When the weather is not being nice or the wind is being just a little too boisterous, I turn to food photography to cheer the day.  I am new to this genre and finding my feet.  Food photography is not easy.  There are choices to be made – dark and moody, clinical white with clean smoothness and white light box, dusky grey traditional with grandmothers heirlooms, or my own style.  I am not sure I have found my style yet, but it seems to be strong colour and close up.

These shots are for my other blog www.ionsyrupblog.com show casing recipes to show how this sweet, tangy syrup works. I have a Cannon Mark III, a new beast of which I have unluckily lost the manual, but I am in Manual Mode to make sure I learn.  I am working off a laptop at the moment with a very basic photo programme that I can tweak the new born shots into something more mature.  Filters are a good start, then adjust light, vignette [edges of the photo to add a little light or dark], clarity and sharpness and then maybe a very light tilt or crop to re-align the angle of the food.

There are many great photo sites and one I especially love is Two Loves Studio. Rachel has been very helpful, her critique and her generous advice.  Christina Greve is master of lifestyle photography and from her home, provides advice on pulling together simple home props into stunning imagery.  Both are self taught women and driven by doing what they love.

For me the last two years have been a quest for the same, blocked often by others demands, but finally as 2016 completes, I am well on my way to finally doing what I love.  My blog is for me very erratic and not yet focused, but I am trying.  I haven’t done all the optimisation stuff, not sure I really even know what to do there, but that’s for next year.  For now its been good to use these dull December days to grapple with the Mark III and seek out that manual.