You walk in the menu, they had their seasonal items, their newest items, and so often we're just drawn to that because we know what it looks like. We know what to expect In some regards, people love to be adventurous with food, but a lot of times they wanna know what they're eating. They wanna know what to expect.

In the instance of kids, they might have some picky eaters, and we just eat with our eyes essentially.

Thank you for being on the show with us. Hi Wes. Thanks for having me. This is gonna be fun. Yeah, so when we were doing some research to try and see who we would have on our guest list coming up on the shows, we ran across your LinkedIn profile and it really caught our team's eye because you are doing some really cool stuff when it comes to the world of food for photography and videography.

Yeah, and we do a lot of work with school districts all over the country. One of the biggest struggling points that a lot of people have in this industry is how do we engage students and parents on social media to really showcase awesome food that we're producing in the school cafeterias? How do we really show them that cool stuff?

And so when we saw some of the pictures that you're taking, some of the cool things that you're doing, we just had to have you on the show to share with us a little bit more about some of the projects you're working on. Tell us a little bit about yourself. And so I'm really excited to chat with you today.

Before we get started on the topic, I would love to get to know you a little bit better where you're from, what got you into food photography. So maybe share a little bit more about yourself and what got you into this industry. Yeah. Number one, thanks for having me and thanks for your kind words.

So I am a registered dietician turn food photographer, so I do bring some food service experience to the table. I was born in Iowa. My background is both dietetics and culinary science, which is like food science meets culinary arts. So this fusion of food and cooking and nutrition and health.

I just love where those worlds collide 'cause I think they go hand in hand. I've always had the dream of being an entrepreneur. Both my parents are business owners, so over time I would do some food photography on the side. And about two years ago now, I've gone full-time food photography, full-time into food photography.

I'm a commercial food photographer. That means I work with food brands, editorial food publications, cookbook authors. Basically help bring their creative visions to light and showcase their food in the best way possible. So it's been a, career journey with a lot of twists and turns. But it's just such a fun place to be in.

And showcasing good food is really fun, and it's fun to have a creative career too. Yeah, that's what brought me here. So I'm curious what got you into photography to start off? I'll tell you a quick little backstory. I actually dabbled in photography. Still do. I have some really nice cameras that I like, but I do a lot of scuba diving.

My motivation was that I wanted to be able to. Take really cool underwater. And so that was my motivation. I was in the water all the time and I was tired of just the typical GoPro, cheesy pictures that are grainy and you're like, is an octopus? Is that a fish? I don't really know.

So I wanted to take better pictures and that was my motivation. So what really got you into this world of photography? Because it's not an easy thing to pick up. It's not like you just pick up a very complex Yeah. Photography tool like A Cannon or a Nikon, or. Sony and you just automatically know how to use A-D-S-L-R.

Like you have to really work at it. And you have to have a little bit of a passion for it. So where'd that passion come? My dream job was to work for Taste of Home Magazine. It's a very like Midwest publication, and I was in a My Foods class and I entered a, it was the Iowa Egg Council competition, a Cookoff, and I had to create a recipe.

I took a photo, I was like, I don't know if I wanna show that book photo. Created a recipe, took a photo, and I ended up becoming a finalist. I got to go to Des Moines, Iowa and cook it and present it to the judges, and I ended up winning the youth division. So it was this fusion of I would love to work for a food magazine in their test kitchen.

And now I got to try that out and I really love it. One of the judges was a professor at Iowa State in their culinary science department. Oh, cool. So was I added dietetics, once I was at Iowa State. But I did a few internships with food companies in test kitchens, and they would often outsource to food photographers.

So that was the initial exposure in the interest. And in grad school, I actually worked with a small food startup and they needed help with their social media, their content creation, their photography. And that was cool because it was a way to dabble and try it out and actually do the posting and really involved.

At the end of that experience, they actually brought me, it was the best gift ever, my first DSLR. And they were like, we believe in you. We would love for you to do this. We would love to pay you. So essentially they were my first client. And really someone believing in you takes helps you go far because.

