FoodFash

Adventure Begins in the Kitchen

Adding To The Lens Collection

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About once a year, perhaps once I’ve mastered it, I treat myself to a new photography toy.  This time, I set my Canon wish list aside and ordered the iPhone lens dial.

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The dial transforms your phone into 4 different lenses: fish eye, wide angle, telephoto, and macro.  I still have work to do with focusing each lens, but so far… I’m obsessed.

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Going on an adventure with a bulky camera bag and having to switch out lenses is not something I ever do.  Rotating between mini lenses on my phone in the midst of adventure – now that’s more my style.

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My Craftiest Craft

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Clothespin Instagram Art

My craftiest craft has been sort-of-in-the-works since ordering a boat load of my Instagram photos from Printstagram.  Within a week, I had 48 vibrant, square memories ready for something.  And other than hanging from a “wire”, I hadn’t a clue of what that crafty something would be.

Vintage Window Picture Frame

Months of staring at a stack of photos later… I decided to Google through my thoughts and hope to find exactly what I wanted.  I landed on this photo and was almost equally as stuck.  It’s pretty darn frustrating to know what you want, but not know how or where to find the pieces to get there!

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Where would one find an oversized vintage frame for under 400 bucks?  Clothespins?  Better yet, weathered clothespins?!  Oh and this weekend.  I was determined to finish this project before the weekend was up, so Etsy and Amazon weren’t even options for this girl on a mission.

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I ended up finding a huge stock of vintage windows (original glazing!) on Craigslist, conveniently, within a few blocks of my house.  Twine and picture hanging hardware were acquired from Michael’s.  Clothespins and spray paint from Zinger, a local gem.  And then I hammered and nailed and hung my way to the most special thing I’ve ever made in all of my existence!

FoodGawker

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As soon as I bought my first fancy lens, I thought for sure I was ready for FoodGawker.  I hand selected, what I thought, were my finest photos and clicked submit.  Seven rejections later, I gave up.

Fast forward to today, a year later, I randomly decided to face more rejection give it another shot.  I submitted a Wild Harvest quiche photo on Sunday morning and didn’t give it a second thought.  When I woke up on Monday morning, groggy from a full baking weekend, I checked my phone and sorted through emails.  The usual.  Spam, spam, boss, spam, FoodGawker?!  Wait, what?

Upon reading accepted and clicking over to my FoodGawker profile, I felt accomplished.  Perhaps more accomplished than my blogging self has ever felt.  I looked through my old rejections, nodding in agreement with their feedback.  Lighting issues were a biggie – I know how to combat that now.

I submitted six more photos, three of which were approved.  This is an approval percentage that I can live with, an approval percentage that keeps my ego in check.  I have a lot of learning, practice, patience, etc. etc., ahead of me before I feel comfortable writing a How to Get FoodGawker to Approve Every Photo post, but in the meantime…  Here’s what I’ve learned:

1.  Lighting.  Natural light is key.  Unless your kitchen has a gyrnom window, avoid taking pictures where you’re cooking.  Find a window in your home that lets in a good amount of soft light.  Avoid windows that let in too much light or you’ll find yourself with a ton of harsh shadows.

2.  Composition.  FoodGawker is not a fan of a tight photo.  Judging from the photos above, I’d say that the area of interest is about 50-75% of the frame.  The remaining 25-ish% is clean and doesn’t distract the viewer.  Also, cropping the photo before submitting will allow you to  have more control.

3.  Sharpness.  Other than the blurry lemon in the salmon cake photo, I haven’t had much luck with photos that have blurry backgrounds.  If you’re like me and you’re into the low aperture look, try snapping shots with a high aperture that you plan on using solely for FoodGawker.

I hope, hope, hope that in another year I can write that How To that a sarcastically mentioned above, but until then, I hope these mini pointers help!

The Park And The Pie

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I can tell you with complete certainty that going to the park with my family and taking pictures of this little munchkin has quickly become the most ideal way to spend a Saturday.

The Pie ended up eating the stale crackers intended for luring squirrels, but it made for a good laugh and an even sweeter picture.

And even though there weren’t nearly as many squirrels as last time, there were still plenty of swings to be swung and ladders to be climbed.

Seriously, no fear.

My uncle teased me about taking so many pictures (I ended up with 160-ish), but after weeks and weeks of photographing food, having the sweetest little girl on the planet as my subject was a welcomed change!