FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY is always evolving – just look at photos of food from the 70s compared to today. (In fact, you can check out 70s Dinner Party on Twitter for lots of gloriously awful photos of 70s food.)
Today, thanks to smartphones, blogs and social media platforms, everyone is a food critic and a food photographer. Not always a good one, but that’s part of the fun.
Making your mark in this industry is hard – but those who do it, do so by putting their own unique stamp on it. Photographer Colin Judge is one such person. Relatively new to the scene, he has already shown that his own perspective on showcasing food while having a little fun with it – or in his words, “playing with food”.
“I came to this line of work quite late, after faffing about doing a marketing degree, then living abroad teaching English, and finally failing to launch an online business,” explained Colin. “When I picked up a camera and started photographing food, I felt like I’d wasted a lot of time and would have to work hard to catch up with my contemporaries.”
“I’m not the only person who’s made a career change though and I think it’s becoming increasingly common. With that in mind, I’d like to focus on the things I’ve learned, which helped me learn. Meta, right?”
We asked Colin for five of the things he’s learned along the way.
1. Experiment: “The fastest way to grow is to try new things. Whether it is taking a crack at new cuisines or using unfamiliar ingredients, attempting new lighting techniques or having fun emulating another photographer’s style… Whatever your field is, constantly putting yourself outside of your comfort zone will help you to avoid getting stuck in a rut.
2. Set yourself challenges: “If you force yourself into a corner, however, it’s amazing what you will come up with to survive! It can even be something as simple as – ‘create a recipe from what’s in the fridge’.
“A favourite of mine is something along the lines of ‘photograph tomatoes ten different ways’. The first three photos will be easy, but after that, you’ll have to start getting more and more creative.”
3. Hold yourself accountable: “Last year, I announced that I would be posting one styled food photograph to Instagram every single day, for 365 days. Knowing that people would call me out if I missed a day put the pressure on me that I needed to stay motivated.
“But it doesn’t need to be a big, year-long project. It can be as simple as having a friend that you cook with once a week, where you take turns taste-testing a new recipe one of you has invented. You won’t want to let your friend starve, so you’ll magically find time to work on that recipe, even if it’s at the eleventh hour.”
4. Look at your work: “Critiquing your own work is maybe the most efficient way to improve. Give yourself the time, and look at what you’ve made. If you had to do it over again, what would you do differently?
“Photography practically has this process built in. As you sit there struggling to edit your photo that you missed focus on, or that’s blurry because you got the shutter speed wrong… that’s a golden opportunity to teach yourself what you need to do to never make that mistake again!
“The purpose isn’t to make yourself feel bad, it’s to help you to do even better the next time.”
5. Done is better than perfect: “An oldie but a goodie. Finish your projects. Don’t sit on them until they’re ‘good enough’. Here’s a tip: It’ll never be good enough! But if you finish it and put it out there, and then do the same for another project, and then another, maybe the one after that will be.
“Aside from the immense benefits gained from repetition and experience, there’s also the beautiful feeling of accomplishment. Unfinished projects eat at your soul. But finished, published projects very quickly become a body of work. And if you’ve ever sat around wondering how to build a portfolio… well, the answer is one finished project at a time.”
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say