Not that I didn't believe in myself, but I never really saw myself, charging and having a client. And I honestly don't know if I would've bought that camera on my own. Once I had it, it was like, wow, I gotta take this to the next level. So yeah, a combination of an interest, a passion, someone believing in me, and then getting to try it out and really loving it.

'cause sometimes we try things and we're like. Not just a lot easier ways to learn and apply yourself, continue to grow. And I think seeing that progression really helped too, of I got this. I can do this. And slowly building. So yeah. It's been great. I love hear, I love hearing people's stories, especially the part about having someone that believes in you and having that be one of those things that gave you the confidence to continue down that path.

Because I feel like so often we doubt ourselves so much, and it's not that we don't believe in ourself, but we just question whether or not this is the direction that we should be going in. And then when you have that one person that really says. Hey, look, Ashley, you're really good at this and you should really pursue this.

It's what? All I have that validation that I'm not just overly confident in this area, but someone else sees what I feel and it gives you that little bit extra to push forward it. Take those online courses and really dive into it and give it a hundred percent. Totally. It's that, especially in a more creative realm where it's not black and white, to have some external validation is really helpful.

So yeah, I agree. I'm so grateful for them for getting me going. I think, just, I. When we have, 'cause I had very similar things happen to me when I was trying to figure out kinda what direction I wanted to go in. And then I had people that were in my corner, we'll put it that way, that were my cheerleaders rooting me on as I started our company and grew things.

And it makes me think like what type of. Validation are we giving to other people also? 'cause we have the same ability to appreciate the people around us, just like we felt that appreciation. I feel like so oftentimes, people get that appreciation, but they don't give that appreciation.

Yeah. I would love to be, 10, 20, 30 years from now for someone to be able to say the same thing about me. That would mean so much. Yeah. So I think that's a good point. Thinking back, but then thinking forward how we can apply those learnings and help others is huge. Yeah. Absolutely. We know that you're really into photography.

We know that you have that as a passion. Food dietetics. What's one thing that people don't know about you that maybe you are really good at, that you excel at? Maybe a passion of yours that you're really into right now? Okay. I was noodling on this for a little bit and I. Here's what I'll say.

It's unexpected. So I mentioned that my parents are entrepreneurs, so one thing I know a lot about that maybe most people don't know a lot about is the road construction industry. I don't know anything about that. Most people don't. But essentially I grew up, my dad runs a third generation road construction company Oh wow.

In Iowa. So I. I know a lot about the names of machines. I've operated an excavator or like a backhoe. I worked for him one summer on a job site. And even, this is funny, but my husband and I got married in my hometown, which is very small. But he started, caterpillar Road Construction Equipment Museum.

So we actually had a reception like in the museum. So anyway, I don't know if I'm like an expert. He's the expert. It's just a fun, funny like thing that I know a lot about that. So you had the like your wedding reception with like tractors around. Yeah. Which makes it amazing sound. I think what you're probably visualizing is a little bit different than what it is.

Maybe I can send a photo or something for you to share, but Yeah, it was classy. I love it. It's so random. Like people through venue. What's so unique though? Venue. Yeah. And I was like, I would like laugh when everyone would be like, oh, what's your venue? Where I'm like, um, antique Caterpillar, construction Equipment Museum.

But yeah, it's really cool and it's special and he's a role model in a lot of ways in terms of business and just going after things. So yeah, that's his passion project and it was fun working for him too. Totally out of my comfort zone, but also so good for me. That's amazing. I would've never pictured you as a back co operator.

I just, I wouldn't. Yep. That's cool. Thank for sharing that. Yeah. I wouldn't say I'm an expert or super good at it, but I did. Basically the story is you have to flatten the dirt if you're building a, like a building on the site. 'cause you don't want it to like overtime tip. So I was the roller operator, which meant I would drive over the dirt.

Flatten it for one summer. So it was great. It was great job. Yeah, it was awesome. Honestly, it was really great. I just think maybe you can add this to your questions, but a really fun question to ask people's, like what's the most random job you have or have had, and that's probably one of them. So anyway, feel free to ask me more.

