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eing a photographer was never part of the equation that I had in mind. I had business plans instead. I wanted to be a businessperson just like my grandfathers. To make it through the month, I was working part time in an office and that was when I overheard that they needed a food photographer. Like the hero they needed, I leaped out of my chair and said, “I am a food photographer!” when the truth was, I knew jack about it. All I had was hands-on street and landscape photography experience but at that point, I didn’t care. What I did was I built up my courage and took that leap of faith just because I thought it was a necessary attempt at trying something new. And since then, I never looked back.

While the real intention of being a photographer is to go into documentary, which is a constant work in progress, I primarily do commercial for a self-sustenance where the food genre takes the bulk of it.

For anyone just starting out and would like to give food photography a try, I would suggest playing around with natural light for a start. It provides a great source of flattering light for food (as it is with most subjects) and shapes dishes very nicely, especially if it’s coming sideways from a large window.

Always use white bounce cards or a reflector on the opposite side of the dish to minimise shadows, unless you’re a fan of shadows. For a small dish, shoot at a fairly wide aperture to maintain a narrow depth of field and keep the ISO value at its lowest possible number (i.e. 100) with a low shutter speed to compensate the exposure. With these settings, try to shoot on a tripod to avoid shake and you will be guaranteed a crisp, sharp and delicious photo. Once you’re comfortable, you can take a step further with artificial lights that you will find to be a more constant and reliable light source.