Hey all,

I'm a student in the northern, VA and have tons of free time! First thing I need to do is build a food portfolio since I want this to be my niche in the micro stock industry (with some portraits on the side). Any advice on how to do this? Calling restaurant and offering my services for free hasn't worked to well since I have very little to show them. What would be the best way to build up a portfolio? Once I've built the portfolio how should I go about getting opportunities for photo shoot? I was thinking of just visiting restaurants and setting up a time in the near future to photograph food, as one member suggested in another post. What props should be used/buy? How should I use my lighting? I currently own two Lowel EGO light which work great for shooting isolated objects on a white background! I have a white mini background that work nice, but also own two 1000 watt contentious light systems with soft boxes. Thanks in advance I know I've asked a lot of questions!

Do you ever approach a stranger and tell them you think you could make some quality photos with them? If they agree would you ask for them to sign a release in exchange send them some of the best pictures?