July 15, 2026 • 3372 mins
When Burnout Becomes the Beginning of Something Better
What if the thing wearing you down is pointing you toward your next chapter?
Have you ever wondered if the creative spark you feel is trying to tell you something? If you've been questioning your path, this conversation will remind you that meaningful change often begins with one small step.
Meet Regan BaroniIn this episode, Mica McCook welcomes Chicago food photographer, educator, and former advertising art director Regan Baroni. As the creator of the Mastering iPhone Food Photography course, Regan has helped photographers and business owners create beautiful food images while building a creative career rooted in curiosity, growth, and purpose.
What You'll DiscoverRegan shares how burnout led her to rediscover creativity through food photography and how that passion grew into a thriving business. Together, Mica and Regan explore the realities of freelancing, overcoming self-doubt, learning the business side of creativity, and building multiple income streams for long-term stability. They also discuss why expensive gear is not the key to creating meaningful work, how personal projects fuel artistic growth, and why rest, boundaries, and laughter are essential parts of a sustainable creative life.
Listen InWhether you're dreaming about starting something new, navigating a creative rut, or looking for encouragement to trust your own path, this episode offers practical wisdom and heartfelt reminders that growth happens one step at a time.
Final ThoughtsYou do not need every answer before you begin. Stay curious, keep creating, and trust that every experience is helping shape the creative life you're meant to build.
💬 Join the ConversationSavory Shot Shownote: https://micamccook.com/guests/
Website: https://micamccook.com/podcast
Instagram: www.instragram.com/mica.mccook
Instagram: www.instagram.com/thesavoryshotpodcast
📣 Follow Regan BaroniWebsite: https://reganbaroni.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reganbaroni/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/regancunningham/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/reganbaroni/
Would you like to be a guest on the show? Fill out the guest form, and we'll be in touch soon.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Welcome to the 73rd episode of TheSavory Shot, a podcast about the art
and soul of working in food photography.
I'm your host with the most, Mica McCook.
I'm a food photographer based inAustin, Texas, where the tacos are
(00:21):
hot and the lighting is even hotter.
Okay, that sounded cooler in my head.
Carry on.
Carry on.
Before we dive into today's episode,I gotta take a second and say thank
(00:44):
you, gracias, to every single oneof you who has been riding with this
show, the day oners, the ones whoslide in my DMs after every episode.
Y'all, you make this worthit every single time.
And if this is your very first time tuningin, welcome to the Hot Mess Express.
(01:10):
You're one of us now.
One of us.
One of us.
I hope you brought snickysnacks and a cocktail.
Okay, y'all, real quick,did you catch episode 72?
Because if you missed it, man,you missed a good episode.
(01:31):
Go back and listen to it immediately.
I sat down with Rob Finkelstein.
He's a lawyer, pastry school grad,food blogger, and a food photographer.
He created a course calledContract Legalese specifically
for food photographers.
And let me tell y'all, I walkedaway from that conversation looking
(01:54):
at every contract I've ever signedwith completely different eyes.
We talked about copyright, licensing,why negotiating with brands is not
as scary as you think, and why thoseboilerplate clauses at the bottom of your
contract, yeah, you need to read those.
So to toot my own horn,go listen to that episode.
(02:18):
It's awesome possum.
We'll still be here.
This episode will still be here.
But let's talk about today.
I wanna talk about this conversation.
Man, y'all, ooh, this was so awesome.
I'm a get right into it.
I'm a introduce the guestright here, right now.
(02:39):
Without further ado, let meintroduce to you Regan Baroni.
She is a food photographer.
She's based in Chicago.
She is a former advertisingart director who picked up a
camera and never looked back.
She is the creator of the MasteringiPhone Food Photography course, and
(03:01):
she has a new course called iPhoneDrink Photography that is on its way.
I don't know if it's debuted bynow, but I do know that you can sign
up to get on the early bird list.
So do that now.
In this episode, y'all,we get into all of it.
We talk about how burnout at an adagency cracked open a creative life that
(03:25):
Regan didn't see coming, what it reallyfeels like the morning after you quit
your job, why freelancing is lonelierthan anyone warns you, why diversifying
your income is non-negotiable, and howa phone camera and some good light is
genuinely all you need to get started.
(03:47):
Before we get into this episode,y'all, I need un petit favor from you.
If you know a photographer who'sstill waiting for the, quote-unquote,
"right moment" to make theirmove, send them this episode.
Seriously, this one is for them.
Then come on back, grab your coffee, yourpen, a notebook, and let's start the show.
(04:12):
Welcome to The Savory Shot, abiweekly show about the art and
soul of working in food photography.
I'm your host, Mica McCook.
Every other Wednesday, I sit down tochat with professionals in the industry
so that you feast on only the besttips and strategies in the business.
(04:33):
All right, y'all, let's get started.
Regan, I just wanna start the show bythanking you for being here, for taking
the time to sit and chat with me.
Welcome to the show.
(04:53):
Welcome to The Savory Shot.
Oh, thank you, Mica.
I'm so excited to be here.
This is very exciting for me, and I loveyour podcast, so I was totally flattered
when you reached out, so this is great.
So I wanna start off by asking youwhat kept you coming back to food
photography before you got paid for it?
(05:14):
Well, that's a great question because Iwas not a photographer my whole career.
I was actually an art director inadvertising when I graduated college,
and became really burnt out withthe agency life and wasn't feeling
creative, and I started gettingmore into cooking, and that's when
I started to see food differently.
(05:35):
I remember specifically chopping somescallions on this wooden cutting board,
and taking it in, I was like, "This looksso pretty. I, like, wanna take a picture
of it." And so I actually moved it overcloser to the window in the kitchen
and used my iPhone to take a picture.
It was just fun.
It was like a moment, right?
So eventually I was, like, findingmyself taking a lot of pictures
(05:59):
with my phone, like, at the grocerystore, at the farmer's market,
whatever we were cooking that night.
And my family eventually surprised me withmy very first DSLR and I was like, "Oh
my gosh, I have to learn how to use thisthing." And so I taught myself how to use
it, and I just was loving the process.
Because I was feeling so creativelyburned out at my job, this
(06:23):
was bringing it back to life.
So it was really cool to have my dayjob during the week, and then every
weekend I was, like, cooking andstyling and shooting and editing,
and just trying to learn the craft.
What did those early weekends, whatdid they teach you about yourself?
Dedication.
They taught me that I had found somethingthat I wanted to keep getting better at.
(06:47):
You know when we're learning somethingnew, it's like we're starry-eyed
and it's fun, and everything seemsshiny and new, and then you kinda
get into it and you're like, "Um, Idon't know if I like this anymore."
Actually.
That didn't happen.
Everything was a learning experience,and I just kept wanting to do it.
(07:08):
I got excited to think about props Iwas gonna use to shoot some oysters,
what plates I could get for spaghetti,and how am I gonna style the noodles?
