A few weeks ago, I saw Mariam from Boss Babe Chronicles tweet asking everyone what’s one blogging task you’d never let anyone else do for you. I found the replies fascinating, and it really got me thinking about the tasks I like and don’t like. Now I know some people have a glamourised idea of what blogging life is, but there are still mundane tasks that people don’t like. Obviously, (hopefully?) there are also a lot of tasks you love if you run a blog too. I didn’t want this post to be negative and focus exclusively on my least favourite blogging tasks, so today I thought I’d share the best and worst things about food blogging. Best and worst to me, of course.
Yes, I added as a food blogger in there at the end. Depending on your niche, there’ll be different tasks involved, so this is mine. Obviously, the tasks you like and dislike are also individual, so this list doesn’t necessarily speak for the opinion of others. I’m sure there are plenty of others that love the tasks I hate.
My Favourite Food Blogging Tasks
I thought I’d start with the things I love because…well, that just seemed more pleasant.
Cooking
Obviously. If you’re a food blogger and don’t like cooking, I think we have a major problem. Unless of course, you do product/ restaurant reviews as your main thing…
But I love cooking. Invite your entire family over (after covid..) and I’ll happily cook for all of them. Most of the time I enjoy making it more than eating it, it’s way more satisfying to see someone else enjoy it.
Recipe prepping
I think I enjoy this so much because of my dietary requirements. If anyone is new, I’ve been eating a vegan diet for just over 5 years, and last summer I found out I was gluten intolerant (badly). The limitations, even though it means things are more likely to fail, and sometimes take several attempts to get right. And it’s frustrating sometimes, all of those things make the process so much more worth it.
I use cakes as my example a lot. No offense to any expert bakers out there, but making a plain and simple sponge with gluten and eggs and all the regular stuff is not hard. You bake them with your primary school aged children. But a gluten free, vegan cake? That rises? And tastes good? Most people expect it to be bad or lacking somewhat. And the genuine shock/ appreciation when it isn’t makes the whole process so much more satisfying.
Feeding my guinea pigs
Heavily related to the last one. My mum now eats mostly vegan but can eat gluten. One of my best friends is lactose intolerant but can eat everything else, then there’s my grandparents who are essentially carnivores. A dish getting a nod of approval from people who also have dietary restrictions is one thing, people who can eat absolutely anything enjoying it is totally different.
Feeding YOU
Similar to the last one. Only you don’t know me, and for the most part strangers on the internet don’t care for your feelings the same way the real life guinea pigs do. So, when you say you loved a recipe, or make something of mine once a week/ month/ however often, that has to be one of the best parts of sharing your food on the internet.
Finalising the recipe
This is a bit of a geeky one, but I like putting the recipe post together. The dish is made, photos are done – it’s nice to put it all together and press schedule.
My Least Favourite Blogging Tasks
Photography
This one is controversial, and I know some people love it. But taking the photos is by far my least favourite part. And this one is exclusively for food photography. I find beauty photography a lot easier. Food photography can be hard. And I’m by no means the best photographer (by a long way) but food is definitely harder. At least I find it harder. If you have a dish in a thinner sauce, sometimes light reflects off it weirdly and makes it look like literal water. Colour correction can be harder if you have a lot of different vegetables/ colour tones in your dish. Steam is my worst enemy. There’s just a lot to think about that I’d much rather not.
I’m including all aspects of photography here, editing, the setup to take the shot, the clean up after that. No one should ever have to think that hard about which bowl to put their dinner in.
Calculating the nutrition
I know that including the vitamin information in my posts is a personal choice, and if I really hated it, I probably wouldn’t do it, but it’s just boring. Typing out all of the ingredients? Fine. Then adding the same list into Cronometer and calculating the nutrients per serving? That’s dull. Not awful, but dull.
Cold food
So, I set up the photo, I took a picture. The light isn’t quite right, adjust the position slightly, move background props, adjust camera settings a little. Take another photo, better, but I’m still not happy. Repeat all/ most of the above. Great shot! But the steam is ruining it, let’s fan the bowl with my arm for a minute. Great!! Photos done! My food is cold, again, maybe lukewarm if I’m lucky.
I think that might be it for the tasks I truly don’t like. There are a few other things that I don’t think people often think about, like the fact I prefer to take my photos in natural light so often end up eating dinner for breakfast in winter so I can eat when the light is good. But 9/10 I find that a funny quirk more than anything.
