My Food Lens

Love the episode? Send me a text & tell me. Our portfolio is a reflection of our skill, style, and aspiration as a photographer. So, the portfolio must be built with intention and strategy. The work in our portfolio must be cherry-picked and chosen strategically.   It is the intention and strategy that brings results.  Knowing how to create photos for a portfolio efficiently and effectively is...

Love the episode? Send me a text & tell me. Now, did you know that about 20% of all small businesses fail within the first year, half of the remaining fail within the first five years, and only about one in three get to the 10-year mark? In this week’s milestone episode, as we celebrate the 100th episode,  I want to share the top 3 lessons that made this possible and kept me in business. I was...

Love the episode? Send me a text & tell me. This week on the podcast, I’m sharing 5 reasons why you shouldn’t share RAW files with a client and how to communicate it professionally.  I share 5 critical aspects of RAW file sharing that clients may not be aware of, and maybe you too. Even if you do, you may not be bringing it up with the client thinking it’s not important or they probably alread...

Love the episode? Send me a text & tell me. In this week’s podcast , we continue our conversation with Sam Adler, a food photographer, Saveur Blog Award winner, and food blogger about what it takes to become a 6-figure food photographer.  Sam already has a 6-figure food photography and blogging business. She also has 3 kids, and is aiming to make a million dollars in revenue next year.  Being...

Love the episode? Send me a text & tell me. When we see others finding a level of success that looks too far-fetched, we begin to believe that it is not possible for us.  Instead, when we take the success of others as proof that it is indeed possible & tell ourselves that if others have achieved it, then it must be doable, we begin to make way for more joy, success, and money than we imagi...

Love the episode? Send me a text & tell me. In this week’s podcast episode, we continue our conversation with Megan Porta, an OG food blogger and the founder of the Eat Blog Talk podcast. We talk about habits and thoughts essential to attract success as a Creative.  Megan helps entrepreneurs break through their limiting beliefs and achieve breakthrough results in their creative careers.  She s...

Love the episode? Send me a text & tell me. If you’ve been working hard and not finding the success you desire, you might be missing the same piece of the puzzle as I was.  We love learning about creativity and photography. We tend to invest our time and money in them thinking that getting better at those skills will pave the path for our success. And when someone tells us that we actually can...

Love the episode? Send me a text & tell me. This week on the podcast we continue our conversation with M. Aimee Tan,  a professional food and beverage photographer, food stylist, creative director, recipe developer, and content creator based in Canada, who reveals everything you need to know about creating sponsored posts for brands. Aimee works with local, and global clientele as well as PR &...

Love the episode? Send me a text & tell me. In this week’s podcast, I’m sharing 4 practical reasons why pursuing food photography as a business may not be the right career choice for you. As someone who advocates turning your passion into your profession, I had a tough time creating this episode, but it was important to share the 4 main areas you need to keep an eye on if you want to start or...

Love the episode? Send me a text & tell me. This week on the podcast, M. Aimee Tan,  a professional food and beverage photographer, food stylist, creative director, recipe developer, and content creator based in Canada, reveals everything you need to know about creating sponsored posts for brands. Aimee works with local, and global clientele as well as PR & marketing agencies. In this epis...

Love the episode? Send me a text & tell me. Most photographers start a full-time or part-time business with passion and enthusiasm. But over time, when the rubber hits the road, they begin to run out of steam because they hit a roadblock -  How to grow the business and make more $$ every month? How to scale the business, a natural progression? Where to go from here, what’s next? Staying in bus...

Love the episode? Send me a text & tell me. This week on the podcast, I’ve 5 quick tips to improve the lighting in your food photography. There is always so much to learn about light. Small, subtle changes can completely change the feel of a photo. It can take a photo from realistic to artistic, with never-ending options.  Flatlay photography, adding movement to photos , or a creative way to l...

