— Kristin T. Østrem

You know, I do. And when I was, uh, studying, uh, social media marketing at University of the Arts, I took a food photography course with a, um, food stylist from New York City. So the best thing I can offer to you is having good light, good lighting is the most important. When I was a Rouxbe student, I sometimes would cook at night, but wouldn't take my photos till four 30 in the afternoon in my kitchen because the natural lighting was so perfect. Um, the other thing is a steady handheld camera will do. I have this, which is a suction cup. It has the strongest magnet in the world so that when you are taking photos, you can put this on your cabinet and then get a really good flat lay of your mis and plus and have things look terrific. However, when I am teaching, uh, I use this and it is a camera holder that you wear around your neck and I wrap the back in a towel so it stays stationary. I put my phone in here and then I wrap a piece of duct tape around it just because I don't want anything falling into a canister of soup or whatever. So natural lighting is your best friend, a good tripod or something that is steady and taking it generally at a 45 degree angle. That's what we recommend in the course as well. And, uh, just having fun, taking pictures with photos. Think of different backgrounds. I have a whole container, a big container filled with different plates and silverware and cups and all kinds of things so that, uh, it gives the photos some seasonality or fits the mood of what you're trying to do. But there are lots of articles online that you might find, uh, very helpful. And lastly, this, believe it or not, uh, is a tripod and it converts into a selfie stick. So if you're teaching a class with people and you wanna take a group photo, it extends all the way. And then everyone's loves being in the photo together. So, best light. Yeah. Good light is your best friend. So, great question. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. You know, one thing I always like too is I always tell people to take lots of pictures while they're doing it, and then post to the social that you pick, right? So it could be the, mm-hmm. If you're teaching at the library, have them post it to there. You could have it post them to your own Instagram or your own socials too. Uh, so great ways to be able to really get different camera angles that you might not be able to get because you're teaching. It's also a great way to get pictures of you teaching, um, that you might not be able to grab because you, it's hard to take a picture of yourself while you're cooking.