Like, I was wearing all the hats'cause I was just having fun.
This was a weekend hobby that turnedinto a career-changing business,
and I feel really lucky about that.
Those are the best kinds ofcareers to, like, find yourself in.
(07:31):
Yeah.
Mean, that's how itstarted for me as well.
Yeah.
Not the cooking part.
Sure.
I mean, I can cook now, butback then I really couldn't.
But I started a food blog with afriend, and I just wanted to get
better at the photography side.
Yep.
And so I just became superhyper-focused on photography.
(07:54):
Of course.
But now that I think about it, it's likethose were, like, really exciting times.
Right.
I loved the challenge, I loved thecolors, I loved the textures, all of that.
For you, when did thejoy turn into commitment?
I loved what I was doing.
Obviously, I was doing it everyweekend and just enjoying the process
(08:15):
and having so much fun with it.
But what started to really getmy attention was the support
I started receiving behind it.
Obviously, my family andfriends are my number one fans,
so they're a little biased.
But so I was at my day job.
My boss at the time set up a day forme to go shadow a well-known food
(08:41):
photographer in Chicago for the day.
During the week, I got to skipwork and go shadow somebody.
Wow.
So he saw something in what I was doing.
He knew I loved it a lot, but I don'tknow if I was even at the point at then
of, like, wanting to go all, all in.
(09:03):
But when your boss sends you offto shadow a food photographer,
you pay attention to that.
So it was a nice little confidence boost,and so I was telling Mike about it.
I'm like, "I really love this.
You know, do you think I could dothis?" And he was like, "It would break
my heart if you didn't pursue this."
And I was like, "Oh my God." All thatsupport just felt kinda the extra
(09:26):
confidence boost I needed to go all in.
But at the time, Mike and I hadjust bought our house, and for me
to just quit on a whim and eliminatemy salary was not gonna happen.
So we kinda talked.
How could we make this work?
And so we decided we're gonna get outtadebt and we're gonna save some money,
(09:46):
and then I'm gonna put in my notice.
And during that time, ittook about a year and a half.
So during that time, though, I wastrying to build my client list on the
side, and my boss, Ronaldo, amazing guy.
Amazing, amazing guy.
Very creative.
If I got, like, a gig that came up duringthe week, I would tell him, "Can I leave
early?" And he'd be like, "Take the day.
You need to be focused on thatjob." He's like, "I want this for
(10:08):
you." And when Mike said, "It wouldbreak my heart if you didn't pursue
this," I was like, "Oh my gosh."
Oh my gosh.
This is incredible, 'cause I want it,and then when other people want it
for you and they really wanna helpyou get there, it's pretty amazing.
But yeah, eventually the day cameand I put in my notice, and I
literally woke up the next morning,like the day after quitting my job.
(10:30):
Oh my gosh
… And freaked out.
I was like, "Oh my God, I did it.I'm here. I gotta make this work."
Then you kinda settle in, and youstart getting your business hat on
and learning that side of it, so.
Oh, man.
But it's been a cool process.
So yeah, a combination of just lovingit so much and having that support and
(10:52):
encouragement was what made me go all in.
See, sometimes that's all it takes,is because we get so in our heads.
Oh my God, yes
… And we worry about the can we, can we, should we, should we, that-
Am I good enough?
Am I good enough?
Yeah.
Even I remember having a convo withmy professor about what direction
(11:17):
of photography I was in and, andabout food photography and telling
him, "Well, there's a bunch offood photographers out there.
It's so saturated." And he's like,"There's a bunch of Italian restaurants."
Right.
"Do you think that's gonna stopsomeone from opening an Italian
restaurant just because there'sanother one, or a Tex-Mex?"
That is a very good point.
So it's just wonderful.
Let's talk about your early portfolio.
(11:39):
What did the version, the firstversion of your portfolio look like?
Oh, it was so pretty.
No.
Actually, it's so funny.
It's such a good question because myfirst portfolio was actually a food blog.
Now, keep in mind, I was not a recipedeveloper or a blogger, but because I
was practicing food photography everyweekend, I wanted a place to, like,
(12:02):
share my work other than social media,and so a blog seemed like a good idea.
And so that's what it was at first, andit was called Up Close and Tasty, and
I don't know how I came up with that.
It was, like, on the train ridehome from work or something.
I'm like, "I just wanted to runwith it." I'm like, "I just wanna
get this up and running so I havea place to post these pictures nice
and big and talk about what I did."
(12:24):
And so that's how it started.
And then once I decided to go all in,I created an actual portfolio site
where it looked like a professionalportfolio site, but the images were a
mix of random little restaurant shootsI would get and cellphone pictures from
the grocery store or things I was doingin the entryway of my house at the time
(12:45):
before I had this basement area 'causeI was very reliant on natural light,
and I have this giant window up there.
So it was just a com- a mishmash of foodphotography that I thought was good, and
when I look back, I laugh a little bit,but it's always fun to see the growth.
Yes.
Yes.
(13:06):
I took some pictures of churros.
Oh, yeah
… And very early, like first year, and at the time that I shot
them, I thought, "This is art."
Yes, it is.
And now I look at them andI'm like looking at all of
the, like, oh, that lighting.
Oh God, what was I thinking?
(13:27):
It's not even in focus.
Yeah.
I had this thing where Iwould tilt the horizon line.
No, I'm serious.
I should send you a picture justto give you a laugh, because I
remember shooting some wings, and Iliterally kind of tilted my camera.
I'm like, "This is cool." And Imean, if you saw this, you'd be like,
"What was going through her head?
(13:50):
They look like they're gonna fall outof the frame." Like, this wasn't subtle.
I don't know.
But you know what?
Being able to play and experimentand take shots like that, and then
look back and know that you've,like, learned something from it,
like don't do that, is invaluable.
Our experience, and we're all beginners.
We all start somewhere.
(14:11):
For real.
For real.
Like, when I started the food blog withmy friend Charlotte, it really was just
us flying by the seat of our pants.
We didn't know whatthe hell we were doing.
But we basically would create afour-course meal based on a book
character, 'cause we both loved to read,but our blog name was Let's Taco About It.
(14:32):
So every month was a different theme.
Oh, that's cool.
And one month, we featuredHitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and
we thought we would do, like, thisScience fiction, a lot of silver.
Oh.
And it just had theweirdest shit on the menu.
Oh, we had a lot ofblack, a lot of velvet.
(14:54):
And, like, I could picture what Iwas envisioning, like, what I wanted.
Yeah.
But I just could not getthe technical side of it.
And then also, Charlotte does not liketo bake, and so she was like, "We're
gonna make these whale-shaped marshmallowcookies," except we didn't get, like,
the whale cutout, so she tried to, like,make the whale DIY, and it just did
(15:17):
not look like… It just, it did not.
So that whole shoot was a shit show.
And we did not getanything that we wanted.
Okay.
