My Food Lens

Love the episode? Send me a text & tell me. I don’t know which camera to buy. Is this lens worth the cost? Should I go for flash or continuous lights? Deciding on which camera equipment to buy is never easy. It almost always comes down to our budget and whether it’s worth the investment.  Have you ever bought a piece of gear and found that it wasn’t really worth buying, didn't improve you...

Love the episode? Send me a text & tell me. A few weeks ago someone on social media commented on one of my posts saying that in their opinion they didn’t believe that food photography could ever be a full-time career, that it could be profitable or be taken up professionally. I didn’t say much to this because we are all welcome to have our opinions and unfortunately, this is a common opinion a...

Love the episode? Send me a text & tell me. Would you like more followers on social media? More likes? More engagement? YES? Almost everyone wishes they had a larger following on social media.  Infact, there are courses in the market on “How to get 300k followers in 30 days.” Sounds tempting, right? Who wouldn't want a larger community? Why not? But the question we really need to ask is,...

Love the episode? Send me a text & tell me. Let’s say you have a friend who loves your photography.. ..but they don’t really understand the technicalities. One day you post a moody photo And they absolutely love it. So they ask, “how did you create it?” And you get excited and start telling them all about light and how light creates mood. But how confident are you about your understanding of l...

Love the episode? Send me a text & tell me. Have you ever bought a course, and then left it for some or the other reason without completing it?  Have you ever bought a course, completed it but it never really gave you results. Didn’t help much. Most of us have invested in courses in our creative lives and gone through the pain of certain courses not working out for us. We buy courses but don&a...

Love the episode? Send me a text & tell me. Instagram has gone through such massive changes in the last year that we food photographers & bloggers are finding it difficult to love it like before. Some creators are thriving. Some have left the platform. Some have distanced themselves. Some return only for the community and conversations.  It has impacted almost all of us esp. those who depe...

Love the episode? Send me a text & tell me. Do your photos spark an action? Do your photos leave an impact? Does your photography solve a problem? And how can photos spark an action in the first place? Is it even possible? How can you tell if they do? I can almost hear you saying, "Isn't food photography all about making mouths water?"  Truth is, creating delicious photos &...

Love the episode? Send me a text & tell me. Which photography subject is just as interesting and powerful as food?  What is that one additional service we can add to our food photography business that can bring more income?  What would be one easy way to scale our business without any additional gear or investment?  Ok here’s a hint  - Beverage Photography! It is just as interesting as food an...

Love the episode? Send me a text & tell me. “There are months when I’ve so much work and then there are months with absolutely no projects.” “The income is so inconsistent, it’s hard to predict how much money I’ll make in the next 3 months.”  “Some months it rains dollars, other months are drought.” " I don’t know if I can really turn to full-time photography, it’s so unpredictable."...

Love the episode? Send me a text & tell me. Do you want to try a new style of photography & videography to keep the romance alive in your craft? Or maybe you want to start offering more services to your clients so you can make more money in your business? But also, you don’t have hours to learn a completely new skill or sit through a dozen videos.  What if there was a style of photography...

Love the episode? Send me a text & tell me. When we are exploring food photography as a hobby, pursuing it only for the joy of it, we create photos that speak to us, that portray our interpretation of the art. And in that process of exploring, somewhere along the way we start creating a specific style of photos. For some, it is minimalistic photography.  For some, they’re large compositions. F...

Love the episode? Send me a text & tell me. Do you have a full-time job and wonder what it’ll take to switch to food photography?  Do you have a new photography business & wonder what would be the next best steps to propel your business forward? Or perhaps You're already in the field but struggling to attract more clients and projects? Stepping into commercial food photography can be...

Love the episode? Send me a text & tell me. Don’t you love it when someone says,  “This photo reminds me of how my mom cooked.”  “Your photo made me go and bake a chocolate cake.” “I can literally taste it just by looking at the photo.” These words are the result of the emotion your photo evokes in a viewer.  As food photographers, we want to create photos that not only look beautiful but conn...