Obviously, there are a lot more blogging tasks (for all niches) that fall somewhere in the middle. I enjoy making pins, but scheduling them is boring. Scheduling tweets and social media posts can be dull, but the engagement and sense of community are obviously great (I hope) for all bloggers.
Were there any surprises on this list for you? If you’re also a blogger, of any niche, what are some of your favourite and least favourite tasks?
Until next time,
Sophie
This was a nice read! I used to work for an advertising agency and we would shoot Christmas with this top chef on a hot July week on various locations. The bites we got to taste were of course all cold. Such a shame. I love your recipes Sophie. Keep on feeding us xx
This is so interesting. I guess, you forget sometimes how much work goes into creating posts. Especially if, like you, are creating recipes without all the ‘regular’ ingredients in them. I must admit, I wouldn’t fancy working out the nutritional values for the recipes either. Differining to you, I love the photography side of it, although not the best, I like the creativity it brings.
Thanks for sharing!
Aimsy xoxo
https://www.aimsysantics.co.uk
Really interesting Sophie! Food blogging is so different from beauty blogging so it’s great to have a behind the scenes. Every time I try and do food photography I’m not happy with it, so I can only imagine how hard it is to do constantly. I always love your innovative recipes, I’m sure they are so fun to come up with xx
Violethollow.com
I know wht you mean about the photography, I always struggle when it comes to taking photos for food!
Love, Amie ❤
The Curvaceous Vegan
I’m with you on the photography Sophie, it’s my least favourite part of blogging as I can’t be creative with it! I loved reading your best and worst things about food blogging, I think I would make my Mum be the guinea pig with the food I made too! x
Lucy | http://www.lucymary.co.uk
Photography is time consuming, without question. It can be frustrating so I’m with you! I sometimes go the next step and attempt videos. Not easy.
I appreciate that you’re gluten-free because I am, too. Thanks for sharing your woes!
–Sue
http://www.susanberkkoch.com/blog
Great post! The information you post and the photos that accompany it are excellent IMHO.
I am not a food blogger but I can definitely relate to the taking photos part, especially when it comes to objects and flat lays! Sometimes I wish I was a photographer so that I knew what to do with it (or perhaps had a close friend who was a photographer). My favourite task is writing up the post, my least favourite is editing photos because it takes soooo long to do! And also scheduling. I hate scheduling!
This was really interesting to read and see which sides of food blogging you love and don’t. I completely get the photography point – I’m not the biggest fan when it comes to flat lays as I find mine never look as good as other bloggers xx
http://www.dellalovesnutella.co.uk/
I don’t have the patience to photograph my food in any skilled manner so I’m always impressed by people like yourself who can take such good photos!
I find I like blogging although it can be sometimes hard to find the time for it! it’s a hobby for me so I’m never going to do things I don’t want to, which is a good balance I think! 🙂
Hope you had a wonderful weekend 🙂
I really love your photos, so it was interesting to learn that is not one of your favorite aspects of food blogging! That said, I did read Will Write for Food recently and got a good idea of how much effort goes into making a dish look good. I think good pictures in general require effort.
It is awesome that you enjoy the cooking and recipe planning! There are always highs and lows to help balance out the work. 🙂
The main reason that I’m not a food blogger is the photography aspect of it all. I don’t have the patience to carefully lay everything out and take pictures all the time. I considered doing some food content on my personal IG page when I first started it a few years ago but it wasn’t long before that tanked because I had nothing to share on there… that would have required actually taking pictures lol
Taking photos, editing photos and the description part of photos and blog post layouts…. I hate those parts lol. I love/hate taking photos just because I’m such a perfectionist. And even if I “loved” how a photo came out, if it doesn’t edit right I ditch the whole thing. I REALLY hate that about myself!
Doing bookish research, writing hundreds of words on a book I loved, and gathering/taking photos are some of my favourite blogging to-do’s. I abhor tweet scheduling, creating pins for my own site/blog posts, and finding the right tags. Those things are so time-consuming, and a bit soul crushing :’) If it helps, I love the way you approach food photography, and I always find that your photos are amazing!!
Thanks so much for sharing, great post!
Photography can take hours, and the result is one picture you like. Can definitely relate with how taxing that can be. Thanks for sharing your behind the scenes!
