Orange County’s Plate to Pixel Celebrates 20 Years of Food Photography, Restaurant Videos, and Visual Storytelling in Southern California
Plate to Pixel celebrates 20 years of food photography, restaurant videos, food styling, social media reels, and restaurant marketing for clients in Orange County, Los Angeles, San Diego, Riverside, Corona, San Bernardino, Palm Springs, and beyond.
In 2006, Plate to Pixel began with a camera, a deep love for food, and a simple idea: help restaurants and culinary brands tell their story through powerful visuals. What started as a food photography business has grown into a full creative studio specializing in food photography, restaurant video production, food styling collaboration, social media reels, and visual marketing for restaurants throughout Orange County and Southern California.
Now, 20 years later, we’re proud to celebrate an incredible journey working with restaurants, chefs, hospitality groups, cookbook publishers, and food brands of every size. From independent cafes and family-owned restaurants to major commercial clients like Chipotle, Subway, Tyson Foods, Guy Fieri, and Coca-Cola, Plate to Pixel has always believed that great food deserves great storytelling.
Founded by food photographer and filmmaker Alan de Herrera, Plate to Pixel was built on the idea that food is never just food. A dish carries the personality of a chef, the energy of a kitchen, and the identity of a restaurant. That belief has guided every shoot we’ve taken on, whether we were photographing handcrafted sushi in Orange County, filming restaurant reels in Los Angeles, capturing cocktails in Palm Springs, or creating food marketing content for brands across San Diego, Riverside, Corona, and San Bernardino.
Over the years, we’ve had the opportunity to work with hundreds of restaurants across Southern California. We’ve collaborated with passionate chefs, restaurant owners, managers, and hospitality teams to create restaurant photography and restaurant videos that highlight menu items, interiors, atmosphere, staff, and brand personality. Every restaurant has its own rhythm, and one of the most rewarding parts of our work is finding the visual language that fits each one.
Some shoots are clean and polished. Others are fast, loud, and full of heat, motion, and last-second improvisation. One day it’s pizza fresh from the oven. The next day it’s sushi, tacos, burgers, craft cocktails, or a chef-driven tasting menu. That variety is part of what makes food photography and restaurant video production so exciting. There is always a new challenge, a new texture, a new color palette, and a new way to tell the story.
Food photography is a specialized craft, and after two decades in the industry, we still love the challenge of it. Lighting food well takes patience, technical skill, and instinct. Timing matters. Texture matters. Styling matters. The way steam rises from a plate, the way sauce catches the light, the way a cocktail glass sweats on set — these details are what bring food images to life. That’s why we’ve always valued strong collaboration with talented food stylists, chefs, prop stylists, directors, and production crews who help every image and every video feel elevated and authentic.
As the industry changed, so did we. In 2015, Plate to Pixel expanded deeper into restaurant video production and social media content creation. Today, video is a major part of how restaurants connect with customers. Short-form content, vertical video, Instagram reels, TikTok-style clips, chef features, kitchen action shots, and cinematic brand films all play a role in modern restaurant marketing and restaurant promotion. We embraced that shift early, helping restaurants create social media reels and branded video content that feels polished, energetic, and built for the way people discover food today.
That evolution has allowed us to offer more than still photography. We now help clients create full visual campaigns that support restaurant marketing across websites, menus, digital ads, PR, delivery apps, social media, and promotional launches. Whether the goal is to build a stronger restaurant brand, launch a new menu, promote seasonal items, or increase visibility online, strong photography and video content remain at the center of modern food marketing.
Another part of our journey that has meant a lot to us is cookbook photography. Over the years, Plate to Pixel has worked on 18 cookbook projects, collaborating with both independent cookbook publishers and larger commercial publishers. Those projects have taken us across the United States and around the world, including Italy and Ecuador. Cookbook work is different from restaurant marketing work. It is slower, more detailed, and deeply story-driven. It asks you to build an entire world around recipes, ingredients, traditions, and personal narratives. It has been one of the most creatively fulfilling parts of our business.
Our work has also taken us far beyond Southern California. Through food, coffee, wine, and hospitality projects, Plate to Pixel has traveled to Italy, Japan, Ecuador, Bolivia, Mexico, and Norway. Every place brings a new perspective, and every project adds to the experience we bring back to our clients in Orange County, Los Angeles, San Diego, Riverside, Corona, San Bernardino, Palm Springs, and throughout the region.
Even with that international experience, we’ve always stayed committed to serving local restaurants and small businesses. In fact, that has been one of our biggest points of pride for the last 20 years. We love working with established brands, but we are equally passionate about supporting independent restaurants, neighborhood concepts, startups, bakeries, coffee brands, dessert companies, and culinary entrepreneurs. We know that small businesses need high-quality visuals too, especially in a crowded online world where photography, videos, and social media marketing can make the difference between getting noticed and getting overlooked.
That’s why we’ve worked hard to offer creative solutions for both large-scale campaigns and smaller restaurant promotion projects. A startup cookie company, a local macaron brand, a family-owned taco shop, or a boutique restaurant opening in Orange County all deserve visual content that feels professional, memorable, and true to their brand.
Beyond the plated food, we’ve also loved capturing the people behind it. Some of our favorite work over the years has been culinary portraits of chefs, owners, bartenders, managers, and kitchen teams. There’s something powerful about photographing and filming the energy behind the scenes — the flames on the line, the movement in the kitchen, the precision of the prep, the hands that bring each plate together. Great restaurant photography is not just about the final dish. It is about the people, the process, and the passion behind it.
After 20 years, we’re still inspired by the creative chaos of this work. We still love the challenge of building the perfect shot, creating standout restaurant reels, and helping food brands and restaurants connect with people through strong visual storytelling. From food photography and food styling to restaurant videos, social media content, and restaurant marketing, Plate to Pixel continues to do what we’ve always done: create images and films that make people feel hungry, curious, and ready to walk through the door.
To every restaurant, chef, creative partner, food stylist, brand team, and client who has trusted us over the years, thank you. Your trust has shaped our story.
And to the restaurants and culinary brands we haven’t worked with yet — in Orange County, Los Angeles, San Diego, Riverside, Corona, San Bernardino, Palm Springs, and beyond — we’re excited for what’s next.
Here’s to 20 years of food photography, restaurant video production, social media reels, restaurant marketing, and telling the stories behind the plate.