Food Glamour Shots as Diary

Tomato and Olympus camera. Photo: Emily Farris.

Many of you that are visiting today may have arrived from a link on Facebook.  If that is the case, then more than likely you know me in real life and are familiar with my year in photos project that I just completed this month.  For those of you from other places on the internet, let me briefly explain:
I decided last year on my 30th birthday that I was  going to challenge myself.  I had just been provided with an iPhone from my company and decided to make the most of it's camera capabilities and instant Facebook publishing and then came Photo of the Day on Facebook.  Every day for a whole year (ended up being 366 photos), I posted a picture.  Sometimes funny stuff in everyday life like personalized license plates or silly signs.  Sometimes amazing views of the area I live or travels I took over the last 12 months.  Often times one of my four cats.  And very often times food.

It was really fun and made me look at every day life just a little closer.  I took time out to think about various images that were passing by my eyes.  I also tried to keep it interesting and a bit funny at times.  The self-assigned project actually led me to purchasing a nice D-SLR camera this year for Christmas and I'm working on teaching myself how to use it.  It also gave me a bit more confidence to create this blog. 

This leads me to a great little article I found a few weeks ago at Planet Green.  The article, Take a Photo, Lose Some Weight, really hit home with me.  Not only is it about taking pictures of food, but using those photos to your advantage.  A friend of mine also just told me about a book, Everything I Ate, that does this same thing (but I'm not sure for the same point).

The article suggest using photographs as a food diary.  I already, irregularly, log my food intake so moving up to photos sounds interesting.  Additionally, I can attest that this article is correct!  Ever since I started this blog at the beginning of the year, I've been photographing most everything that I've cooked as well as other items I have eaten as I'm never sure if something will be good enough to blog about so I don't want to miss the photo.  Taking the photo, especially when you know it will be published, really makes you take time to think.  Do I want to show 3 cups of pasta with a cup of cheese on top?  Will that huge bowl of soup look appetizing to others?  Maybe I need a few extra vegetables in this shot?  It is thought provoking and amazing.  The hard part is not putting more on the plate AFTER you take the photo!