I was interviewed the other day on the phone and the journalist asked me if I had any tips for any potential bloggers. One of the best pieces of advice I can give is to make use of the medium as much as possible. The advantage for blogs unlike print mediums is that we can lavish photo after photo on our pages. And because of that food photography is really important and honing your skills with photography is really important. I won’t ever claim to be a great photographer, I think I merely do a passable job and most of my experience is learnt through trial and error. And because of that I can always learn more.

Dario Milano

When Mr NQN and I were offered places at Dario Milano’s food photography class we both jumped at it. Neither of us have taken a class in photography but we are both very keen to hone our skills in the area and we wanted to learn from a working photographer with a great portfolio. And food photography is such a specific genre of photography. After all you have to convey the subject and make it look attractive but you have to make it look edible above all else.

At his studio in Waterloo, Dario showed us all sorts of things-he has a slew of interesting props including these wooden boards that simulate tables which he had made up for him and he also told us some great places to rent props from. Most importantly he showed us how to make the most of the manual settings of the camera and photograph things with a softbox and external flash (something Mr NQN has been trying to show me what to do).

It was a four hour class with the second half of the class concentrating on food styling and he showed us interesting tips like how to make a glass of white wine using a tiny drop of yellow liquid food colouring (and here I was opening up an actual bottle of wine!). If you are interested, have a look at his site FoodPixels for the next workshop class.

The photographed, uncropped and untouched photo that I took at the class

The class inspired me to keep taking photos and experiment with things. After all I have four stunning lenses from my fantastic sponsors at Sigma that I am completely in love with and I need to utilise them to their full capability. Dario in particular loved the Sigma macro lens and says that it is one of the best and best value lenses on the market.

This omelette was the first thing I photographed after the class. I knew it was the perfect item to do-well not because it was an omelette and Dario showed us how to photograph one, but rather because it was served on a black plate which is what I often have trouble with-chocolate cakes are another item I find hard to photograph. I know that I need to keep playing with it and that is just half the fun!

Photo taken on automatic setting-the black plate throws the camera off and makes the omelette too light a shade

Photo taken on too dark a manual setting

Could use improvement but a better manual setting

Oh and the omelette? Well it’s so easy and I think the longest you’ll wait is for your pan to heat up. The enoki mushrooms give the omelette a meaty but not tough texture and the green onions and oyster sauce and sesame round out the flavour. It is for those nights where you want a nutritious, healthy meal but don’t have the time nor inclination to order takeaway or slave over the stove.

So tell me Dear Reader, what sort of photography interests you? Food? Fashion? Nature?

5 Minute Enoki Mushroom & Onion Omelette

Serves 2

• 1 tablepoon oil for frying
• 5 free range eggs
• 200g packet of enoki mushrooms
• 1/3 cup chopped scallions/green spring onion/shallots
• A little chilli (optional)
• Oyster sauce and sesame oil to drizzle over at end

1. Heat your pan on a medium heat. Whisk eggs in a bowl and cut the bottoms off the enoki mushrooms and then cut the rest of the enoki mushrooms into inch long pieces.  Heat some oil in the pan and add the eggs and then sprinkle over the enoki mushrooms distributing them evenly. Then scatter over some of the sliced green onions on top, add lid on top and cook until cooked-you can flip this over carefully to cook the other side too.

2. Scatter some finely sliced chilli (large red ones are less hot), drizzle with some oyster sauce and sesame oil as well as extra green onions. I added some coriander just because I had some.

I had my very first try of pâté when I was a teenager. A friend of mine at the time used to invite me to Symphony and Opera in the Park with her family.  They would unpack the food and there was always pate and water crackers and I would experiment with this unusual spread that I had never eaten before. My parents weren’t big offal eaters at all, in fact I don’t recall a single offal dish ever gracing our table ever. The first time I tasted it I tasted the strong livery taste as well as that of brandy which was another item that never saw the light our table. I was intrigued but I liked it.

Every year that we went it always rained and we’d sit on the soggy ground underneath raincoats contemplating when was too wet so that we could leave or whether it would stop altogether (it never did).We’d never see the end of the operatic performance and instead her frazzled mum would bundle us all into the back of her VW beetle with our legs slick with rain and sandpapery grains of dirt and grass and drive home. I never really paid much attention to what was happening on the screen as we never saw the ending. It was all about the pâté and the food.

A picnic friendly version with a lid

That friendship went in the way of the black hole but after many Operas in the Park liver pate is one of my favourite ways to eat offal. I had no idea it was so easy to make and a quick glance at the A Cook’s Guide by Donna Hay showed me how easy it actually was. I wanted to make this for another outdoor event, a picnic, to create some newer memories from those hazy ones from decades ago.

It was almost too easy to make pate but there are a few tips I should share. Chicken livers need to be bought fresh so buy them as close to when you are going to make them. I bought mine the day before (and they were a steal at $1.60 for the whole lot). You also need to trim the livers of the white connective tissue and the bloodlines and any darker patches that can make it bitter-you can see that I went a bit overboard but I wasn’t sure how far to trim.

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