This was such an interesting read to see what food blogging tasks you like & don’t like. I don’t like photography either b/c it does take so much time trying to get the perfect shot & I don’t like scheduling pins & social media posts either
Love this post and I agree photography is very time consuming. have a great week!
xx- Nina
http://www.stylingwithnina.com/2020/10/how-to-style-snake-printed-blazer.html
Seeing photography on your list really surprised me because your photos are always so lovely and always make me hungry so I always thought you loved taking photos for some reason. It’s definitely fun to see what others most enjoy from blogging and least enjoy too. I can certainly imagine you get a lot of joy when you create something everyone in your family enjoys too.
Hi Sophie. Thanks for sharing your ‘likes’ and ‘dislikes’. Have yo uthought of ‘outsourcing’ your photography? A partner, friend, or family member that is keen on photography? Or perhaps, for more generic pictures rather than specific recipe ones (eg pictures of ingredients – a lemon, some almonds, a cauliflower etc etc), one of the free image sights like this: https://pixabay.com/images/search/food/. And if you want a Photoshop equivalent that is free then try https://www.gimp.org/ (I suspect I only use about 1% of its features but it is hugely powerful).
Oh the photography part takes a long while. This is why I mostly use stock images on mine. But when you include a recipe and want to show a picture of that, it is always nice to have a good picture of what you made. Also, I do like your photography skills. It shows that you have put the effort and its worth it because that picture came out great. I love editing the photos online. I think that’s fun to do since you get to see how it looks in the end and then share it with other bloggers. 🙂
i’m not a food blogger so it’s very nice to know all the details on your part. I feel taking photos of food can be challenging, as you have to show its real colour, texture, and shape.
thank you for sharing
What an interesting insight into your blogging likes and dislikes, Sophie. I love the photography aspect but I have loved photography long before I started a food blog. But you are definitely right, shooting food is so different from landscape or portrait photography and has so many quirks. I love thinking of new recipes, pulling them together and food styling. And I definitely love connecting with so many other foodies around the world who have similar passions and get what you’re doing and why (like you!). That is possibly my favourite part of the blogging journey!
Interesting points – for what it’s worth I think there are a lot of us that get a lot from your food blogging and your great recipes!
Photographing takes a lot of time :3
This is an interesting idea to look into what things you like and dislike when it comes down to blog tasks! I don’t really do photography for my blog, but when I do occasionally take some pictures for it, I probably find it one of my least favourite things to do as well! xx
Interesting post. Sometimes, I feel that as food bloggers it’s even more work because of the recipes and expiry elements to capture. I actually write recipes a lot but I also love doing them. I’m not too keen on the social media bit, as it takes a lot of time but I like it occasionally. 🙂 /Madison
Ahh loved this post, Sophie! I feel you on the photography one. Although I don’t photograph food, I HATE TAKING BLOG PHOTOS. Hate it. Despise it. And Pinterest. I hate that too but I do it because it brings results. But if I could pay someone to do my Pinterest for my permanently I would.
I never thought about the food being cold once you had taken the shot! I think that would be on my list of peeves!
There are also days when photos just won’t and don’t look right and that also annoys me x
This is such a great post. I love that everyone would have different answers. I love taking photos but I hate some of the other behind the scenes things such as SEO related tasks.
It’s a shame you don’t like taking the pics as they always come up so good!! xx
This was a really interesting read. I can totally imagine what a pain it is to do food photography. I went to some botanical gardens once and one of the rooms was very warm and the steam made my camera lens blur. It was so irritating, so I can only imagine how annoying it is when you’re taking photos of your dinner. Your pictures are always great, though, so you’ve clearly nailed it!
I know the nutrition calculation must be a bit dull, but I love reading it on your blog posts. I find it fascinating to know what the nutrition is per serving, so I definitely think it’s a worthwhile task, even if it is a bit tedious lol.
Social media scheduling is my least favourite part – that and Instagram (it’s so much effort for pretty much zero return!) x
Beautylymin
I struggle so much with food photography x
Omg I totally feel you on the cold food! I did a campaign recently and by the end of it it was all cold to eat! oops! xx
This was really interesting to read and it’s so different than what I blog about.
It takes such a lot of effort to food blog and the cold food would be a con too.
Photography is definitely my least favourite part of all things blogging! I just don’t enjoy it and put myself under so much pressure to get good photos so I always go into it stressed haha! xx
Tiffany x http://www.foodandotherloves.co.uk