Post photographer Stephanie Cordle’s food setup-in-the-making using Director of Photography Larry Coyne’s pickup truck.

Want a sneak peak to an upcoming food story on football tailgating? Here’s your chance as Post photographer Stephanie Cordle goes on location — to the Post-Dispatch parking lot — for a quick shoot that will grace next Wednesday’s (11/11) Let’s Eat section. I tagged along and assisted with iPhone in hand between researching another story and filing photos from a shoot yesterday.

Extra food never goes to waste on food shoots.

Proof that you don’t have to go far for good work on a small project. Often due to time constraints and budgets, the photographers find improvised props and locations to make illustrative photos come alive. We parked the truck specifically so Stephanie could use parking lot trees as an out-of-focus background. Our Director of Photography Larry Coyne offered up his truck, and we were extra careful not to back it into our publisher’s Audi parked next to it. In addition, props from the home of staffers (a Simpsons-branded Weber grill) add the perfect pop of color to blue-checkered tablecloths.

Stephanie Cordle frames her composition and fires off some frames.

Please take a look at the final image next Wednesday on November 11th in the Let’s Eat section. We hope you enjoy the amount of work we put in for projects large and small. We use creativity, improvisation, and a little bit of luck and talent to pull off interesting images for the daily paper and on STLtoday.com

A preview, if only a possible selection, on Stephanie’s Canon 1D Mark IIn.