Of All My Passions, Food Pictures is My Favourite

I’ve at all times been fascinated by pictures and the best way artists seize particulars the untrained eye may overlook. There is a inventive energy in how a photographer can faucet into emotion and talk pleasure, ache, melancholy, and love by way of temporary, significant moments. Some are candid, others staged, however each inform a narrative. I’ve at all times been drawn to the tales that really feel lived in, heat, and acquainted.

All pictures on this submit had been photographed and styled by me.

Before I ever choose up a digital camera, I begin with the recipe. Not simply the components or the steps, however the place it comes from and why it exists. Food carries historical past, reminiscence, and that means, and this Ghanaian Jollof rice is a type of dishes that holds all of it without delay.

This recipe was gifted to me a number of years in the past by my shut pal, Amah. It was shared with care and intention. From the start, the purpose was to share it on my blog in a means that honored each the flavors and the tradition.

During my off-season of improving what already works, I made a decision to revisit the recipe, to replace it with new pictures that inform a deeper visible story. What shocked me was how rapidly I fell again in love with the method.

Photographing this Jollof rice required me to concentrate to the colour of the sauce, the feel of the rice because it completed cooking, the steam, the oil, and the grains settling into the stew. It jogged my memory that meals pictures is not only about making one thing look good; it’s about understanding the dish properly sufficient to know when to press the shutter.

I selected heat lighting for this recipe, impressed by the primary time I had Jollof rice at Amah’s household restaurant, the place every little thing felt cozy and welcoming. I needed the pictures to replicate that very same sense of heat, as if the dish had been being served in an area stuffed with care, dialog, and familiarity.

As a recipe creator, I’ve realized that dishes with greater than 5 components can really feel overwhelming to the house prepare dinner. After organising my lights, I took my time styling all eighteen components in a means that felt approachable moderately than intimidating, permitting every one to be clearly seen whereas nonetheless making a visually compelling structure.

If I’m being sincere, that is the third time I’ve photographed this recipe. The authentic picture, taken again in 2021, displays the place I used to be creatively on the time (the photograph was not good, Lol). The second time I revisited this recipe, I rushed the method and by no means absolutely dedicated to the shoot. I merely needed the poorly lit photograph that was already printed to only look higher.

That method didn’t serve the dish or me as a result of simply as you can’t rush Jollof rice, you can’t rush the inventive course of. I ended that shoot feeling defeated, exhausted, and actually disconnected from the work.

This time was totally different. I cleared my weekend, or maybe God cleared it for me, since we had been snowed in throughout a winter storm right here in Maryland. I deliberate, ready, and moved slowly, spending six hours taking pictures and filming with intention and focus. Third time actually was the attraction.

A couple of years in the past, I took a meals pictures course primarily to learn to use off-camera synthetic flash. While pure mild is gorgeous, it may be limiting, particularly in the course of the winter months when the solar units earlier, and the best taking pictures window is shorter, usually between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m. Learning the best way to work with flash gave me the power to create and management mild moderately than chase it.

That information grew to become particularly helpful throughout this shoot. Just as I used to be prepared to maneuver into the cooking scenes, I noticed my transportable electrical stovetop had a three-prong plug that didn’t match the two-prong extension wire I had arrange. It meant an surprising journey again to the shop, extra time misplaced, however not discouraged.

I went forwards and backwards about how fairly or polished I needed the cooking pictures to be. If you will have ever made Jollof rice or any tomato and pepper-based dish, then you definitely already know splattering is a part of the method. I discovered myself debating whether or not to scrub up the pot for the sake of a extra refined picture, despite the fact that the mess instructed a more true story of what cooking this dish truly appears like.

At some level, I paused and requested myself a easy however vital query. Polished for whom?

That shifted every little thing. It jogged my memory that the purpose was not perfection, however honesty, and that there’s magnificence in exhibiting the method as it’s, not simply the way it appears when every little thing is wiped down and styled.

You can’t inform a pot of stew the best way to pose, and you can’t inform a grain of rice the place to fall. You can solely direct and elegance based mostly on the way you need the viewer to expertise the dish in entrance of them.

Food pictures requires a sure degree of humility. Even because the director of the shoot, you must depart room for the meals to be what it’s. The dish leads, and your position is to concentrate, reply, and seize it truthfully moderately than forcing it into one thing it was by no means meant to be.

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Of all my passions, meals pictures is my favourite.

This shoot jogged my memory why meals pictures continues to carry my consideration in methods nothing else does. It asks for persistence, presence, and respect for the method, whether or not meaning understanding the cultural weight of a dish, working by way of technical challenges, or permitting the meals to exist as it’s with out forcing perfection.

Returning to this Jollof rice recipe felt much less like revisiting outdated work and extra like assembly it once more with new eyes, higher instruments, and a deeper sense of belief in myself.

In this season of bettering what already works, I’m studying that progress doesn’t at all times require reinvention. Sometimes it merely asks you to remain, concentrate, and do the work with extra care than earlier than. And after I do this, meals pictures jogs my memory precisely why it has at all times been my favourite.

As at all times, keep impressed, and thanks for studying. You can try this Ghanaian Jollof Rice recipe on my web site.

Take excellent care,
Jaylynn

About me:
I’m a author, creator, and encourager behind Soft & Still — an area for slowing down, coming dwelling to your self, and dwelling with extra presence.