food styling & photography

I received my very first camera in my early teens.  It was a gift from my late grandfather and one that brought me much excitement at being able to keep a picture record of life as I knew it.  My expectations of taking these amazing photos were a little unrealistic though and what resulted was a rather large and somewhat disappointing collection of blurred shots, shut-eyed portraits, flash flare or too dark pics and accidental back of the head and foot shots.  So bad was my photo taking back then, that I still have twenty odd films sitting in our fridge yet to be developed.

I was happy as Larry when I finally got my hands on a digital camera.  No longer was I going to be out of pocket for a film of dodgy photos that looked like they’d been shot by a two year old.  Nope, my little point and shoot gave me the ability to hit delete on any photo I was less than thrilled with, so trigger happy me began clicking away on auto mode like there was no tomorrow. 

While my skills as a novice photo-taker have vastly improved from those earlier days, I've been getting rather frustrated lately with not being able to achieve the results I want or with the lack of control I have over my camera and let’s face it, food bloggers win big brownie points with pin worthy images and I figure if I am to hold my own against the big boys, I need to play like the big boys.

So this weekend I pulled up my big girl britches and attended a Food Styling and Photography workshop at the uber hip The Mantle in Freo.  It was an opportunity for me to not only learn once and for all how to take my photography up a notch but to connect with likeminded individuals.  To say that I have come away inspired is an understatement!!  Peggy, an insanely talented self-taught photographer, had such an easy way of explaining the basics of shooting on manual that it actually clicked and I have had my camera attached to me like a fifth limb, shooting at every opportunity while stylist extraordinaire Bec has me itching to not only add to my prop collection but to cook and style just for the sake of taking photos.  My thighs and hips are going to hate me!  Ha! But at least I've taken the training wheels off.