At some point during theshoot, we just said, "This shit
sucks, and we're, like, done."
It sounds hilarious.
(15:39):
We were done.
I was like, "I cannot figure outhow to fix this lighting. It looks
terrible." And I just, I can't do it.
Were you using naturallight too at the time?
No.
At the time, I was using these LEDconstant lights, like, continuous lights.
Oh, sure.
(15:59):
Okay.
Yeah.
And I didn't know anything about fill.
I didn't know anything about keys.
So we just had all these lights,and they were pointing everywhere
and nowhere at the same time.
I love it.
Sounds about right.
We couldn't figure out how tolight the silver, and then the
(16:22):
damn whale kept falling apart.
I think that's what, like, madeus quit at that point because
the whale just, ink, fell apart.
Oh, no.
And we were like, "We're done." Like,"Fuck this." Like, "We are so done.
Let's just eat this shit and go."
Oh, that's so funny.
Oh my God.
It was so bad.
But when I look at those photos and,like, it brings me joy because I
(16:44):
laugh at the frustration, the day, thejokes that we cracked and everything.
So with that long-winded story, whichearly images still make you smile?
Like, laugh smile, or smilelike, "I'm proud of that"?
One or both.
Yeah.
The wings picture is a classic 'cause,I mean, those wings were falling out
(17:08):
of the frame, and I thought, "Thisis artsy looking. This is so cool."
This is so commercial.
But one image that I am very proud of isthis octopus in a bowl shot that I did.
I went to the grocery store and no plan.
Just wanted to see, like, do you ever goand, like, with no plan and just to see
(17:31):
what food stands out to you and you'relike, "That's what I'm gonna shoot today"?
That's what I did.
Oh, I, I've never donethat, but now I want to.
Well, it was kinda fun.
I s- I didn't have an idea, andI thought, "It'll come to me.
I'm just gonna go to the store and walkaround, and maybe it'll be carrots.
Maybe it'll be some beautiful redbeets." But in it, I went to the fish
(17:51):
section. I'm a huge seafood fan, soyou'll always catch me in the seafood
area of a grocery store. And they hadthese little baby octopus and octopi,
and I thought, "I'm gonna mess with that.
I could do something dramatic with that."And so I brought it home, and I didn't
wanna touch it, but I did 'cause itwas kinda slimy, kinda gross-looking.
(18:13):
But I had this little bowl, and I put iton our wood dining table at the time, and
I used kind of a smaller speedlight off tothe side and just started taking pictures.
And I had, like, the octopus coming outof the bowl, and it ended up getting
recognized by the World Food Photographerof the Year Awards or something.
(18:35):
And those in London.
They used to be the Pink Lady FoodPhotography Awards, but they rebranded.
They renamed.
So it came in second.
What?
Yeah, in the Cream of the Crop category.
That's incredible.
So I've always been really proud ofthat because there were no rules.
There was no brief.
(18:55):
There were no expectations.
But I went to the store, found whatI wanted to shoot, took it home, and
experimented and played, and I think itjust came out, like that sense of freedom
came out, and it's a very dramatic image.
I'll send it to you soyou can take a look at it.
(19:15):
And that was quite a few years ago,but I'm still, like, proud of that.
I don't look at that image and thinkI would've done something differently.
Like, I just still really like that.
The whole process was a good experience.
Man, I mean, I love the idea of walkinginto a store and then choosing right
then and there what to photograph.
I've never done that, and nowI'm like, "I have to do it now."
(19:37):
It's kinda freeing.
It's just freeing.
There's no limitations.
There's no expectations on yourself.
Just see what stands out to you andsee how, like, the idea comes in
your head, and take it home, andhave your way with it, you know?
When did you feel your workfinally, like it clicked, like
you found this is the path?
(19:58):
I feel like I need reminders of it,that it's clicked often, even today.
I can have self-doubt with my work a lot.
I think I tend to be a little too much ofa perfectionist with it at times, so that
image is a reminder where it's like youdon't have to have it all figured out.
You don't have to have a plan.
You're doing this 'cause you enjoy it.
(20:19):
Don't lose sight of that.
And so I feel like when I taketime to remember that for upcoming
shoots, past shoots, it helps meremember that it continues to click.
There's not just one time for me,'cause there's more images that you're
gonna create that you're going to love.
(20:40):
And there's a quote I really like.
Her name's Imogen Cunningham, I think,and it's, "What's my favorite photo?
The one I'm gonna take tomorrow." AndI really love that because it kind
of… I don't wanna, like, make it.
I wanna just keep getting there,'cause this process is what
keeps us coming back to it.
(21:00):
Yes.
I always feel like that carrot needsto always be there for me, and I know
it's time for me to challenge or trysomething different or new when I find
myself going through the flow, goingthrough the motions, and there's, like,
nothing really exciting, but there's,like, "Eh, it was just a shoot."
(21:21):
Right.
You just walked away.
I just walked away.
Yeah.
And I was like, "Oh, these are nice." Igotta feel something at the end of it.
And you touched on this a littlebit earlier, but I wanna explore
it a little bit more aboutyour day job, your office job.
When did you know thatthis is time to go all in?
(21:41):
Pretty much once debtwas paid, I was ready.
I mean, I was ready before that.
I was so excited.
I honestly got a little emotionalwhen we kinda sat down and looked at
our finances and realized, "Okay, weshould really get out of debt," and
realized that's gonna take some time.
'Cause we had steadyincome from both sides.
Mike's working, I'm working.
And so it was kinda easy to, like,put a vacation on a credit card
(22:04):
and pay it off slowly or whatever.
So I was ready to quit, and I couldn't,so I was a little discouraged at first,
but I realized we have to do this rightbecause I didn't wanna have to have a
plan B. I wanted to go all in and stay in.
And so I'm really happy we didit the way we did, but I knew.
(22:27):
I knew I wanted to quit.
I would've quit much sooner if myhusband wasn't more practical than I am.
Damn him for being practical.
No, he was the wise one.
He was the wise one.
When you did turn in yournotice, what was going through
(22:49):
your mind before you hit send?
Well, I did it in person with my…Matt Ronaldo, he was the head of
everybody, so I went to my main boss,and she and I went to this little
room, and I said I needed to talkto her, and I was a ball of nerves,
like, all morning thinking about it.
I knew I wanted to do it.
(23:10):
I wasn't second guessing it.
I just was really nervous,like, "This is it.
This is it." And so we went and we satdown, and her name's Abby, and I sat down
with her, and she's like, "So what's goingon?" And I'm like, "I'm leaving." And she
said, "Well, where are you going?" I said,"I'm gonna do food photography full time.
I'm gonna work for myself and-"She, like, jumped up so excited and
(23:32):
gave me a hug 'cause she was like,"I'm prepared to fight for you.
Where are you going?" But nobodywanted to, like, stop me from this.
And so it went really well.
