Jan 17, 2013

Blog Luv: Love and Olive Oil

As you can probably tell from my weekly Monday Eats posts and yesterday's review of a A Berlin Kitchen, I love food.  I grew up eating amazing authentic Chinese dishes (both my parents were incredible home cooks), and I spent my 20s experimenting in tiny studio apartment kitchens (poor Mark was my guinea pig).  Over the years, I've honed my cooking skills with the help of an ever-growing cookbook collection, a widening circle of TV cooking shows, and a list of inspiring food blogs.

My blog luv this week is for a six-year old blog called Love and Olive Oil.  Written by husband-and-wife team Lindsay and Taylor, L&OO focuses on high-quality ingredients that won't "hurt your wallet."  Since we eat more home-cooked meals than not, I've learned to be a really smart shopper but I won't skimp on real food or good quality.

Now, as a blogger who writes about her own handicrafts (knitting, diy, and food), I'm obsessed with how to up my game in terms of photography.  L&OO's most recent post, about the making of their cookbook, was such an eyeopener!


There's nothing wrong with lifting the veil of magic that is behind excellent food and craft photography.  In fact, I enjoyed reading L&OO's post because it reminded me of two things:  (1) creativity is not always glamorous and, in fact, requires a lot of hard work; and (2) I can do this!  I can improve my photography skills just as much as I can improve my knitting and cooking skills.

I recently heard about and then borrowed The Crafter's Guide to Taking Great Photos from my local library and will be spending some time practicing with Xavier's camera.  Yes, my beloved Nikon is still broken so I'm (re)searching what to get next.  Between L&OO's post and this guide, I hope it'll become clear which camera is best for me.

If you have any tips on how to take great crafting photos, please share!

8 comments:

  1. I wish I had good tips. All I really know is to use natural light. But I can't wait to start following that blog, it sounds right up my alley. Thanks for sharing it with us.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Something I also need to work on, so thanks so much for the links!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Haha i think you already know I have no tips at all!
    I just use my webcam because if I waited until I got "good" pictures I'd never have any! That looks like a really helpful book- I did just recently buy my boyfriend a camera so maybe he'll help me out for my blog hee hee

    ReplyDelete
  4. I've never seen this blog before, I'm definitely going to add it to my reader list, so many great recipes! Also I've just ordered that book, it looks great. Thanks for the wonderful recommendations!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I've learned a lot from that book - hope you find it helpful!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Is the book good? I love photography and am always looking for ways to improve.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I am practising my photography - I love it but don't get the photos that are in my head.... I've started a night class which I am loving - it's more an old school art class but it's fantastic. There is a pile of information on the internet that I've trawled through and a craftsy photography class that I enjoyed. I think it is practice practice practice!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thanks for mentioning this book. I've been taking most of my WIP photos Eskimimi's way by using a white poster board as the back ground but sometimes I don't have good light even from the big windows. For FOs, I would rather take natural, realistic shots of the project being used in real life.

    ReplyDelete