Introduction to PHOT-001: Food Photography by Sony

It’s no secret that I’m a foodie, and it’s probably fairly apparent that I enjoy photography. Pairing my passion for food and my enjoyment of photography only makes sense for me. When I was given the opportunity to be part of the first ever Social Fabric University Food Photography by Sony class, I jumped at the chance. It was an opportunity to learn more about background, lighting, styling, props, and technique. During the learning process, I would be building a portfolio, but more importantly, I would be gaining skills to help me be able to better share my foodie passion with others. Yes, that definitely sounded like a perfect class for me.

Since this is an online class, I will be having homework and classwork which involves taking pictures of food using various techniques and skills. Of course, Munchkin and D are all too happy to have me taking pictures of food because it means more yumminess for their bellies. I’m sure they’ll be more than happy to share a few suggestions on what should make it into the photographs. **grin** While taking the photos will be fun, it is going to take work as everything will be graded. I’ll even be taking quizzes on the various topics covered in the course. Guess I need to brush up on my test-taking skills as it’s been some time since I’ve been in a classroom.

Because our family is gluten free, I want to be able to assemble my own gluten free cookbook which contains beautiful, full-color photos that just pop from the page. This cookbook will be Munchkin’s starting point for her gluten free cooking. Will this cookbook be shared with others? I’m not sure as of yet as there is quite a bit involved in that process. It’s definitely something that several of you have encouraged me to do, but first, I want to learn more skills to make my food photos even better. I need to learn how to take more photos of the entire process of cooking, not just the end result.

Obviously, one of the immediate results of taking this class is more and better food photographs on my blog. My blog, along with being a journal of our life, is like an online cookbook. I’m known for quickly looking up my recipes on my blog as I don’t always print them out and place them in our cooking notebook. Pictures of the food make recipes come to life. These pictures help people to decide if they want to attempt the recipe or move on to another recipe. I know that I’m always looking for pictures when I look at recipes. Most people are very visual when it comes to food. Normally, we don’t want to eat something if it doesn’t look like it will taste good. There is a reason that food stylists get paid good money to make food look good.

By the time I’ve completed this food photography class, I hope to have a better understanding of composition and lighting as well as gain some knowledge on food styling, so I can create food photographs that make people want to lick their screens and try out the recipe. I want to be able to use those skills to not only create a better online cookbook, but also a gluten free scrapbook-style recipe book for my daughter and possibly others. In addition, I would like to be able to take my new-found skills and share them with others, so they too can capture memories in the kitchen and turn them into a beautiful scrapbook-style keepsake recipe book for their families.