Food Styling

Food Styling.......a prestigious profession highly sought after in large cities such as New York and San Francisco. A Food Styler is often hired by the photographer to prepare and arrange the specific food for the photo shoot. In large cities, a food styler can make over a thousand dollars a day. The food could be a bowl of cereal. They will work all day long with the photographer arranging the cereal in a way that increases visual awareness and represents the product in the most pleasing way. The milk is often Elmer's Glue. The flakes are hand picked. Each flake is individually arranged. The lighting has to be perfect. The job of a food styler.

Today I had the opportunity to attend a photography event with friends who own their own photography business. The event was advertised as, "Happy Hour for Photographers". Every other month, a group of photographers meet at a local studio and get the opportunity to listen to a presenter. Today's presenter was a Food Styler who worked in the business for 35 years. She is the author of the book, "Food Styling: The Art of Preparing Foods for the Camera". She was very down to earth, informative, creative, generous, and inspiring. She took a passion for food and made it her career. She told us that as a "foodie", it was the best profession that she could have hoped for. She worked largely for commercial companies creating styles for print ads, cereal boxes, magazine covers, coupon prints, and more. Her slide show walked us through the large market behind commercial shooting.

I learned so many things and took two pages of notes and later I will try to share the ideas here on blipfoto. I do want to share one story though that really made an impact on me this evening. She told us about an aspiring photographer who was very passionate about her work but hadn't made her way into any sort of a business yet. She came up this great idea about photographing chefs around the United States. Her idea was simple. She wanted to photograph each chef in a unique and creative way and then interview each with a handful of questions. The first question being, "If today was your last day on the Earth, what would your last meal be? What music would you have playing in the background? Who would you share your meal with", etc. She took this idea and pitched it to a publishing company. The company backed her idea and sure enough her book, "My Last Supper" came to life. This aspiring photographer gave herself a job because she took an idea and she ran with it. This impresses me. Creating a book like this with the combination of photography and interviews would be a dream come true for me.

Tonight was a stepping stone. I met some wonderful photographers and saw first hand the kind of serious networking that takes place when you get 30 or so professional photographers together in one room. I was invited by the hostess to start attending the meetings, even though I don't do this for a living. I was touched by that. Hopefully the passion that I feel for photography will open up some doors in the future. Maybe I could find a way to do this for a living. Or maybe it will always just be my creative outlet that continues to bring artistic balance into my life. One day at a time. One blip at a time. One photo at a time. I am just really enjoying this entire experience.

Yesterday's blip had to be back blipped. Beautiful Bird