I put in my two weeks and starteddelegating my work and clients to other
people, and the word started gettingout, and it was a weird last two weeks
(23:54):
'cause it's very much like senioritis.
You're kinda like, "I'm out of here.
I don't care if that client brings upa last-minute request that we already
agreed wouldn't happen." You know, like…Yeah, so I was in a really supportive
environment, so that helped a lot.
I wasn't, like, scared to tell people.
I was just nervous 'cause it'ssuch a big deal to take that leap.
(24:17):
Yeah, once the words are out-
Yeah.
They're out.
Oh, yeah.
What was the hardestpart of taking that leap?
I think a lot of creatives, you canprobably relate to this, it's going
from being a creative person to acreative person and business person.
(24:38):
I'm used to wearing the creativehat, finding the clients, doing
the shoot, doing the editing,being, "Yay, I love my images,"
or, "Oh, that was a terrible shoot.
I'll learn and make up for it nexttime." The business piece, that's a hard
piece to learn as a creative person,'cause we're talking pricing yourself.
We're talking admin work, emails,invoices, your profit and loss,
(25:02):
finding an accountant, settingup your business registration.
Like, there's all these thingsthat aren't that fun to do, but you
have to do them, and I think- Thetoughest lesson is just learning to
think like a business person, too.
A lot of us get out of the gate andwe're like, "Oh, I'm a photographer,
and I wanna work for everybody,"and that's not gonna last.
(25:28):
You're so right.
You're so right.
Yeah.
The business piece took awhile to get my head around.
I think it still does sometimes, 'causethis is a tough industry to be in.
It really is.
You have to develop alittle bit of a thick skin.
But it's really been insightful.
It's been really insightful.
Like, I've learned a lot about myself,and I've had to grow in different
(25:51):
ways as a business person and let goof some of my old ways of thinking
when it came to, like, creative andputting myself out there and the
types of projects I say yes or no to.
That's been the hardestthing for me to learn, too.
It's not even just the business side,it's the people pleasing, like asserting
(26:12):
and boundary setting and the cojones,if you will, 'cause I just wanna say yes
to everything, to the most wildest shit,and then we have this unrealistic shoot
timeline, and then I'm losing my mindtrying to figure out how am I gonna meet
all of these demands that I said I couldguarantee in a day, and now the fuck.
People who are just creative atheart, I feel like it's harder for
(26:36):
them to make that switch in between.
It's a transition, and peopleneed to be prepared for that,
which I don't think I was.
I think I was very excited to do this, andI wanted to learn, and I wanted to figure
it out, but I don't think I was preparedfor how hard it is to be an entrepreneur.
Oh, yeah.
And lonely.
(26:56):
That was something I was not prepared for.
Freelancing, like, I was alone a lotof the time, and I had to go out and
meet other people in the industryand build friendships with them.
What would you tell anyone standingat the same edge where you are,
where they're making the transitionfrom their day job to freelancing?
(27:19):
I think what I would say, my advice,which I wish I would've thought about a
little earlier, diversify your income.
And when I say that, I don'tmean, oh, well, maybe stay
part-time at your job and do this.
You know, you could do that.
I mean, everyone has to do things theirway, but what I'm referring to is not just
(27:41):
being solely dependent on client work.
Which is exactly what I didfor several years into this.
And then when COVID hit, allmy client work went away.
It was eye-opening, very eye-opening,because I realized I can't just be
dependent on client work 'cause if it getstaken away like this, what am I gonna do?
(28:07):
So I think I would tell people to considertheir plan for income beyond client work.
Obviously, client work is important.
We need that.
That's our bread and butter.
But there's a lot of other things thatfood photographers can do to make money,
like supplement, like on the side.
I wanna talk about is youriPhone photography course.
You mentioned about how you had your phone
(28:32):
and you were taking photos, andyou were just really noticing
light first and using your iPhone.
So what prompted youto create this course?
That's a really good question.
This course I feel has been in theback of my mind for a couple years
before I actually really dove into it.
(28:53):
So when COVID hit and my client workwas canceled, I decided to dust off
my old blog, and I actually kindashifted gears with it and took a more
educational route around food photography.
And I signed up for an SEO classonline for bloggers so that I could
actually reinvent the blog to be ahelpful resource for people, and I
(29:19):
connected it with my main website,and it grew my traffic so much.
When you learn how to write a blogpost and what SEO is and how to use
keywords, Google loves that, and Ijust ran with it 'cause I had time.
I didn't have anything elseto do … besides my creative
(29:41):
test shoots that I would do.
So yeah, I got really into, like, sharinga lot of educational posts on the blog,
which led to diversifying my incomemore 'cause I started partnering with
advertisers and affiliate partners,and this free resource that was helping
people was now starting to help me, too.
And not just for the money.
(30:02):
It was really fun to teach,like, in an article like that.
I really enjoyed it.
And so then I was like, gosh, I work witha lot of restaurants, too, and whenever
I'm there, their social media manageror their GM is there with their phone,
taking pictures, not enjoying the results.
(30:22):
And I thought, "What if I did a course forpeople who are relying on their smartphone
for a lot of ongoing food image needs?" Imean, you can't hire a food photographer
every time you need a new food image,and the iPhones are really good.
I thought, "What if I did a courseto help people learn food photography
(30:43):
with their smartphone camera?"
And so I went back and forth on that.
I was worried, I think, at first, that,like, am I dumbing down what we do?
Like, I don't wanna takeaway from… I love my Fuji
cameras, my artificial lighting.
Like, I love my gear, but theiPhone camera is really damn good,
and people just don't know howto use it for food photography.
(31:07):
So I finally got up the courageto just dive in and create this
course, which took a while.
There's technical things, like you wannahave audio, and you need to know how to
talk to the camera, and how are you gonnarecord yourself doing a demonstration
where people can actually retain whatyou're doing and see really well.
(31:29):
So yeah, the iPhone course kindof grew from my blog, and then
my restaurant clients needingthis ongoing support system.
So I guess that's a reallylong-winded answer to your question.
No.
No, it's not.
I mean, it's good that you'reteaching this because we can't
(31:50):
take our cameras everywhere.
No.
And the iPhone is a fantastic camera.
It is.
And it's come such a long way.
In what instances would a foodphotographer be able to use
it for a course like this?
So my course is really targeted towardsbeginners who don't know a lot about
(32:13):
food photography, like what goes into it.
So they learn about, like, thecreative side of food photography
and then the technical side of it.
They learn what goes into a food shoot,which basically the fundamentals are
invaluable on a shoot because it's notjust, okay, I have a camera and I have
(32:33):
a pretty plate of food in front of me.
It's not easy to get a good picture of itif you don't know what to think through.
So I show them what to thinkthrough and what steps to take
to create a beautiful image.
There's a lot of demonstrationsusing natural light in my entryway
upstairs and in different restaurantsettings that have good natural
(32:54):
light, and then there's demonstrationsusing artificial light actually.
