Dries Buytaert

We're going on a two-week vacation in August! Believe it or not, but I haven't taken a two week vacation in 11 years. I'm super excited.

Now our vacation is booked, I'm starting to make plans for how to spend our time. Other than spending time with family, going on hikes, and reading a book or two, I'd love to take some steps towards food photography. Why food photography?

The past couple of years, Vanessa and I have talked about making a cookbook. In our many travels around the world, we've eaten a lot of great food, and Vanessa has managed to replicate and perfect a few of these recipes: the salmon soup we ate in Finland when we went dog sledding, the hummus with charred cauliflower we had at DrupalCon New Orleans, or the tordelli lucchesi we ate on vacation in Tuscany.

Other than being her sous-chef (dishwasher, really), my job would be to capture the recipes with photos, figure out a way to publish them online (I know just the way), and eventually print the recipes in a physical book. Making a cookbook is a fun way to align our different hobbies; travel for both of us, cooking for her, photography for me, and of course enjoying the great food.

Based on the limited research I've done, food photography is all about lighting. I've been passionate about photography for a long time, but I haven't really dug into the use of light yet.

Our upcoming vacation seems like the perfect time to learn about lighting; read a book about it, and try different lighting techniques (front lighting, side lighting, back lighting but also hard, soft and diffused light).

The next few weeks, I plan to pick up some new gear like a light diffuser, light modifiers, and maybe even a LED light. If you're into food photography, or into lighting more generally, don't hesitate to leave some tips and tricks in the comments.