Food Photography Takes Passion; Photographing A Layered Cake

This is my attempt at making lemonade out of lemons. I have had a styled details shoot scheduled for weeks. I have been prepping, shopping and looking forward to meeting some amazing ladies who I admire in the photography world. All of us come together through The House of Flynn with a goal of encourage the "tribe", working together, inspiring each other and learning new things. This morning brought crazy rain downpours around the area we were going to shoot at, so last-minute, the class had to be rescheduled. I am so bummed, but thankful all of the ladies have been understanding and excited to reschedule.

I made tons of layered cakes, bought a bushel of pears and some farm eggs...I am not one to waste food, so the chocolate cake still got to make its debut at my house. As I share a few reasons why I think food photography and still life photography take passion, I have dispersed cake pictures for your enjoyment!

These are some of the first pictures I have taken at our new apartment.

At the end of this post I will share 4 key tips for photographing a layered cake!

STILL THINGS DON'T TALK BACK OR SHOW APPRECIATION

So, I know this is obvious, but it is true. When you have people as your subject, they interact with you. You play off their emotion, laugh together, create a memory and capture important life moments. When you deliver images to the person, they praise you, share the shots and family goes crazy in love with them too. There is a lot more feeling reciprocated in the portrait photography world. Not just with clients, but with fellow photographers too, still images are more subjective to the viewer. Everyone will see your shot, develop their own feeling or thought about it that is subjective to their taste in photography.

As for photographers, you attend shoot-outs together, swap sessions and have interest in each other's work. The love for food and still life photography isn't vocalized as much, finding blog posts dedicated to this topic are more rare, and some people just don't "get" the purpose of still life.

What I can say, is this can also be a perk!

Food photography takes passion
Food photography takes passion

Sessions are quiet, restful and offer a lot of time for you to be creative without feeling rushed. 

IT CAN TAKE A LOT OF WORK

Recipe formulation is fun for some...to me it is a pain! I rather photograph simple food, fresh food, or food someone else has made ;) Photographing food often involves many drives to multiple stores for various ingredients, pre-planning and prep-work. Some ingredients are seasonal and some are pricey...plan ahead!

NO 2 FOODS/DISHES ARE THE SAME

Every job will be different, every dish requires different styling and techniques. Some foods calls for different dishware, and locations for shoots are always changing. Your light know-how will be tested, and you get a lot of practice finding what works and what doesn't. Every client will have different needs/specifications for their images and some foods are hard to work. ex) ice cream in the summer

The portrait photography world is widely recognized, and I hope the food photography/still life world continues to grow! I am so thankful for the community here in AZ that appreciates my work with food/product/still life photography. I am so amazed at the support and love! Be ready in September HOF ladies, I STILL CAN'T wait :)

Food photography takes passion
Food photography takes passion

If you ever want to photograph a layered cake:

-Add an extra egg to the recipe to make the layers a little more stiff and not crumbly

-Wrap in saran wrap and refrigerate your layers until you are ready to frost your cake!

-Once frosted, if you refrigerate or freeze the whole cake for another 10 minutes before slicing, it will slice easier. Use a sharp knife!

Food photography takes passion
Food photography takes passion

-Take shots at all angles, and credit the baker when you post the photo if you didn't bake/decorate it. 

Interested in lifestyled food, product and still life photography? Consider my ebook or a mentoring session! Thank you