I don't think anyone would let me around. Like heavy machinery. Like the closest to heavy machinery that I've gotten to is like I used when I was probably like. 15 or 16 years old, my dad thought it would be a good father-son bonding project to put this big, giant horse fence up in their backyard. And they lived in Arizona at the time.

Oh my gosh. So I'm like, my God, this high school student, and my dad's oh, you need a summer project, so let's go in the backyard. And so he let me use the auger to dig the holes. Oh. And do the post holes. It was like one of those post hole diggers, like the mechanical ones, but that's the closest to heavy machinery that I've ever gotten to.

And I think that's about what, and you're done. I think that I'm okay with that. After that project I was like this, I think I wanna do something with computers. I'm glad you got exposure to it. Like I said, sometimes it's, Hey, I wanna do more of this. And sometimes it's the opposite. You gotta try it.

Yeah. I'd love to start off with really diving into what is, in your opinion, the true importance of taking really good quality pictures and videography of food to really kinda showcase the product that it is that we're putting out into the world? Yeah, honestly, I think it is so important, especially in the area of food, 'cause we eat with our eyes.

Think about a time where you went to a restaurant and I think of. Panera Bread, for example. You walk in the menu, they have their seasonal items, their newest items, and so often we're just drawn to that because we know what it looks like. We know what to expect In some regards, people love to be adventurous with food, but a lot of times they wanna know what they're eating.

They wanna know what to expect. In the instance of kids, they might have some picky eaters, and we just eat with our eyes essentially. It's super important just in terms of, menu development people knowing what they're ordering, but also we're, the world is becoming increasingly digital, increasingly visual.

So as time's gone on, it's become even more important to showcase either through photography or videography, what people can expect from their experience in your food establishment. If that is a cafe, a restaurant, a cafeteria, it all applies. Super important. I'm thinking as you're talking, I'm thinking of my kids.

So I've got a 6-year-old and a 4-year-old. Yeah. And talk about some picky eaters to expect when they're sitting out for a meal. Oh my goodness. It's if it doesn't look exactly the way that they had it envisioned in their little mind, they won't even try it. We put good stuff on their plate. At home we make good stuff and they just are like, yeah, no, I'm not gonna try.

I'm like, it's pizza. What's wrong with pizza? You like meat, but it's a new brand. It doesn't look the way that they want it to look. Everything is so visual for them, and if it doesn't look exactly the way that they want it to look in their mind, then they don't even give it a chance, regardless of what the flavor components are.

It could be the best thing in the world, but if you can't get 'em to just try it. Yeah, and I think that part of that is getting them excited about it going into the actual meal process. So a lot of the schools that we work with have been dabbling a little bit with taking pictures and posting 'em on social media to try and get the kids.

A little bit more excited before they sit down to actually have the chicken nuggets or the beautifully prepared meal that they've put together for them for lunch or breakfast to really give them that introduction before they see the food product in front of them on the cake. Yep. I also think of.

Times when I've gone to restaurants and if I don't do this anymore, but when social media first came out, there was a period of time and I definitely fell into this. I feel like I have to take pictures of everything that I'm eating to show people in my family what I'm consuming. Lo and behold, no one in my family cared what I was eating, but I still took pictures of basically every meal at every restaurant that I went to and attempted to capture what it was that I was feeling in that moment.

But the pictures I took always paled in comparison to what I was actually looking at. But I know that there are different strategies and techniques that we can implement to really, yeah. Better capture what it is that we're seeing so that what we are putting out there into the world if we're a food, we're a restaurant or a school, really does get people excited about that product.

So I, I'd love to hear what are like, maybe like a 1, 2, 3 punch combo that can really help people improve quality of the pictures that they're taking. First of all, I wanna say it seems like, oh, it's just food. I'll just take a picture. I take pictures all the time. Food's a little different.

It's not so easy to always make it look good. So one, just validation, especially in like restaurants, when the lighting's not great, like it's not you. I'll give three main tips. First of all, it's gonna be lighting as a photographer. Whole job is around capturing light and having, products look the best in the light that they're presented in and manipulating light.

