March 28, 2024

First Impressions in Food Blogging

I am learning some things quickly about this food blogging stuff. I basically started this because people kept telling me to share my opinions about food, as an experiment to see how easy or difficult it is to be a food blogger and Instagrammer, and the potential of free food.

  • I’m already struggling to think about what to write about and post on Instagram. Some days I just don’t eat anything exciting. Other days you would probably judge me for what I’m eating. If I’m just having one item, I can’t really write about it unless that item is amazing. It’s been over a week since I last made a blog post.
  • Speaking of struggling to write, I don’t know when I’m going to find time to do all of this writing. Again, it’s been over a week since I last made a blog post. I feel like most of the people that really stick with this either are still in college or make this a full time job. I’m long done with college and I have a job I don’t really see myself giving up anytime soon.
  • I need to eat more interesting meals. Having a salad or sandwich very day for lunch just isn’t photo worthy. I now find myself trying to think about what meals I can have or make just for the photo.
  • I’m also trying to decide whether or not I want to write about when I have a bad experience at a restaurant. One side of me feels people want to know not to eat at a restaurant while the other side of me feels that I shouldn’t waste the time. For example, this meal below looked really good. I took many photos at that restaurant. Unfortunately it was the most flavorless Thai food I had ever eaten.
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  • Lighting is key. Natural light, even if supplemented by artificial light will make food look better.
  • Smartphone cameras are just OK still. The phone I was using had a terrible camera. A better camera like a DSLR will really pick up detail better in low light. Sometimes the lighting in a restaurant will just be so dim it might not matter. I’m soon going to be that guy taking a camera everywhere.
  • Social media looks easy. It’s not. Getting people to follow you and like your photos is hard. Friends liked my blog announcement on both Facebook and Instagram, but only about half were converted to follows on Instagram. Finding external organic followers and likes is even harder. Just because you like someone else’s food photo, there is no guarantee that person will look at your photos.
  • Coming up with something witty for every post is hard. I consider myself moderately to above average in funny, but how many puns can I really have about foods.
  • Friends and family mostly seem excited by my starting a food blog and have been posting. Two people have shared my blog. Another friend promoted me on Instagram. My father requested I make edits to my About page. My brother lovingly mocked me.

So at this point I will keep going. I hope to start talking about more restaurants. I hope to start writing about my at home cooking. I hope to get invited to try more foods. I hope to not get too fat by eating too much.