On Saturday, I went to a workshop in Atlanta on food photography and food styling.  The idea was to get tips on how to improve my food blog pics.  I mean, I’m not planning on making a living on that or anything (but if it happens, I wouldn’t complain!), but after getting favorable comments on my pics from an editor at CookingLight, as well as a food stylist, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to try to hone my skills.  And apparently, I was being labeled as the “up and coming food blogger” by some of the other participants (right . . .) 

So, I was in way over my head, as I got out my D40 with absolutely no extra components in tow.  Lots of the other photographers at the workshop were also shooting on D40s, only they had a bazillion lenses and diffusers and other things I’ve never even heard of.  (To give you an idea of my cluelessness, Abby had to give me a crash course in aperture and the like after the workshop.)  Fortunately, just watching them gave me ideas, and interestingly, my pictures actually did improve over the course of the session, even though I can’t pinpoint why.  Another encouraging thing was that the food stylist says she shoots all of her pics for her food blog the same way I do– natural light, and sometimes out on the patio when there’s not enough light on the dinner table.  So, I shouldn’t have to do too much more than I’m already doing to produce great pics.  I did get good ideas on composition and background, and although not necessarily relevant to my “shoot and eat it” mentality, I did learn a lot of the behind the scenes tricks on how to get grill marks perfect (no grill required!) and how to get beverages to sweat just right (they don’t even have to be cold!)  Anyways, these pics are some of the results, and more can be seen on my Flickr page.