With her previous experience and a renewed dedication for food photography, her photos gradually began to improve. She did the best she could (she was always her harshest critic) with what she had and produced some nice photos along the way.Īfter moving to a larger house in December 2011, she began using her new wooden IKEA table and beige wall for a backdrop. But she lacked the funds to buy backgrounds or food props. She saw other photos from her favorite foodbloggers, where the photos seemed to tell a story with beautiful vintage props and gorgeous food styled just perfectly, and she thought they looked great. While there is nothing wrong with a plain white background, as it can be quite striking and make a lovely minimalist photo, she began longing for a bit more. But still those white backdrops and head-on shots continued. It started with adding a plate, or a tea towel, for example. It wasn't until 2010, after a move to the other side of the world in Australia, that she became inspired (due to browsing other foodbloggers' photos) to add a few props to her food photos. She would carefully bake everything and always choose the best-looking cupcake or cookie to photograph on her plain white background, which was simply a posterboard propped against the wall.īy the end of 2008, she was experimenting with color backgrounds, but still preferred the plain white posterboard backdrop and head-on shot.
Searching google for baking recipes soon became one of this mother's favorite things to do and she began baking more cupcakes, more cookies and more cakes. In February 2009, as an early birthday present to herself, she moved her blog to its own domain,, which, as you can see, is still going strong to this day. Sometimes her cupcake photos would make it onto her then-favorite blog, Cupcakes Take the Cake, and she even won a couple of online cupcake competitions. She started a Blogspot blog in May of that year called The Cupcake Review it started out as cupcakes only, but eventually she posted cookies, cakes, and some dinner recipes. Little did she know, that by baking those cupcakes and taking a styled photo of them (however poor quality that photo and styling was!), that she had began a love of baking and food photography that would last for years into the future.
So she sat the cupcake in the middle of her speckled white table and snap! ! Photo taken (see above!). She thought she wanted the focus to be on the cupcake with nothing else in the photo to distract the viewer's attention from the cupcake. She knew nothing about food styling (although she did have a good, sound knowledge of photography in general), but she had an idea that she'd like a plain white background nothing fancy. Her daughter helped and they had a great time, and bonus - the cupcakes were delicious.īecause she was so proud of her cupcakes, she decided to take a photo. She hadn't baked in a while, but she summoned up all her baking knowledge from previous years and whipped up that batch of cupcakes. It'd be perfect because then she wouldn't worry about her daughter licking the bowl and eating raw eggs (although, note, she now encourages her daughter to eat raw egg-laced cake batter!). It was an egg-free, dairy-free chocolate cupcake recipe with vanilla frosting. She decided to make a cupcake recipe she had seen on The Martha Stewart Show. She thought she may try to celebrate this day in some way, if just only to brighten up her daily routine. In a small town in Indiana, in February 2008, a mother was pottering about the house doing boring mother chores. Her story isn't the greatest story on Earth, let alone the greatest story in the history of foodbloggers, but this is about her journey through the world of food photography and she'd really like to share it with you. A story about someone who has a passion for food, food styling and food photography.