Oh, that's so cool.
Yeah.
It's a comprehensive course,but it's very beginner-friendly.
There's a good support email wherepeople can ask questions, and I
respond very quickly 'cause I lovetalking about this and helping people.
And they take away a lot of tips andtricks with their smartphone camera.
(33:18):
And what I love the most about thiscourse is there's no barrier to entry.
Everyone has a smartphone camera.
You don't have to go out and buy a DSLRor a mirrorless camera to take this.
Just grab your iPhoneand let's get to work.
Heck, I could even see the food stylistusing this because, I mean, yeah, they
(33:38):
need to promote their work, but sometimesthey just wanna practice styling at
home, and they wanna be able to geta nice photo of it, and they don't
have a DSLR, and they don't want one.
Like-
No
… Every food stylist that I've talked to, they're like, "I knew I didn't
wanna do the photography. I justwanted to make it look nice."
And they don't need it.
(33:59):
Yeah.
No, they don't need it.
I would love that.
So what was the most surprising thingfor you when you created this course?
How much I would enjoy doing it.
'Cause there's a lot of misleadinginformation online about, "Create a
course in two weeks and make six figures."And it's like, that's not how it works.
(34:20):
You're leaving out a lotof important information.
So again, it was like the process,kind of like, similar to when I
was learning food photography.
There was the process of learning howto set up my camera and talk to the
camera and get my audio set up correctly,and then how am I gonna teach this?
How can I share what I know to somebodywho doesn't know anything about
(34:42):
this using their smartphone camera?
And then I was like, "Can I do thisusing the smartphone camera?" So it
was really neat to, like, create somebeautiful work with my iPhone camera
in the course that other people couldfollow along with and create too.
It's a lot of work because apps change.
Did you know that?
What?
(35:02):
I'm just kidding.
But they do.
The interface changes, and then I needto plan ahead for that to re-record
some videos to show the new interface.
So, like, I'd have to rethink somelessons and modules and be like, "Okay,
if this app changes again, it's gonnabe easier to update because I've now
(35:22):
set the structure of the information upa little differently," type of thing.
And then now you have a new course.
Yeah.
The iPhone for drinks photography.
That one I really wanna hear about.
Yeah.
Mastering iPhone food photographyis… The doors are open for that
one, so people can sign up for that.
(35:45):
Mastering iPhone Drink Photography is inprogress, so that's not completed yet.
So that's people can join the wait list,which is awesome 'cause then they'll be
the first to know when it's available,and I usually have some people, like,
sign up early and give me some feedback.
It took me a while to dive into drinksas a food photographer, so that's
why I wanted to separate the two.
(36:07):
Because shooting food isdifferent than shooting drinks.
Like, there's other challenges thatcome into play, from glassware to
the shape of the glassware, lightingglassware, editing, and then staging it.
There's so many things to consider to makesure that you're getting a good image.
Whereas with food, you're probablynot gonna be dealing with as
(36:28):
many reflections and hotspotsand those types of challenges.
So it's gonna be similar to the foodcourse in that we are gonna talk about
the fundamentals and the framework of whatgoes into a drink shoot, but then we're
gonna do these demonstrations togetherwhere it all kinda comes together.
All the steps, we practice these stepsover and over and over again so that
(36:48):
they understand that they need tobreak that point-and-shoot mentality
when using their smartphone camera.
That's exciting.
It's very exciting, yeah, and it'sbecome its own little smartphone course
bundle focused on the food, and thenI'm working with mixologists, and
they're focused on their bar menu.
And there is a science behind both.
(37:10):
You touched on this a little bitearlier, but you talked about how
the business side of photography wasthe hardest lesson for you to learn.
What helped that lesson finally land?
I would say talking to people,getting advice, making mistakes.
The mistakes have kept me movingforward, if that makes sense.
(37:35):
Another thing that I thoughtwas that I wish I would've done
sooner was learn artificial light.
I was a natural light shooter fora very long time because I thought
that artificial light seemed tootechnical, too complicated, extra gear.
And you can create beautifulimages with natural light.
I'm not saying you can't.
(37:55):
But when I booked a restaurantshoot that was located in a
basement, I was freaking out.
It was a couple weeks out, so I signedup for this artificial light class online
and got myself a speedlight and startedpracticing with it as much as I could.
(38:15):
And then I remember specifically writingdown, like, Post-it notes or, like,
little note cards, notes for myself thatI kept in my back pocket for the shoot
so that I wouldn't forget something,'cause I was so nervous that it was gonna
be so complicated once I was finallythere, and it was a huge eye-opener.
Artificial light makesthings so much easier.
(38:37):
Like, I thought it would be so muchharder, and I was so wrong about that.
So a mistake I made was not learningthat sooner, but once I made it,
I moved forward in my career.
The mistakes you make along the way aren'treally mistakes if they push you forward.
When you look at your photography now,what feels earned and not learned?
(39:02):
Earned and not learned.
Let me think.
I think for me, when it comes to foodphotography, even from the very, very
beginning, I was always trying to finda connection between food and art.
And so I feel like with my style,I'm always bringing this artistic
eye every time I pick up my camera.
(39:25):
I'm always trying to tap into findingthat connection between food and art
'cause I wanna feel like I'm creatingart and not just taking a picture.
So I feel like my workrepresents that in myself.
Every time I pick up the camera, Iwanna create something beautiful.
I never know if it's going to behit or miss 'cause we've all had
(39:46):
those shoots where it's like,"Oh, that didn't work out so well.
No one needs to see that." But withthe work that I'm proud of, it's,
for me, I'm trying to create someart that I'm enjoying creating.
What's the bravest choice you've evermade with your photography style?
That's a really good question.
(40:07):
I think the bravest choice I've madeis to try to stay true to my artistic
style and learning to say no toprojects that won't align with that.
Now, that comes at a cost becauseI've been in the commercial world.
I've done a lot of thosebigger production shoots.
There's a lot of people involved.
There's a lot of red tape.
(40:28):
There's a lot of parameters in place,and sometimes I feel that that hinders
the creativity of what we're doing.
So that has pushed me to say no to someof those projects and keep pursuing my
restaurant clients and my hospitalitygroups because there's a lot more creative
(40:49):
freedom, which allows me to stay intune with that, finding that connection
between food and art, and it's reallybeen awesome because my clients trust me.
It's been an adventure to getthat kind of trust where I
have more repeat clients now.
But because they're not trying to get apackaging shot perfect, they wanna show
(41:15):
who they are, and I wanna capture that.
And so it feels like a reallygood match when we partner up.
What I'm trying to say is basicallythat when art meets commerce, we're
forced to make some difficult decisionsbecause we wanna get projects that
we love, but we wanna make money too.
(41:35):
So you have to figure out how youcan do both, and I've had to really
kinda figure that out as I go.
Whenever you feel disconnected from yourwork, how do you find your voice again?
