Food is a large part of our lives, our daily routine. Take photos of meal time, so you can scrapbook about it.
Before you start preparing your meal, have your camera ready, whatever camera you use is okay, just be sure that there is enough light to get a decent exposure for your photos. I use a speedlight with my camera if there isn’t enough natural light to properly exposure my images, so I will keep that handy, in a dining room drawer, for easy access. I will take a test shot and set the manual settings on my camera so I’ll be ready to quickly stop meal prep, cooking and servings, to take a photo. The key here is to be ready, so you can be quick about getting a photo. I’ve learned over time that both my hubs and my dog don’t like any interruptions when it’s time to eat, they don’t appreciate my efforts to document meal time with photos LOL….so I try to be as inobstrusive as I can.
You can set up some staging for your meal time photos but it’s not necessary, as time is often of the essence. For me, photographing meal time is more about the food and the story than it is about getting the “perfect” shot. I don’t stress over whether the kitchen is clean, or if there are dishes in the sink, etc. I don’t even need to have the perfectly exposed image either, as long as I’m in the ballpark b/c at meal time, like I said, you often don’t have a lot of time to grab some shots. No one wants a hungry, irritable family waiting for their food LOL. For me, it’s generally my husband and dog that don’t like waiting for food. My kids and grandkids are much more accomodating, having resigned themselves to the fact that I am going to take photos…it is what I do :)
It’s up to you what stage of meal time you want to photograph but I like to photograph the prep work, getting out the ingredients, at least a photo or two of the cooking time and then the completed meal just before or during serving. I like the photos to help tell the story, what ingredients did I use, how did I prepare the meal (by the way, I do all the cooking in my home, my hubs is completely lost in the kitchen, but don’t worry, he makes up for it by doing some of the other household chores) and what did it look like when served. It might be different for you, you may prefer to take photos of the family members as they interact before, during and after the meal, you might prefer to only take a photo of the food once it’s on the table, etc. It’s up to you as to what photos you would like to tell your story, to help document meal time.
Here are some photos I took last night as I prepared a low carb dish for us for dinner (Crack Slaw…don’t you love that name LOL). It’s a hamburger/broccoli slaw dish that we love. My scrapbook page with these photos will help tell the story about Crack Slaw became a regular meal in our home.
We have a Labradoodle, Taz, who is included in our meal time. When we eat, he eats. He knows this and will wait for his food to be put out on the counter. He will watch me intently, silently staring at me as I measure out his food and place it on the floor for him.
I hope I’ve inspired you to get your camera out and take photos of your meal time. Scrapbook about the conversation, the menu, the time of day you eat, where you eat, etc. Tell the story of your meal time.
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