Photography Reflection

Back in the day I was very into photography; I would usually take pictures of nature and the world around me, and whenever we went to special events like weddings, or graduations, I was always the designated photographer. However, as time went on, I began to associate photography with with negative experience and I kind of just stopped stopped taking pictures. I stopped taking pictures outside because I was concerned that people would accuse me of photographing something without their consent and eventually my camera ended up covered in dust. More recently I’ve been getting back into photography though, although I’m still conscious of the prejudice others hold based on my race so I don’t really take picture outside. I mainly take pictures of food, which despite what people may think about it, I think can tell us a lot about the lives people live and the culture they exist in. A cookie probably isn’t just a cookie a cookie could be hundreds of hours of work, or thousands of mathematically formulas to understand the perfect ratio of chocolate chips to cookie dough, or generations a family adding just a little something to recipe to make it perfect. Many people share their food nonchalantly, but I like to really think about everything that went into the food and every that went into the picture. I don’t always take pictures of my food, but I think it’s satisfying to capture the image of what you’re creating and sharing it with others, to me its the same as sharing a painting or a drawing I’m working on. I’ve never looked at it in a sense of improving my photography though, but there are a lot of things that go into a good food picture. The lighting is very important, the color of the light, the intensity the directions and the shadows it casts; the angle of the food, what is visible in picture versus what you maybe be obscuring (purposefully or otherwise); the background (setting) and what you choose to plate your food on and how these things contribute to the overall image of the food. All of these things need to be taken into consideration if you’re trying to share the most accurate image of your food.