What brings you back?
Oh, man.
Creative ruts.
(41:56):
They're the worst.
Oh, man.
When I start to feeldisconnected, I take a break.
I love what I do, but Ineed to take breaks from it.
It's like too much ofanything isn't really good.
So I've learned to setboundaries for myself.
Like, I try to shut things down at night.
(42:17):
I'm not answering emails at 9:00 PM.
I'm not answering themat 8:00 PM or 7:00 PM.
I want a good night's sleep.
Sleep's very important to me,so I try to prioritize that.
I also, like, I go to yoga.
It's amazing what just going to aone-hour yoga class will do to, like,
sort of take you out of your head,reconnect with your breath and your body.
There's so much stress relief in that.
(42:40):
But when I need to find my visualvoice again, it's after those little
breaks where I can do that more easilybecause I've detached for a minute.
I don't have to detach for a week.
Sometimes maybe, but that's rare.
It's just if I need to take a dayand regroup, do something else, I'll
do that, and it helps me reconnect.
(43:02):
And then maybe if I can throw in a testshoot, whether it's with my team or just
with myself, where again, it's like goingto the grocery store without a plan.
Having a plan to do a shoot, butnot knowing what you're gonna do.
Just taking all the noise away and justhaving some fun again, 'cause it's easy
to get in our own head and start to takeit all too seriously, and sometimes it's
(43:23):
just you need to take a little break, andthen you can regroup and come back to it.
It's okay to take a break.
Yes.
It's part of the work.
I mean, I got that froma video about ADHD.
I've just been obsessedover, hyper-focused … on
watching videos about ADHD.
But this one video in particular, wishI could remember which one it was,
(43:46):
but they just said, "Rest is part ofthe work. That is part of your work."
Yep.
You need to rest.
So that is something that I'm gettingbetter about it, getting better
about not feeling guilty about it.
But it's true.
When you need to rest, you need to rest.
What's one small ritual that,besides the yoga, besides…
(44:09):
What brings you back to peace?
Well, I can't say yoga?
Yoga is really something.
It's very important in my life.
It does ground me quite a bit.
But I'd say-
Like, for me, to give you an example-
Oh, sure.
(44:29):
Okay
… For me, I love affirmation cards, and so I love a good affirmation
card, and that brings me back.
Like, today's affirmation is, "Whateverthe problem, be part of the solution.
Don't just sit around raising questionsand pointing out obstacles," Tina Fey.
And then on the back it says, "Thinkof an area of your life that you'd
(44:51):
like to change. What can you do topivot to a positive perspective?"
Oh, see?
That's good thinking.
It makes you think.
Yeah.
So, like, that's a little ritualwhenever I'm feeling a little tough
about the week, I pick a affirmationcard and that brings me back, and
that's my little ritual that remindsme of what it is that I'm doing here
(45:12):
and now, and that progress is movement.
So what would be something for you?
Well, because I can get in my ownhead and get… start to take things a
little too seriously, I try to connectwith things that will make me laugh.
I love watching stand-up comedy, improv.
(45:33):
I enjoy it so much.
I love ridiculous jokes, findingsomething funny on Instagram that I
can rely on and go to if I need to justwatch something that'll make me laugh.
So finding ways to laugh again is soimportant for me because it helps me,
like, realize, look, you're a foodphotographer, not a brain surgeon.
(45:56):
It's okay to not take this so seriouslyright now and find a way to laugh
again, and it's such a release 'causeit's like, ugh, I just feel lighter.
I love that Facebook's been showing mea lot of stand-up comedy 'cause, I mean,
that's like my favorite thing as well.
Oh, cool.
Yeah.
(46:17):
Yeah, I love stand-up co- I triedstand-up comedy for a minute.
Did you really?
I did.
I did, and I was startingto get good at it.
Oh, that's so brave.
I could never do it.
I have so much admiration for comedians.
I just think it's awesome.
I mean, just watching them on stage,but- I, right around the time that I was
(46:39):
getting into photography, I kinda likecame at a crossroads of what am I gonna
pursue, comedy or photography, 'causeboth are gonna take up all of my time.
And I realized that, like, I enjoycomedy, but I enjoy being a spectator.
I don't wanna be on stage.
I mean, I love improv, and I wouldtotally do that professionally if that…
(47:01):
And I probably could if I really wantedto, 'cause I'm very good at improv.
Ugh.
It's my jam.
That's so awesome.
My background is in theater,and we did a lot of improvs.
But with comedy, I realized that Ienjoy being a spectator more than a
performer, and I just loved the art,and I appreciate it even more now that
now that I took courses in stand-upcomedy, and I saw what goes into a joke.
(47:25):
But I can use my skills that I learned inthat class when I'm doing my introduction
calls or whenever I'm speaking with aleader, or I go to a networking event.
Like, I know how to, like, make jokesand make people laugh, and then they like
me, and they wanna work with me, and…Uh, 'cause laughter is that connector
where it's like, if I can make youlaugh, then I can make you my friend.
(47:46):
So we go from there.
But I just love watching, uh, stand-upcomics, but I love that Facebook has
been throwing little comedy clips.
Like, they're doing crowd work,and it's just, it cracks me up.
Oh, yeah, I love that, too.
I get so sucked in.
I'm like, "How long haveI been scrolling this?"
(48:07):
I'm loving it, though.
What are some comediansthat you like and love?
I'm a big fan of Nate Bargatze.
I hope I'm saying his last name right.
He's hilarious.
You should write these downif you don't know them.
I am.
I am.
He's great.
Jim Gaffigan always makes me laugh.
He's so funny.
And I love Tom Segura.
(48:28):
So funny.
And Fortune Feimster is hilarious.
She's so great.
And I'm
blanking on her last name.
But Tig- Tig, oh.
Notaro.
Yes, thank you.
Oh my gosh, that's her.
Yeah.
Yeah, she's so funny.
These people, they don't realizehow important what they do is to me.
(48:49):
It's like they make me laughso hard, and we all need that.
Tig Notaro and Maria Bamford.
Like Maria Bamford, what I like about heris, I mean, she has this very quiet voice.
Okay.
And you have to really pay attention towhat she's saying, and then if you don't,
then you'll miss the little tagline'cause the joke always comes later.
(49:14):
It's like she builds this perfect setup,and then the unexpected punchline.
Like, it's just the way she deliversher punchlines that crack me up.
They are masters of delivery.
It's so impressive to me.
It's so hard to make people
laugh.
I think it's so hard.
Yes.
So if you can do that, you're amagician because it's a true talent
(49:37):
to be able to make people laugh.
It… Not only that, but, like, thereare comics where their style of comedy
I feel like is the most difficult'cause they're, like, really quiet.
Like Todd Barry.
So Todd Barry has, like, perfected thiswhere he has this, like, really quiet,
dry delivery, and to be able to do thatand keep a room attentive and with you,
(50:05):
'cause most comics are energetic andloud and that and this, and not Todd.