Love the episode? Send me a text & tell me. The future is looking towards food in motion.  I mean, look at social media. We’re seeing a surge in food videos.  Look at client briefs. They want their products to be captured in action. Look at our potential of being able to convey a visual story of food way more powerfully through videos. There is no denying that photos will always hold their imp...

Love the episode? Send me a text & tell me. Have you ever looked at another photographer and wondered why they’re doing better than you?  Why is their business more successful than yours?  Why have they achieved what you’ve not?  Why is your business not growing like theirs?   Will your business ever look like theirs?  Will you ever be as successful as them?  If these questions have ever cross...

Love the episode? Send me a text & tell me. Have you noticed that a basic food photographer can have a thriving business  and  Have you also noticed that a brilliant photographer may not really be making enough in their business? This is more common than you might think.  Photography talent is very different from business acumen. They’re both completely different skill sets and just because we...

Love the episode? Send me a text & tell me. Have you ever been in a photoshoot and felt something was off, but you couldn't quite figure it out? Most of the time, it's because of one big reason – light. But instead of tackling light, our tendency is usually to start fussing with props and backdrops and composition, thinking that is the problem when actually sometimes all it needs is...

Love the episode? Send me a text & tell me. What do you think it takes to be a successful commercial food photographer? Excellent camera skills? High level of Creativity?  Crazy passion for photography? Expensive photography equipment?  What if I told you, none of the above are deal breakers to be a commercial photographer. It takes more than camera skills, creativity and passion to run a phot...

Love the episode? Send me a text & tell me. Is creating compositions a challenge for you?  I can totally see why.  First off, for the simple reason that composition is art. It is subjective and everyone’s style is different. So it really leaves a lot of grey area on whether a certain technique works or not. Secondly, because composition is an art, it is tough to learn it technically. Yes, we c...

Love the episode? Send me a text & tell me. Whether it’s the start of the year or not, we all find ourselves at different points in our journey setting new goals, striving to achieve existing ones, or perhaps even questioning the necessity of setting goals altogether. Regardless of our stand on goal setting, we all have ambitions for our creative journey.  It could be launching a new project,...

Love the episode? Send me a text & tell me. Being a full-time photographer and running a business can be very overwhelming.esp when everyone around is constantly hustling.  Someone is working with food52 Someone is shooting for Delicious magazine Someone just made $500,000 by selling their online course Someone is talking about completing 10 years in food photography We hear them, we look at t...

Love the episode? Send me a text & tell me. Have you ever taken a photo and thought - “Ughh! that looks dull” “Why does my photo look flat” “That food does not look delicious” “Why doesn’t my photo pop”  “Ok, that looks good but I wish it was better”  “Gosh! I did everything right but there’s still something missing” Truth is, 90% of the time that missing factor in our photos is the light. Mos...

Love the episode? Send me a text & tell me. If you had to uproot yourself and move to a new country,  you had to shut down your business And when you moved to the new country with the hopes of starting a new business, You found out that you had a baby on the way. How would you feel at that point in life? Would you be excited at the prospect of building a new life and having a clean slate to st...

Love the episode? Send me a text & tell me. Look at you stepping into the new year with a smile! Well, I hope you’re smiling because it's the time of the year when fresh starts and new beginnings feel a lot easier to make.  I don’t know about your goals but a big goal for me last year and the year before was to not quit food photography. Yep!  It was my goal to do what I’m doing in spite...

Love the episode? Send me a text & tell me. Few years ago I received an enquiry from a brand for a cookbook photoshoot.  They had seen my work and wanted to know more about my process and also my rates for the project.  I shrieked. I mean who doesn’t want to shoot a cookbook. Almost every photographer dreams of it. I did too. I was excited reading that email. But there was a minor problem.  I...

Love the episode? Send me a text & tell me. Ever dreamt of shooting a cookbook? How would you feel seeing your work in print? How would you feel if you opened a cookbook and found your photos on large pages staring right back at you? I don’t think I’ve ever met a photographer who didn’t want to see their work in print, who wasn’t excited by the thought of photographing a cookbook and creating...