Love the episode? Send me a text & tell me. Few months ago, a food photographer reached out to me.  She is a full-time architect and a passionate food photographer and blogger. She sent me a voice message with a question.  When I heard  that question I could not believe it.  She was saying something I never had the courage to say out loud.  You see, we all have thoughts. Some that we share and...

Love the episode? Send me a text & tell me. There’s a food brand or a restaurant you absolutely love.  You dream of photographing for them, to work with their products and earn some moolah too.  But you think about it and say, “Nah! Why would they work with me?” And there.. your dreams never take shape.  How often do we stop ourselves from sending out a pitch or reaching out to a client thinki...

Love the episode? Send me a text & tell me. You wake up tired. Even the smallest task feels burdensome. You don’t want to pick your camera.  The thought of photography doesn’t feel exciting.  You doubt yourself looking at others moving forward in their creative journeys. You’re snapping and angry at everyone at home. You feel tired, frustrated and unmotivated. If this sounds like you, you migh...

Love the episode? Send me a text & tell me. The aroma of freshly baked bread The taste of that mango pickle The smell of coffee The sizzle of that barbeque Food either makes us happy, makes us hungry, takes us back to our grandma’s kitchen, has a cultural meaning or instills some or the other feelings in us. Food evokes emotions in us.  And as photographers, food is our subject. So, imagine ho...

Love the episode? Send me a text & tell me. Tell me that you’ve never tried to find market rates for photography services. That you’ve never tried to google, “rates for food photography services.” That you’ve never been totally confused about the fee structure for photography. You have. Haven’t you?  Because that's what happens with all of us.  When we are starting out there is a huge que...

Love the episode? Send me a text & tell me. What was the first question you had when you decided to start working with clients? “How much should I charge?” “How do I know what to charge?”  “What should be the fee?” Something to this effect,  would you agree?  Aren’t pricing and rates one of the toughest aspects of setting up a food blogging or photography business?  Fee is the number#1 reason...

Love the episode? Send me a text & tell me. Do you get nervous if you’ve to shoot with a new light or new space? What if you need to work with a food you’ve not handled before? Does any of that make you nervous?  What happens is that, when we begin with food photography, we want to jump into all different photography techniques, big compositions, think about props, spend money on backdrops &am...

Love the episode? Send me a text & tell me. A brand is interested to work with you. They reach out to you asking for your fee or rate card. Tell me what would you do -  You don’t have a rate card but send your portfolio instead.  You have a rate card but don’t feel confident sending it. What if it is too high or too low. The brand is so awesome that you offer to work for free. You just need th...

Love the episode? Send me a text & tell me. What would happen if instagram closed down tomorrow? And facebook too? How would you share your work? Where would potential clients find you?  Would you still be able to connect with a community of like-minded creators? And let’s say instagram didn’t close down, even then, what if you owned a platform that was stable and not affected by algorithm cha...

Love the episode? Send me a text & tell me. Do you have a full-time job, but want to turn food photography into a full-time business?  Are you a hobbyist who loves food photography and wonders what it would be like to take it up professionally? Are you a professional food photographer wondering how to book more clients and stand out from your competition? Last year, I was invited on the Eat Ca...

Love the episode? Send me a text & tell me. Ever been stuck during a photoshoot? You know something is not working, but can’t put your finger on it.  Well, more than 90% of the time, it is the same darn reason that gets us stuck. It is the troublemaker but also the knight in shining armor. Which means, it is the devil but can be the hero - depending on how we deal with it. You know what I&apos...

Love the episode? Send me a text & tell me. What to post on my feed today? Omg! I have no new photos to post this week? I wish I could post more often. I wonder how other content creators post so frequently.  Should creating content be this difficult? I feel so tired of keeping up with posting on instagram. Do these thoughts about posting on social media ever cross your mind?  wha..Much too fr...