But when you're getting started, the best light you can use is natural light. Honestly, right now I'm lit by natural light. Find a window, it's completely free. And think about, so first of all, finding good light. If you want consistency, think about the time of day you're shooting. You probably don't want like direct light.

So if you can have a way, some kind of filter, see-through white, diffusion material, or just not direct light. Just be by a window, have it filtering in and not like shining in brightly. So shooting at the same time of day can be helpful, finding a window. And then with food, I like to backlight it.

So that means you're, if your food's sitting here and this is where the window is and it's streaming in this way, and you're standing here to shoot it. So I like to backlight food that's a fail safe sidelight backlight. And just find that window and set up your scene. So number one, natural light.

Finding it. If you have a window, I know sometimes in cafeteria type settings it can be hard to find a window, maybe it's taking one of those little carts and carting it over where you can get a window. Yeah, so number one, natural light, the way to go. And honestly, it's some of the best light even, artificial tries to mimic natural light 'cause it's so good.

Number one tip there. Then angles, really think about your angles. So I have my phone here so I can show what that looks like. A lot of people will do top down angles. There's kind of three feel safe ones to safety top down. This is best with an iPhone because it doesn't have any sort of lens distortion.

So top down and don't do this or this. You want it to be straight, flat across. So if you're standing here and looking over it, you might have to, make sure it's not tipping. There's a setting on your camera where you can set up a grid in an arrow so you make sure it's not tipping. So angle one, top down, angle two's 45 degrees.

Try not to go anywhere in here where it's just a little bit off. So 45 degree angle. This works great for, or top down is great for things like soup. Things like casserole that might have a scoop scooped out of them. Anything where you're gonna have to be on top in order to see what the deliciousness looks like?

45 degree works for a lot of things can work for things like the soups or sos or any kind of casserole, but can also work for sandwiches. It's like drinks. Drinks are also good. Top down, so 45 degree and then straight on this is best when things have layers and you wanna showcase all those beautiful layers.

So again, sandwiches. Burgers top down, you're just gonna see the bun, right? So this front angle can work really well to just see all that. If you're doing the sprint down, you might need a backdrop or something and wanna sidelight it, but I don't wanna get, I can get down the, in the weeds, all that stuff.

So front facing, 45 degree, top down. Think about the dish you're shooting and what's gonna best showcase all the flavors and layers and goodness, and go for good. Third tip would be composition, and this can be called storytelling. It's really thinking about what's in the dish and how can we highlight those flavors.

Sometimes there can be limitations around this. For me, depending on the project, I'll sprinkle some sea salt or sprinkle fresh herbs or wipe things with some oil to give them some shine. But really make sure you're using either flavor cues or hands or other kind of extra props to tell the story.

If you're working with kiddos, this can be a fun way to. Get some kiddos hands in there or cut things in some fun shapes or use colorful dishware to draw them, appeal to kiddos and make them excited about what they're eating. So that was a lot. That was probably more than three. No, I know, and I can hear the excitement and the passion in your voice, and I love it.

Yeah. And I also love that third point about composition and, adding some of those little props because, again, I think back to some of the pictures of food that just, silly pictures that I've taken and yeah, you take the picture, but you are so focused on the dish that it's all of the picture and you don't take into consideration.

Yes. The items that are on the exterior. And so it's, I feel like it adds so much to that story and it helps people to really put themself in the driver's seat of that photo and say, I can see myself sitting down at a table or at a cafeteria lunch table and eating this meal. And so often I think we're so focused on the food and not the story that we're telling about the food.

Yep. And something, tying that to the food service setting, something that can make a big difference, again, if it works with budget, is just investing in some fun plates and utensils. Taking things out of the hotel pan, plating it, making it look good for a quick snapshot, and then you have that and can use that in so many different places.

So it can be worth just that little bit of investment to get some of those pieces that then. You can reuse again and again, have consistency in your images, but also make them really appealing and. Yeah, absolutely. So when we're talking about taking the pictures and we're talking about, using a natural light, which is an easy tool to be able to utilize.

