I set rules for myself about post-processing my food photos before I started this whole thing.

-I don’t use Photoshop or Lightroom
-I don’t enhance muted colors
-I don’t create a pleasant dining scene with coordinating plates, carefully placed silverware, folded napkins, and scattered flour/ nuts/ vegetables.
-I don’t garnish with 4 parsley leaves just for herbal contrast. I don’t enjoy rotting plastic boxes of herbs in my fridge, sitting as a reminder of my poor millennial money-management capabilities.

The only thing I adjust is exposure, which is a setting I could manually change while shooting if I were a more experienced photographer. 

The perfect food we’ve become accustomed to seeing on social media sets an unrealistic expectation of what home-cooked food actually looks like. I don’t own 40 different colored plates to match my dish of the day. I eat off the same Ikea plate and use paper towels as napkins sometimes. 

I created this website to help people, not to paint a picture of a life I don’t live. I’m not trying to set people up for failure by setting an unattainable end-goal. Cooking is difficult enough.

This is not an argument that food should look ugly. It’s an argument that it can, and there’s nothing wrong with that. I’m also not publicly shaming people who do edit their photos, that’s their choice, and I don’t think you’re evil if you want your red bell peppers to *pop*.

It’s a strange time we live in. Everyone’s looking at food on their phones, yet no one’s making it. I hope to inspire and support you to cook while sticking to my values; one of them’s honesty. Rooting for you