© Tammy Weaver
You can spend any amount of time on this blog and see that I love food, recipes, and food photography. Also, as someone that gets my readers enticed by photos of food I know the importance of getting a perfect pic of food. I don’t Instagram. It was never something I was interested in and quite frankly I really don’t need another place to have to remember to load my pics. I am a Pinterest girl, I love Pinterest. Your senses are always seduced by visual before you even smell or taste. When I am looking for a recipe I always go with the one that has the best picture. The other recipe may be awesome but my visual sense always outweighs the decision. I think that is one of the reasons I am striving to get better with my food photography. I want to make people feel the same way I do when I see something scrumptious on Pinterest.
© Tammy Weaver
While I love looking at pics of recipes on Pinterest my all time favorite thing to do is look at pics of peoples meals. Sometimes I have been swayed to go somewhere to eat just because of a pic someone posted of their dinner. When we went to Disney World our restaurant choices were based on other peoples photos. I am sure that the other restaurants were just as good but if that plate looked good I wanted to eat there. Over the last few hours I have been reading that there are restaurants that want to stop their patrons from taking pics of their dinners. The owners say it is obtrusive to the other diners, the photographers say “I bought it I can take a picture if I want.”
© Tammy Weaver
I really do understand both sides of the fence. I wonder if in someway the whole fiasco with Chef Marc Orfaly may have brought on these changes? While it didn’t have anything to do with food pictures being taken, it did have everything to do with how social media affects restaurants. As someone who writes reviews for sponsors and then amplifies that review on social networks, a blogger part of me can’t help but wonder why they wouldn’t want the free publicity. If I have a good meal in Baltimore, decide to take a picture of it, and then amplify it to my Facebook page, that would be 13,000+ people I just told about that restaurant. Maybe they are worried you don’t like the meal and are bad mouthing them? Well, in my experience if you don’t want someone to bad mouth your cooking then don’t serve crappy food. I also see how in upscale restaurants it would be annoying to other patrons to have someone whip out a phone and take a picture while they are trying to eat. However, I find a screaming kid more annoying. Can we ban those also?
© Tammy Weaver
I learned from Matt Armendariz that is always polite and the best policy to ask before taking photos. If it is okay, do not use a flash. Come on people, this is not a night club and you really do not need to make it look like flash bombs are going off. If your iPhone is taking that crappy of a pic in a dark restaurant then either buy a different phone or find an app that allows for night photography. If the owner says No, respect that. It isn’t rocket scientist and trust me none of your 200 followers on Instagram is going to drown their sorrows in rocky road because you couldn’t get a pic of that steak. I think when it comes to food photography it is give and take. I feel if we are more respectful to other patrons ( and yes Chef’s that includes you being respectful to us also) than no one needs to fuss about taking a picture. I honestly don’t think banning people from taking pictures is the answer. As a foodie I rely on other peoples pictures to give me a feel for the restaurant and it’s dishes. Guess what? So do a lot of other people. So if you ban Sally from taking a picture then someone like me may not even know your restaurant exists or may pass it over in favor of a restaurant that I can actually see a hands on pic from someone that wasn’t paid to take it. Like the ones in this post. They are by my friend Tammy Weaver and now I really want to visit The Melting Pot!
Just my .02
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