In food blogging it's all about the food pictures. I had a Nikon D50 which was a great camera, but I just couldn't compete with all the food bloggers who took gorgeous food shots on their fancy DSLRs with the cool lenses. Plus, since I do a great deal of eating out, carrying that big camera got to be cumbersome, not to mention I couldn't upload photos to my blog, Twitter, and Facebook.
So, in the summer of 2009 when I got my first iPhone, the iPhone 3G, I started taking food shots and was amazed at how good my food photos looked and how fast I could share onto the interwebs. I didn't know of any other bloggers yet taking food shots with their mobile phones. Remember, this was before Instagram and Pinterest existed. Crazy change, I know!
I'm kinda obsessed with taking food shots on the iPhone, and yes biased. Not gonna hide the fact that I LOVE the iPhone and photo apps for iPhone. So, in this small gallery, I'm showcasing some of my photos that were the most popular on my blog and social networks like Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook. It's pretty interesting to discover what people like. After over three years, I still don't know the formula.
In 2010, I did a Phoenix Ignite presentation in front of 600 people on, "The Art of Food Photography on a Mobile Phone." You can get some quick tips on making your food shots look better.
In 2011, my photo of Quinoa chicken fried rice was one reader featured photo in The LA Times Health section.
On Pinterest, this shot of mini iceberg lettuce salad wedges I snapped at Whole Foods Scottsdale has been repinned like thousands of times. I lost count. It's by far my most popular shot on all social networks. Perhaps, it's that nice little hazy glow that people love...nah, it's probably the blue cheese dressing drenched salad in small bites.
On National Spaghetti day 2013, Udi's featured my gluten-free spaghetti with braised arugula and shaved manchego recipe. It was shared over 1,100 times and liked almost 5,000 times on Facebook, and the avalanche of traffic I got to my blog that day was incredible.
Yogurtology in Scottsdale, AZ featured this shot on their Facebook page. People didn't believe that I took this photo in their store. Guess the person working that day was bored and arranged all the spoons perfectly.
So far in 2013, this is my most popular photo on my Noshtopia Tumblr site. Who knew people love to tumble organic vegetables found at the farmer's market.
My most liked photo on Facebook, to date, are these grilled artichokes stuffed with cherry tomatoes at the Whole Foods Napa market.
Chipotle, and a bunch of other people, really liked my beef burrito bowl featuring brown rice when the brown rice became a national option at all Chipotle stores. This shot became one of my most retweeted shots on Twitter. Sometimes, you just never know what people will like online.
This shot of some homemade vegan BBQ pizza I made featuring Beyond Meat vegan chicken is my most second popular shot on Tumblr, and was featured on Beyond Meat's Facebook page.
This shot of mini contained cucumber salad cups was my most popular on Via.me Noshtopia and was viewed thousands of times. It was also popular on Facebook and Twitter. It's one of my favorite Whole Foods market shots. I took it at Whole Foods Boulder.
Those were just a few of my iPhone shots that were popular on social networks to give you an idea of what people like online. Again, it's a crap shoot as to what gets popular and what doesn't. I've learned to just keep posting and share what you love eating!
To end, here are some of my personal favorite shots using some of my favorite iPhone photo editing apps.
I love playing with the iPhone Color Splash app, and do interesting action shots like this one in a cafe featuring the fresh squeezed orange juice, and this one at a food event featuring some beautiful goat cheese.
One commenter on the blog said he couldn't believe this artichoke shot was taken on an iPhone. Well, I gotta say that photo editing apps surely do help enhance a photo.
To make collages, I use the Diptic iPhone app. Collages are so much fun, and a great way to do a story board.
The iPhone 5 panorama feature is really wonderful to take broad shots like this table full of greens from Happy Boy Farms at the Oakland farmers market. Makes you hungry huh? :-)
