One of the ways we can improve our photography is by studying the photos of those we admire. Even better if they happen to live in the same city as you, better again if you can befriend them and best if you can invite yourself over to watch them shoot. 
“They” in my case is John Bek from He Needs Food, a Sydney based food and travel blog with stunning imagery. I regularly ask John “has Gourmet Traveller magazine contacted you yet?” and he humbly brushes off my compliments. But the thing is, I really mean it. I think his photos are of that high a standard.
My style is quite different to his but that’s irrelevant. It’s the principles that matter, things that can be applied to any set up and style. It was very interesting to see that our set ups are actually quite similar, though his photos have more shadows than mine.
Watching John shoot and chatting to him about photography validates my philosophy about food photography – that you do not need an expensive DSLR, you can take amazing photos by “making do” in your own home and without spending loads of money on props. It was also really interesting to learn that the way he shoots is exactly what I teach in The Food Photography Book.
