Thursday, June 6, 2013

Food And Photography

I hope you have been enjoying these guest posts as much as I have.  My last guest poster is someone I found because she was already following my good friend CA Girl.  I think I clicked a comment she left on Lourie's blog and have been going to her blog ever since.

Introducing Nicole of Life's a Beach

 
Nicole is a food loving, picture taking country girl.  I love reading her posts about growing up and living in the country as it is so different from my life.  She has a big extended family and friends and they always have the best get together with food and food pictures that will make you hungry every time.  She is someone I know I can count on to always come through and to be true to her word.  

Enjoy her post. 


shared on instagram that night (Boomerbear)

Wow, this hit a spot with me.  Now... I am absolutely no pro (although I'd love to be) but one of my favorite things to do is to photograph my food at restaurants number 1 and secondly a lot of times I will write a review on my thoughts about that particular restaurant if I haven't written one previously. Honestly, that's great publicity for your restaurant in my opinion.  Free advertising, because you're not paying me anything (yet, call me... lol).  The first review I wrote was last June for a Cajun style restaurant in my area.  I wrote the review, posted it on their facebook site and they loved it.  In fact, the next time I went in and from there on out the owner has remembered me.
So, I pondered what I read in the magazine for a while and then kind of let it be.  Since then, I've still photographed my food, still written my reviews, but been a little leery at the same time.  Now I live in, as I always joke, podunk Missouri, so obviously not NYC or LA, but I still wonder if at some point someone is going to get on to me.  I absolutely hate getting in trouble. So jump forward a few weeks and I caught an edition of The Chew one day and they were talking about food bloggers and blogging in general.  At the top of the hour they always address current topics and they just so hit on this very topic.  I've included the video.
 I absolutely LOVE what Mario Batali says!!  I can tell you when I take my photos, that I don't use my flash.  Flash generally tends to make your food not look that appealing...  This isn't the best example, but you will notice that the flash is on because I forgot the camera I was using automatically puts it on unless you turn it off (a point and shoot).  I had just received this camera for Christmas so I was learning the tips and tricks of using it.
I just makes the food look a little funny and makes some of your background lose its detail.  Like I said, this isn't a great example, however I'm at a loss to find an example because very seldom do I use the flash on my food and seldom do I use this camera for the photos either. Now one night, I really think I should have used the flash, over the restaurant lighting because my photos turned out funny looking in my opinion, but at the same time, I try to be courteous to other patrons and not set my flash off.
But, with restaurant lighting, sometimes you have to take what you can get.  Sometimes it's a win situation and sometimes it's a lose situation. So with all of this, I've decided to go ahead and keep on posting my restaurant reviews.  I guess if a restaurant tells me that I need to delete those photos, that's when I will be respectful of their wishes and delete the photos, but until that time happens, I'm ready to keep on snapping away.

 What are your thoughts on all of this?
 

Thank you again Nicole!  I know I rarely get good food pictures as I just want to eat it! 
You can find Nicole at the following

9 comments:

  1. This is something I've never actually thought about before because I've never been inclined to photograph my food, but that's probably about to change now that we've moved to London.

    I think these chefs that are worried about amateur photophagers taking bad photos of their food need to keep in mind that 95% of the population who see that bad photo aren't going to boycott the restaurant because of a bad picture. Most of us are more intelligent than that. :o)

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    1. Yup, I wouldn't boycott a restaurant like that. I'd try to take better photos :)

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  2. Hello, My name is Connie and I'm addicted to taking pictures of my food! I'm also a food blogger (The Rookie Foodie) and I review restaurants. I have been known to ask to be re-seated at a restaurant to be near the window for better pictures and I've been known to schedule date nights with my husband before sundown so that my shots turn out better.

    Have you heard of the app Forkly? You can upload your food pictures and see others pics! It's awesome!

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    1. I definitely need to check that app out! Thanks!!

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  3. I am one that loves to take a picture of my food.

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  4. Alright Nicole :) REally you do the BEST food reviews!

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  5. Thank you Nicole for guest posting for me!

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