This week on the podcast, M. Aimee Tan,  a professional food and beverage photographer, food stylist, creative director, recipe developer, and content creator based in Canada, reveals everything you need to know about creating sponsored posts for brands. Aimee works with local, and global clientele as well as PR & marketing agencies. In this episode, she discusses how to get started with brand partnerships for social media content, how to pitch, the eligibility to approach brands, ways to position your value and offer a range of services under the realm of sponsored posts, and whethe ..read more

Most photographers start a full-time or part-time business with passion and enthusiasm. But over time, when the rubber hits the road, they begin to run out of steam because they hit a roadblock -  How to grow the business and make more $$ every month? How to scale the business, a natural progression? Where to go from here, what’s next? Staying in business, any business, not just photography, is a challenge. Building a sustainable business requires us to stay on top of market demands, continuously reinvent ourselves, and get smart about how we run the business so we don’t burn out. One o ..read more

This week on the podcast, I’ve 5 quick tips to improve the lighting in your food photography. There is always so much to learn about light. Small, subtle changes can completely change the feel of a photo. It can take a photo from realistic to artistic, with never-ending options.  Flatlay photography, adding movement to photos, or a creative way to learn about lighting - this week’s tips will immediately tell you what might be missing or can be improved in your photos. It is the reminder we all need every once in a while to stay on top of our lighting game.  The truth is that a simple ..read more

The future is looking towards food in motion.  I mean, look at social media. We’re seeing a surge in food videos.  Look at client briefs. They want their products to be captured in action. Look at our potential of being able to convey a visual story of food way more powerfully through videos. There is no denying that photos will always hold their importance but the future will have a huge demand for videos. Now, I love creating photos but videos make me sweat.  The amount of time, different set of technical skills, additional equipment, and then new editing applications, just t ..read more

Have you ever looked at another photographer and wondered why they’re doing better than you?  Why is their business more successful than yours?  Why have they achieved what you’ve not?  Why is your business not growing like theirs?   Will your business ever look like theirs?  Will you ever be as successful as them?  If these questions have ever crossed your mind, then let me share with you that the reason why some businesses are more successful than others is because they have a secret hack.  And no matter which industry it is, every successful person knows ..read more

Have you noticed that a basic food photographer can have a thriving business  and  Have you also noticed that a brilliant photographer may not really be making enough in their business? This is more common than you might think.  Photography talent is very different from business acumen. They’re both completely different skill sets and just because we are good at photography doesn’t automatically imply we’ll have a profitable business. Yes, it begins with us falling in love with photography. That step is a must to be able to even start a business, but once we are in it, the re ..read more

Have you ever been in a photoshoot and felt something was off, but you couldn't quite figure it out? Most of the time, it's because of one big reason – light. But instead of tackling light, our tendency is usually to start fussing with props and backdrops and composition, thinking that is the problem when actually sometimes all it needs is a tiny tweak in the light. But here's the deal – to tweak the light, we’ve got to know what to tweak. We’ve got to understand light. In this week’s podcast, I'm sharing all about one of the most dynamic lighting direction for food photography – Side Backligh ..read more

Is creating compositions a challenge for you?  I can totally see why.  First off, for the simple reason that composition is art. It is subjective and everyone’s style is different. So it really leaves a lot of grey area on whether a certain technique works or not. Secondly, because composition is an art, it is tough to learn it technically. Yes, we can understand guides and placement and general rules around composition but really, we all know that creating composition is like composing music.  Thirdly, compositions are tough because there are so many choices. Any food can be p ..read more

Whether it’s the start of the year or not, we all find ourselves at different points in our journey setting new goals, striving to achieve existing ones, or perhaps even questioning the necessity of setting goals altogether. Regardless of our stand on goal setting, we all have ambitions for our creative journey.  It could be launching a new project, getting better at photography, growing our business, or simply finding more balance in our lives.  Whether we set ambitious goals or avoid setting goals altogether to dodge the feeling of overwhelm, we have our own unique approach to move ..read more

Being a full-time photographer and running a business can be very overwhelming.esp when everyone around is constantly hustling.  Someone is working with food52 Someone is shooting for Delicious magazine Someone just made $500,000 by selling their online course Someone is talking about completing 10 years in food photography We hear them, we look at their photography businesses and go, “Sigh! I’m so behind. Everyone is doing so much. I need to work more, work harder.” Running a business is tough.  But do you know what is the best part about having your own business? The best part i ..read more