Professional food photographer Jackie Alpers gets sent on trips to photograph perfectly frosted cupcakes and French sweets. If you missed her interview and tips on getting started in food photography yesterday, you can catch up, here. But it’s not all haute-cuisine and heavily-frosted cupcakes that fill Jackie’s day. One of her favorite food photos is a simple snack she prepared for herself in her kitchen one day. What is life like as a food photographer? Jackie shares her thoughts on it below… along with a simple way to build and share your food photo portfolio… HOW BLOGGING CAN HELP IMPROVE YOUR PHOTO SKILLS By Jackie Alpers in Tucson, Arizona Some years back, I started a blog as a place to showcase my food photography, practice my writing skills, and to share some of the healthy recipes that I’ve collected over the years. For anybody starting out in photography, I strongly recommend blogging. I’ve been told that a blog is an open mouth that you have to feed with content. You get to decide what it eats and how often to feed it. One of the best ways to become a better photographer is to consistently make images that you know other people are going to see. It’s a lot more rewarding to post an image on your blog (and get feedback)… than simply stashing it on your computer for use “some day.” Whenever I have some downtime from my other projects, I go back to my blog and start posting new images and recipes. I’ve come up with a lot of new ideas that way. This food photo is one I snapped for my blog… 
I’d been making this snack for myself for a while. Every time I’d assemble it, I’d admire the way it looked on the plate. It became a bit of a ritual for me where I would always make four crackers with two chocolate chips each. One day, the concoction looked particularly good, so I decided to photograph it for my blog. I have a huge collection of plates that I use for props. As I looked over my choices, I was drawn to this one because of the way the dots around the edge mimic the pattern of the chocolate chips. I’m really fond of this recipe because its total is more than the sum of its parts. And, I believe that is true for the photo, as well. After I posted this image to my blog, I submitted it to my stock photography agency Gallery Stock. They accepted it into their collection. Now I also have the opportunity to profit from this image if it’s selected for print or online usage by one of their clients. Not a bad reward for preparing one little snack… [Editor’s Note: Learn more about how you can turn your pictures into cash in our free online newsletter The Right Way to Travel. Sign up here today and we’ll send you a new report, Selling Photos for Cash: A Quick-Start Guide, completely FREE.]
