I have known Mel since 2003, we met in graduate school. I've been lucky enough to try some of her cooking, Thanksgiving 2004 bacon wrapped turkey with apricot jam and homemade apple pie YUM. Yes I still remember and yes she gave me the recipe. But now that she's far far away in Florida all I can do is look at her food photos. *Sigh Recently she was nominated for Best Food Photography by Saveur.
Here's what she said about her food photos and her process. Thanks Mel!!
I'm trying to make people's mouths water. If I'm photographing a brownie, I want to capture the crumbs, the chocolate and the fudginess. If it's soup, it should look warm and inviting and homey, preferably with a little steam rising up.
Usually, I cook in the morning. It's when I get the best natural light from the balcony. I have an older Canon Rebel with a cheapo 50mm lens on it - I just use that and whatever pretty plate I have around. Take lots of pictures from lots of different angles. After that, I pick the best 1 or 2, edit them a little in Lightroom (usually just some color correcting and cropping) and post. I try not to think too hard about the setting since I prefer when the pictures don't look so "posed".
