This year has been going super slow in terms of food blogging it seems. I just noticed today that I only have posted 9 blogs in the year so far and already we are at the end of a quarter. Last year this time I had already 20 posts. I have not even done half of it so far and hence this quick post. The workload is frankly quite high and hence the time for social activities has gone down drastically. Plus this summer heat doesn't help either. The more hot and sunny it gets the more I feel my creative juices get into hibernation mode. The light is just too harsh even at early morning to get some good shot even indoors. 

Though I do have a basic studio lighting setup but still I don't feel like dragging all my equipment out when I am already feeling lethargic due to to the weather. So most f the times if you have noticed I prefer shooting in natural light unless there is a deadline to shoot at unholy hours. The point is managing the exposure with this strong sun, is a task in itself. But then lazy people like me still find jugadu ways to navigate the situation. From the time lockdown started I had been shooting with a professional camera and  I tried out shooting in the various light situations across all the rooms in my house. I had read about this suggestion from a professional photographer who had given this important tip to beginners who are starting out on food photography to explore the light in all the available spaces in the house to get a fair enough idea which light at which time of the day works best for which kind of food shots. Like my guest bedroom has a window where I can get the best backlight. Whereas the living room is best to shoot everything with a sidelight. And most of the times I have seen I like the outcomes when I use sidelight. They really accentuate the textures and bring out the colors. 

When I started off, flatlays were my favorite photography angle. One of the main reason was when I had a lot of food in the scene I could accommodate all of them easily in a flatlay and number two reason was I was shooting mainly gravies which most of the time didn't have much of a height element to emphasize. There was a point I felt that I am only food in flatlays and other angles like straight on angle or 25-75 was not meant for me. And I had concluded that without even trying to learn the other angles or composition styles. That is what happens to most beginners, we struggle to find a niche and then don't want to come out of that comfort zone. We give up even before we try and keep repeating the same thing for years instead of exploring new things in which we might even be better. 

After a point I was bored with the same kind of setup. Plus flatlays at times leaves very little to imagination as you expose all the cards or the elements of your composition in the frame. Everything is right there in the frame, very little is hidden away from the sight. Also to fill a frame you need a lot of elements - that was taxing. I had to cook at least 2 sides with a main dish to fill in the gaps in the frame. Too much time went for cooking and very little time left to setup the frame and think about a good composition. When I say good composition - I mean a frame which might tell a story, which my give you some fodder for thoughts, or have a technicality which might pique the interest of the audience. At that time I was just shooting flat frames with just the food. 

So I started spending some time on Instagram to look for inspirations. I found that Indonesian and Middle eastern food photographers did wonderful creative food frame which left you looking at the frame for long thinking who did they manage to get a certain effect. I am not saying the European or American food photographers are bad, but the aesthetics brought on the table (literally) by the Indonesian photographers appealed to my taste. The way they used the light, the way they brought in traditional utensils or local produces and created a rustic looking frame was simply mind blowing for me. I did notice they give a lot of importance to tiny nuances in the frame like a speck of chilli or a pod of garlic etc. and it was definitely not a minimalist frame. But the main takeaway was, creating moody frames aesthetically. 

I keep looking for such kind of inspiration everyday and anytime anything catches my fancy I save it or bookmark it. While I cannot say I am an expert photographer now, I have certainly come a long way from 2020. I can confidently say, now I understand a few things better than what I did when I started off and it definitely makes me happy. Even if its a delta growth I feel happy. Checkout for behind the scene for this particular frame on my Instagram feed to see how this shot was setup.

Today morning as I was making my breakfast I thought of shooting it as well. I think I had mentioned in a previous blog that I was turning to healthy food options slowly. Most of the days my morning breakfast is different king of smoothies. They are so easy to make that you don't even need to put your mind into making one. Just throw in the ingredients and blend. Some days I add nuts or chia seeds to make things a little interesting. I feel smoothies get a robust texture and and nice body when you add banana to it along with any other fruit of your choice. Moreover bananas add a natural sweetness to the smoothies as well. More than a pure Mango smoothie I like the taste of the combination of mango and banana. Try it once if you haven't yet. 

And if you think smoothies are the most boring things to start your day with, nothing can be far form truth. I know because I was also one of those people who didn't get excited at the thought of smoothies first thing in the morning. The first small step was to convince myself to start my day with something healthy and have controlled portion of food throughout the day. Having smoothies for breakfast is a great way to portion control and yet have a filling breakfast. The banana in the smoothie helps keep you full for a long time till lunch so that you don't feel any mid morning hunger pangs. Also a small tip is to replace sugar with honey, it helps loose weight over a period of time. This is a really really simple recipe and I will put some other smoothie recipe soon. 

Ingredients for garnish:

• Chia Seeds - 1 tsp

Equipment:

• Blender

Procedure: 

1.  Soak the chia seeds in 3 tbsp of water for about 10 minutes.

2. Add all the ingredients - milk, banana, mango and honey in high-powered blender.

Note: I prefer to have cold smoothie hence I use chilled milk but you can use room temperature milk too.

3. Blend for 1-2 minutes until you get a smooth and creamy texture.

Note: Color will depend on the quality of the Mango used

4. Pour into serving glasses. Top it off with soaked chia seeds. Enjoy!