Like, he is just like… He sounds likethe type where he's just on his way to
the store, and I guess, uh, I guess I'lldo some goddamn comedy, and I'm up here.
And then after I'm done, I'm gonna go eat.
And yeah, so, like he performed at Southby Southwest, and I was a volunteer at
(50:30):
the time, and I was fangirling over him.
I was just like, "Oh my God, he'sso amazing. He's so amazing."
And my job was to guard theback door, so he was back there.
He goes, "Are you a volunteer?"And I said, "Yes." And he goes,
"Will you hold my badge and myphone?" And I was like, "Yes."
(50:51):
That is so incredible.
And so I'm standing there holdinghis badge and phone, and I'm looking
at them both, and I'm like, "Oh myGod, I have his badge and phone."
And people were like, "Why is shefreaking out over Todd Barry?" And
I was like, "You don't understand.
This is like heaven." So…
And he put on a phenomenal show.
It was the best.
(51:12):
Like, my favorite memory of South bySouthwest was watching him perform
'cause he really… It was magical.
I would love that.
That is a skill that it's not even taught.
It's just born.
Like, I love his style of comedy.
So I have two more questions for you.
Okay.
What's something aboutphotography that you once believed
(51:34):
that you no longer believe?
Oh, wow.
This takes me back to when Ishadowed that photographer for a
day when I was still at my day job.
I had the best day, and it wasso enlightening because I used to
believe, and I believed this thenuntil that day, I needed the fanciest
(51:55):
gear, and a really cool studio,and all the bells and whistles to
do food photography successfully.
And I know now that youdon't need all that.
You don't.
And why I'm bringing up that day thatI shadowed the food photographer is
because I realized he's doing what I do.
(52:18):
He just has more equipment, morepeople on his team helping him,
and a really awesome studio.
I was there with my $300DSLR, which I don't even think
they make the model anymore.
And I used, I was usingnatural light at the time.
(52:38):
And it was just me.
But we were both creating food images.
We were both doing the same thing.
And that was incredibly inspiringto me to keep going because just
'cause I didn't have all that didn'tmean that I couldn't become a food
photographer, didn't mean that Icouldn't take beautiful pictures of food.
(52:59):
You don't need all the gear.
You don't need all the bellsand whistles of a fancy studio.
If you have a creative vision and acamera and artificial light… Sorry,
I had to throw that in just because Ireally do love artificial light so much.
You don't need what you think you need.
You don't need all of that.
My last question is, what isexciting you creatively these days?
(53:25):
Oh, man.
Taking a break.
No, I'm just kidding.
It's just been a busy year.
Oh.
I'm excited to put my feet up.
Does that count as creative?
No.
Yeah.
You can pick the socks.
You could design the socks and thenorder the socks and then wear the
socks and sit on your chair and-
(53:45):
There you go.
No.
I would say I've been getting in moreinto video over the last couple of years.
Oh, fun.
So I'm putting together a compilationof a bunch of videos I've been
working on just with some cool music.
And so I'm really excitedto get that put together.
So that's a project I'm really excitedto work on at the end of this year just
(54:07):
to kinda wrap up what I've been doingand just have a little fun with it.
Well, Regan, thank you somuch for being on the show.
I loved this conversation.
It was so nice to talk with you.
This is so good for the soul,and I have one last question.
Where can the listeners find you andfollow you and ask any questions?
(54:31):
And also, where can they get onthe wait list for your course?
Oh, sure.
Well, you can follow me on Instagram.
My name's just @reganbaroni.
And you can check out mywebsite 'cause my blog is there
with a lot of free resources.
And there's a course link as well, soyou can check out the courses available
and learn more about them to see ifthey might be a good fit for you.
(54:54):
And honestly, DM me or email me anytime.
I'm happy to talk with people.
Something that I didn't feel I had whenI was first starting out was a lot of
people to reach out to, to ask questionsto, to talk shop with, and I've tried
to build that community for myself.
And I just would love it if peoplehave questions and they just
(55:15):
want to talk shop, reach out.
Let's talk shop.
We'll find time.
Yay.
Thank you so much again for coming,and oh man, thank you so much.
Well, thank you for having me.
This episode is written and producedby me, your host, Mika McCook.
(55:35):
Like this episode?
Give us a five-star review on ApplePodcast and subscribe to The Savory
Shot wherever you get your podcast.
Or follow me, your host, MikaMcCook, on Instagram at Mica.mccook.
Or you can follow the podcast onInstagram at thesavoryshotpodcast.
(55:57):
If you have any questions, comments, orwould like to be featured on the show,
email us at podcast@thesavoryshot.com.
Welcome to the 73rd episode of TheSavory Shot, a podcast about the art
and soul of working in food photography.
I'm your host with the most, Mica McCook.
I'm a food photographer based inAustin, Texas, where the tacos are
(00:21):
hot and the lighting is even hotter.
Okay, that sounded cooler in my head.
Carry on.
Carry on.
Before we dive into today's episode,I gotta take a second and say thank
(00:44):
you, gracias, to every single oneof you who has been riding with this
show, the day oners, the ones whoslide in my DMs after every episode.
Y'all, you make this worthit every single time.
And if this is your very first time tuningin, welcome to the Hot Mess Express.
(01:10):
You're one of us now.
One of us.
One of us.
I hope you brought snickysnacks and a cocktail.
Okay, y'all, real quick,did you catch episode 72?
Because if you missed it, man,you missed a good episode.
(01:31):
Go back and listen to it immediately.
I sat down with Rob Finkelstein.
He's a lawyer, pastry school grad,food blogger, and a food photographer.
He created a course calledContract Legalese specifically
for food photographers.
And let me tell y'all, I walkedaway from that conversation looking
(01:54):
at every contract I've ever signedwith completely different eyes.
We talked about copyright, licensing,why negotiating with brands is not
as scary as you think, and why thoseboilerplate clauses at the bottom of your
contract, yeah, you need to read those.
So to toot my own horn,go listen to that episode.
(02:18):
It's awesome possum.
We'll still be here.
This episode will still be here.
But let's talk about today.
I wanna talk about this conversation.
Man, y'all, ooh, this was so awesome.
I'm a get right into it.
I'm a introduce the guestright here, right now.
(02:39):
Without further ado, let meintroduce to you Regan Baroni.
She is a food photographer.
She's based in Chicago.
She is a former advertisingart director who picked up a
camera and never looked back.
She is the creator of the MasteringiPhone Food Photography course, and
(03:01):
she has a new course called iPhoneDrink Photography that is on its way.
I don't know if it's debuted bynow, but I do know that you can sign
up to get on the early bird list.
So do that now.
In this episode, y'all,we get into all of it.
