Tuesday, August 30, 2011

FOODelicious Photography Workshop

So I take a tiny break from my dining out experiences, to have a slightly more self indulgent post. It's my blog, I'll do what I like no? Hehe. :)

About two weeks ago, I was asked by FOOD Pampering to volunteer a little of my time to do a short presentation of food photography, as part of a food photography workshop they wanted to hold, to start off their 'FOODelicious Photo Competition'.

I was quite nervous leading up to it, since I only had a week to put a presentation together and figure out what I could possibly share, as a self taught photographer (although I still don't like using that term to refer to myself...I just take pictures!). I also certainly don't consider myself one of the best photography blogs, as I look up to so many other food bloggers and their gorgeous photos! Maybe I would not be good enough! :s

It was an interesting experience trying to put to words what I know, and at the same time, very satisfying when I could justify a lot of the stuff I was doing when it came to composition and lighting and all the other technical beauties of photography. There was method behind my madness!

I was still worried though, that everyone would already know everything I was going to say, that I wouldn't be able to explain anything that I wanted to.

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Photo compliments of Bing Cheng and Radityo.

Somehow though, last Saturday at Pan Asian, with about 40-ish (maybe?) members from both photography clubs at Monash and Melbourne University, I got through my 30 minutes of very animated (or as I was later told 'perky') presentation. I can be quite chatty if you give me the right topic apparently and I do indeed flail my hands around like a loud, Italian man.

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It really did end up being a lot more fun than I anticipated and afterwards, as Pan Asian produced plates of pretty food for everyone to try their cameras out on, I was absolutely flattered as people came up to tell me how much they had learnt, ask for feedback on photos or to ask me elaborate on points I had covered. It surprised me how much knowledge I could actually part with people and I had some lovely conversations with people afterwards.

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I got a bit lazy with photo taking, since there were about another 30 digital SLR's going rampant, clicking away like crazy. I don't think I've ever seen so many digital SLR's in one room at the same time....it was inspiring to see everyone really get into it though and sharing their results with each other. Pan Asian spoiled us with a great mix of dishes including chicken 'macarons', a lovely prawn entree, pannacotta's, chilli chocolate brownies from Bees Knees Brownies (which were, so insanely delicious) and beef rendang, to provide a little challenge. I was actually really impressed with some of the curry photos I saw, as I normally hate shooting it myself!

It was quite funny watching as everyone descended around the plates of food as they were dished out! As one blogger might have said when I tweeted about it, '....like pigeons!!!'.

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Photos compliments of Radityo and Michael King

All in all, it was a fabulous day. I think the attendees had a lot of fun, I certainly did, and I can only hope that I was able to share at least one thing new with most of them.

Thanks for having me FOOD Pampering!

So leading on from this, I'm thinking I might start doing a series of photography posts...maybe...if I find time (because I'm not a month behind in posts!)....just because I can and because I think it's always interesting to learn how everyone approaches photography a little differently...and hey, sharing is caring right?