Yep. What types of cameras are we talking about? Do we need a fancy camera or is a cell phone these days good enough for it? And, what other types of tools would you recommend that are affordable tools that are economically friendly that can really get folks started? I love that you asked, 'cause I think a lot of times we see beautiful photos or see the highest end photos and we're like, we need to start here.

But the best thing is like you have the best tool in the palm of your hand, which is a smartphone. So trill, you can do so much with this tool. Obviously having a smartphone, number one, there are some apps that can really help. So in terms of photo editing, which can take your image. From here to here, I recommend the Lightroom app.

It is free on your phone and it's great to get started editing, playing around with what you can do. Take the sliders, pull up the contrast, pull down the contrast. What do you like? What look do you like? So Lightroom or Snap Seed is another great editing tool. Some simple editing there too. But a huge part of capturing photos is, getting light and composition and then that final element of editing.

Canva is also a great tool. I'm sure this is something we've all heard about. Yeah. But one allows you to upload your brain kit and then just play with those, you can do some photo editing in there too, but taking those images and adding another layer that will further appeal to the students and parents you are talking to.

I love those tools and a co, I've heard of a couple of them. I know there are people on our team that have used Camden the past and cap cut and a couple of the other ones that you mentioned as well, like Lightroom and we will definitely put some links down in the show notes. Yeah. So that people can click on those and organize them for videography suggestions and also just photo editing suggestions.

One question that I do have about the editing process though. Yeah. 'cause I think everyone out there has seen pictures that either fell a little flat and they just didn't really do a good job of showcasing the food product. And then we've seen pictures on the other side that are so unrealistic.

Are there any suggestions that you have to really capture the, maybe even make our images a little more creative and, ultimately better story tell, but without going to one extreme or the other. Yeah, I think that's such a good point. Even lucky. I always look, or I sometimes look back on my photos initially and I'm like, I think I played with the saturation tool a bit too much.

So one tip, don't oversaturate things. We don't need a lot of extra orange and yellow. But the biggest thing is that you're gonna have your exposure, which is your lightness and darkness, and then you're gonna have your contrast, which is basically the difference between the light and dark colors.

Underneath that, there's highlights, shadows, whites, and blacks. And what you can do is you can actually get more granular with playing with the whites, the exposure or not. Changing the exposure and instead playing with the whites and the highlights and the blacks. So what I like to do is not really mess with the exposure setting, but further define it underneath that.

So that's very specific, but pulling up contrast can be helpful to get a little bit more pop. There are also some tools where you can play with specific colors that can get a little scary. That's how you can end up with some really, overly saturating things. So I like to err on the side of Lesses more.

Keeping it as natural looking as possible, and just moving those sliders a little bit to give you a little boost. Also, having great lighting is gonna help a lot with editing. So my biggest tip with all of that is to play with the extremes, to see what each slider does, but then work in little adjustments.

And truly when I edit. I have little tweaks. I save it as a preset and then I continue to use that moving forward. So when you're getting into colors and saturation, try to make it as natural looking as possible. And yeah, I could go into more specifics or two, but don't overdo it. Don't overdo it. And a lot of the filters out there that we use or just people don't always work for food.

So my advice would be to play with it, and again, save it. You can save it as like a preset, which is essentially a filter. Continue to use it again and again. So that usually works best. That's really cool. I was told a long time ago that little hinges swing big doors and it sounds like that's the case.

Yeah. When it comes to photo settings. Yep. And I think sometimes, even I fall into this occasionally of oh, if I just completely, change the editing, it's gonna totally transform it. But in reality, little tweaks is actually what just slowly takes it to the next level with each edit.

Absolutely. So you've got a little bit, and the last thing I wanna chat with you about here before we take offer for today I know that you got your start with, posting things on social media and Yeah. Really kinda helping brands, engage with their customers.

And I'd love to hear if you have any tips, tricks, suggestions on, we've taken this great photo and we're really happy with it after we've edited it. What do we do with it now? How can we engage with our customers? Yeah. Obviously we can throw it up on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, but yeah. What's the be is there a better place to do all of this?

