As a food blogger, there is constant pressure to include stunning photographs of dishes and ingredients to draw in readers.  We are all visual eaters – we want our food to be beautiful.  I’ve been steadily improving my photography skills, and upgrading my equipment.  But I know one thing for sure – I will never be a food stylist.

Exhibit A: Patriotic Pound Cake – Elvis’ favorite recipe.

At first glance it’s a great photo.  It’s well lit, the colors are well balanced and there are lots of rich textures.  But then you notice that I left the stem on one of the blueberries.  Do you see it?  Is it all you can look at now?  Are you transfixed by the errant blueberry stem.  Me too.

You see, food stylists spend hours perfecting the content before they take a photo.  Spending lots of time painstakingly arranging and nudging and highlighting various components of a dish.  A detail like the blueberry stem would NOT have escaped the careful eye of a food stylist.

Exhibit B:  The Ultimate Fudgy Homemade Brownies

Yummy looking brownies, no?  Trust me they’re tasty.  Though I did put in a little effort to arrange the brownies interestingly, I apparently couldn’t be bothered to wipe the crumbs off of the right side of the tray.  Whoops.

Exhibit C: Edamame Hummus – posted this very week.  You must try this.

This is perhaps the most flagrant violation of food styling code of conduct.  Note the olive oil and kosher salt just to the right of the dish.  A quick wipe of a paper towel would have taken care of that.

At the end of the day, I’m still pretty proud of my food photography skills.  I’m excited to keep on learning about my new camera.  I’m saving up for additional lenses, and once I finish grad school and have my life back, I would love to take lessens.

I’m certainly not beating myself up about these food styling flubs.  In fact, I think they are, to an extent, a badge of honor.  I have no interest in being the type of food blogger who has a mini photography studio set up in my home. I don’t want to spend 30 mins prepping for each shot.  I simply want to make yummy food, snap a few pictures and then eat it.  I admire those who have been so disciplined about their approach to photography, but I’m in no way working towards professional food photography and styling as a goal.

Food is meant to be enjoyed.  My readers get to enjoy what I make by looking at the pictures and reading my descriptions.  I get to enjoy the food by actually eating it or sharing it with friends.  The less time between plating and first bite, the better.  Eating a cold dinner because I spent 40 minutes prepping for photos is not what I’m after.  If it means I get actually enjoy eating my food and still get to share high quality photos with my readers, ccasional styling errors are a compromise I’m happy to make.

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