Your Kitchen Camera

It is no secret I want to be a food blogger. Also, bloggers know that if you aspire to blog about food you better have some photography chops. There is nothing more decadent than looking at an amazing photo of food, like the one pictured above. If food is styled right, lighted right, and well just looks delicious, it will appeal to all of your senses. Think about what brought you to a recipe? Was it the actual recipe or the image that accompanied it? Most likely the image drew you before you knew what the dish was. Food photography can be hard for a blogger, especially one that is not a professional photographer or the only camera they have is on a phone. We drool over sites such as Smitten Kitten and Matt Bites because the photography has the wow factor but inside we are thinking “Wow, I wish my pictures looked like that!” It is almost as if you are the nerdy girl at the dance wishing you were the popular girl that everyone wants to dance with.

A few days ago I got a comment on my post about Matt Armendariz’s book Food Photography for Bloggers. The commenter, owner of The Kitchen Prescription, stated she found me at Your Kitchen Camera. I was a little confused because I had never heard of this site, Your Kitchen Camera. So, off to Google I went, and oh my. I found the yellow brick road for food bloggers and at the end is not one wizard, but three wizards to bring you home. The site is owned by Mark Petko and has two contributors- Laura Cole and Chef Jay Swift. When you read the contributors page you can just tell these are fun people. Even though I will admit the pig was a tad disturbing but I am guessing in the end it was really tasty. According to Mark, Your Kitchen Camera’s purpose is teaching chefs, restauranteurs, food bloggers and foodies the art of food photography.

In just a few days I have learned quite a few things about food photography. Lesson #1, I suck. No seriously, I do. I have no idea what settings are on my camera and even though I have been religiously using lessons from Matt’s book, I realize I have quite a few things to learn. Secondly, I learned that, once again, lighting is everything. It is so funny, every where you go in the blog community and peeps are talking about food photography, a light box is always mentioned. The next thing you know, everyone is running to make one. I admit I did too, a really pathetic one, but I made one. The more I read about food photography the more I understand two points:

• No light box is ever mentioned
• Natural Light is everything. If you don’t have it, you make it.

Thirdly, I learned that it is all about passion. The awesome people over at Your Kitchen Camera have been working with food for years. They didn’t just jump the wagon because “it is the next big thing”, they do it because they love it and they are passionate about it. You can see it in their posts via the blog, Facebook, and Twitter. Their passion is what makes them a wonderful resource and makes you want to take better pictures. If you don’t have the passion for that recipe and you can’t get the readers just as excited to make it as you were, it is just another beautiful recipe in a sea of thousands.

If you are wanting to take better pictures of your food I would highly recommend you check out Your Kitchen Camera. Also, make sure to check out their Pinterest page for some amazing food pics. Check out the black and white ones too. They have been the inspiration for a new post I am working on. Which leads me to my closing thought. Fourth lesson, an amazing picture and an incredible recipe is the key but in the end I feel the main goal should be inspiration. When someone looks at your blog, your recipe, or your photos you want to inspire them to try something new or maybe do something they already have, only better. If you inspire just one person that makes all the hard work worth it in the end.