Is there any creative suggestions that you have on really where kids and parents and really just anyone out there that, we think with, benefit from being able to see the awesome work that we're doing. How can we engage with those people and really catch their attention? I think this is such an important point because we've all had photos like, don't let your beautiful photos die on your camera roll.

They deserve to be seen, so this, A lot of this is gonna be dependent on your district and their marketing team. Take the photos and print them and laminate them, and then at the beginning of the line, you can have it set up so students can see maybe while they're waiting in line of what they're gonna be eating for that day.

A huge thing is, visuals can also help students no matter what age they are, their reading comprehension, they will be able to see what they can expect once they get to the front of the line. And then if you use some of those tricks to make the food more appealing, they might be even more willing to try something because they've seen it, they've thought about it, and now they can see it again when they get to that spot.

The other thing I love about that is if you laminate it can put the title again. You can use Canva to put the names of the dishes so they can learn that way too. And then you can just wipe those off and use them each time. You're gonna have, that dish done salad bar too. I know sometimes there's, the names of things, but you can use visuals there. And then newsletter's huge. I don't know, districts probably differ on how they share their menu, but even in, if it's virtually, you can put those photos on the menu. Yeah. And depending on the layout, you might have to squeeze it in, but it's, we're speaking to students, but ultimately we're also speaking to parents.

And I think. There are a lot of stereotypes about school lunch, but by showcasing, the fun things you're doing in the lunchroom or the cool ideas or the new things, you can make food appear fresh, appealing, see, seasonal showcase, your seasonal produce. And I think there's a lot of appeal to that helps, reverse some of those stereotypes people might have and ultimately, make your program more appealing, which I think is so important and great.

I love it. Great suggestions, great tips. And I very much appreciate you taking the time to, to share all this information with our viewers. And before we take off though I know you've got a website I know that you Yeah. Offer different services where you can come in and help districts and restaurants take better photos.

How can people get a hold of you? I, you can reach me via email or through my website. It's studio moa.com. And I'm also very active on Instagram, so that's at Studio moa. And then I'm working on some resources, some educational materials for easy food photography using your iPhone. And that'll be hopefully launching in the next year.

So my email list is also my website, so you can join that there. I will be launching to the email list first. Otherwise Instagram, LinkedIn, and then it's all Studio moa and I can always help with. Any sort of food photography, I often do shoots with clients and we can capture a lot of dishes in a day, and then they continue to use those assets, for years to come.

And always happy to chat on anything, marketing content, visual strategy, however I can know. Yeah. And we'll put all of that in the show notes as well, how people can get a hold of you, how to get a hold of your website and make sure that's accessible for everyone. Before I let you go, I've got one curve ball question that I like to ask all of our guests before we take off.

That question is if you had a billboard on the side of a freeway going to and from work and home every single day, and you could put any message that you wanted to on this billboard for the world to see, what would your message to the world be?

Okay. This is something I've been thinking about a lot recently and I think it would be, don't be afraid to be a beginner When we're kids. We try new stuff. We do new stuff, we're supposed to new things, we're constantly learning and just everything we do we're, often doing for the first time.

And then we become an adult and we're expected to be experts. And know everything about everything, and I think we become afraid to try new things, yeah. If that's a hobby, a sport, a skill. So I'm trying to remind myself of this, a lot of times in my hobbies or taking up things like pickleball, but I think there is just a lot of joy to be had in the learning process and being new at something, and then mastering it in the confidence that comes from that.

I think it's a great reminder, especially in a world where, social media, everyone seems to know everything already. Don't be afraid to be a beginner. And maybe on the billboard there'd be a little QR code where you could scan and then get all that extra stuff I just said. Yeah. I love it.

That is a great reminder for all of us and again, Ashley, I very much appreciate you being on the show. Thank you so much. I look forward to having you on the show again at some point in the future. Yeah, this is really fun. And we'll chat soon. Sounds good. Yeah. Bye.