, shot on location for web, social, and press.
Food and beverage product photography. Studio-lit bottles, cans, and packaged food for CPG brands, built for e-commerce, retail, and advertising. This overlaps with the wider product photography in Los Angeles work.
Brand and lifestyle campaigns. Food and drink shot in real settings, showing how people actually use the product instead of styling it in isolation.
Selected work
Based in Los Angeles for local restaurant and studio work, with food and beverage campaigns shot nationally.
Tribeca’s Kitchen — restaurant relaunch, New York City
Banana Pepper Sauce — food product campaign
Tyku Sake — beverage brand campaign
How it works
Every project starts with the outcome, not the shot list. What are these photos supposed to do for you? Grow online orders, support a relaunch, sell through a retail buyer, drive engagement on social? We work backward from there. The goal shapes the concept, the concept shapes the shot list, and the shot list shapes the estimate, so every frame has a job.
Then it’s production. Shoots run on location for restaurants and hospitality clients, or in the in-office product studio for CPG and beverage work, with larger space rented when the scope calls for it. You review a proof gallery, and retouched finals arrive on the timeline set in the SOW. Up against a launch? Expedited delivery is doable.
Pricing
Day rates start at $2,500 for a single photographer, covering the shoot itself. Retouching, licensing, and crew are scoped to the project, so you’ll know the full number before anything is booked. For a fuller breakdown of what goes into a quote, see product photography pricing.
FAQ
Do you shoot food photography outside Los Angeles?
Yes. Justin is based in LA, but food and beverage work has run nationally, including a restaurant relaunch in New York City and product campaigns for national CPG and beverage brands.
What’s included in a food photography day rate?
The $2,500 day rate covers the photographer for the shoot itself, the baseline cost of working together. Retouching, licensing, and crew are scoped separately based on the project.
Do you work with food stylists?
Yes. We can work with your stylist if you have one, or bring our own if styling support is needed.
How long does a food photography shoot take?
Turnaround depends on the scope of work and the final deliverables. Expedited timelines are doable if you need them.
Do you shoot restaurants, CPG products, or both?
Both: on-location restaurant and menu photography, and studio-lit photography for packaged food and beverage brands.
Have a restaurant or food brand that needs better photos? Tell me what you’re shooting and where the images need to live, and I’ll come back with a scoped quote. Book a shoot →