We talk about how burnout at an adagency cracked open a creative life that
(03:25):
Regan didn't see coming, what it reallyfeels like the morning after you quit
your job, why freelancing is lonelierthan anyone warns you, why diversifying
your income is non-negotiable, and howa phone camera and some good light is
genuinely all you need to get started.
(03:47):
Before we get into this episode,y'all, I need un petit favor from you.
If you know a photographer who'sstill waiting for the, quote-unquote,
"right moment" to make theirmove, send them this episode.
Seriously, this one is for them.
Then come on back, grab your coffee, yourpen, a notebook, and let's start the show.
(04:12):
Welcome to The Savory Shot, abiweekly show about the art and
soul of working in food photography.
I'm your host, Mica McCook.
Every other Wednesday, I sit down tochat with professionals in the industry
so that you feast on only the besttips and strategies in the business.
(04:33):
All right, y'all, let's get started.
Regan, I just wanna start the show bythanking you for being here, for taking
the time to sit and chat with me.
Welcome to the show.
(04:53):
Welcome to The Savory Shot.
Oh, thank you, Mica.
I'm so excited to be here.
This is very exciting for me, and I loveyour podcast, so I was totally flattered
when you reached out, so this is great.
So I wanna start off by asking youwhat kept you coming back to food
photography before you got paid for it?
(05:14):
Well, that's a great question because Iwas not a photographer my whole career.
I was actually an art director inadvertising when I graduated college,
and became really burnt out withthe agency life and wasn't feeling
creative, and I started gettingmore into cooking, and that's when
I started to see food differently.
(05:35):
I remember specifically chopping somescallions on this wooden cutting board,
and taking it in, I was like, "This looksso pretty. I, like, wanna take a picture
of it." And so I actually moved it overcloser to the window in the kitchen
and used my iPhone to take a picture.
It was just fun.
It was like a moment, right?
So eventually I was, like, findingmyself taking a lot of pictures
(05:59):
with my phone, like, at the grocerystore, at the farmer's market,
whatever we were cooking that night.
And my family eventually surprised me withmy very first DSLR and I was like, "Oh
my gosh, I have to learn how to use thisthing." And so I taught myself how to use
it, and I just was loving the process.
Because I was feeling so creativelyburned out at my job, this
(06:23):
was bringing it back to life.
So it was really cool to have my dayjob during the week, and then every
weekend I was, like, cooking andstyling and shooting and editing,
and just trying to learn the craft.
What did those early weekends, whatdid they teach you about yourself?
Dedication.
They taught me that I had found somethingthat I wanted to keep getting better at.
(06:47):
You know when we're learning somethingnew, it's like we're starry-eyed
and it's fun, and everything seemsshiny and new, and then you kinda
get into it and you're like, "Um, Idon't know if I like this anymore."
Actually.
That didn't happen.
Everything was a learning experience,and I just kept wanting to do it.
(07:08):
I got excited to think about props Iwas gonna use to shoot some oysters,
what plates I could get for spaghetti,and how am I gonna style the noodles?
Like, I was wearing all the hats'cause I was just having fun.
This was a weekend hobby that turnedinto a career-changing business,
and I feel really lucky about that.
Those are the best kinds ofcareers to, like, find yourself in.
(07:31):
Yeah.
Mean, that's how itstarted for me as well.
Yeah.
Not the cooking part.
Sure.
I mean, I can cook now, butback then I really couldn't.
But I started a food blog with afriend, and I just wanted to get
better at the photography side.
Yep.
And so I just became superhyper-focused on photography.
(07:54):
Of course.
But now that I think about it, it's likethose were, like, really exciting times.
Right.
I loved the challenge, I loved thecolors, I loved the textures, all of that.
For you, when did thejoy turn into commitment?
I loved what I was doing.
Obviously, I was doing it everyweekend and just enjoying the process
(08:15):
and having so much fun with it.
But what started to really getmy attention was the support
I started receiving behind it.
Obviously, my family andfriends are my number one fans,
so they're a little biased.
But so I was at my day job.
My boss at the time set up a day forme to go shadow a well-known food
(08:41):
photographer in Chicago for the day.
During the week, I got to skipwork and go shadow somebody.
Wow.
So he saw something in what I was doing.
He knew I loved it a lot, but I don'tknow if I was even at the point at then
of, like, wanting to go all, all in.
(09:03):
But when your boss sends you offto shadow a food photographer,
you pay attention to that.
So it was a nice little confidence boost,and so I was telling Mike about it.
I'm like, "I really love this.
You know, do you think I could dothis?" And he was like, "It would break
my heart if you didn't pursue this."
And I was like, "Oh my God." All thatsupport just felt kinda the extra
(09:26):
confidence boost I needed to go all in.
But at the time, Mike and I hadjust bought our house, and for me
to just quit on a whim and eliminatemy salary was not gonna happen.
So we kinda talked.
How could we make this work?
And so we decided we're gonna get outtadebt and we're gonna save some money,
(09:46):
and then I'm gonna put in my notice.
And during that time, ittook about a year and a half.
So during that time, though, I wastrying to build my client list on the
side, and my boss, Ronaldo, amazing guy.
Amazing, amazing guy.
Very creative.
If I got, like, a gig that came up duringthe week, I would tell him, "Can I leave
early?" And he'd be like, "Take the day.
You need to be focused on thatjob." He's like, "I want this for
(10:08):
you." And when Mike said, "It wouldbreak my heart if you didn't pursue
this," I was like, "Oh my gosh."
Oh my gosh.
This is incredible, 'cause I want it,and then when other people want it
for you and they really wanna helpyou get there, it's pretty amazing.
But yeah, eventually the day cameand I put in my notice, and I
literally woke up the next morning,like the day after quitting my job.
(10:30):
Oh my gosh
… And freaked out.
I was like, "Oh my God, I did it.I'm here. I gotta make this work."
Then you kinda settle in, and youstart getting your business hat on
and learning that side of it, so.
Oh, man.
But it's been a cool process.
So yeah, a combination of just lovingit so much and having that support and
(10:52):
encouragement was what made me go all in.
See, sometimes that's all it takes,is because we get so in our heads.
Oh my God, yes
… And we worry about the can we, can we, should we, should we, that-
Am I good enough?
Am I good enough?
Yeah.
Even I remember having a convo withmy professor about what direction
(11:17):
of photography I was in and, andabout food photography and telling
him, "Well, there's a bunch offood photographers out there.
It's so saturated." And he's like,"There's a bunch of Italian restaurants."
Right.
"Do you think that's gonna stopsomeone from opening an Italian
restaurant just because there'sanother one, or a Tex-Mex?"
That is a very good point.
So it's just wonderful.
Let's talk about your early portfolio.
(11:39):
What did the version, the firstversion of your portfolio look like?
Oh, it was so pretty.
No.
Actually, it's so funny.
It's such a good question because myfirst portfolio was actually a food blog.
Now, keep in mind, I was not a recipedeveloper or a blogger, but because I
was practicing food photography everyweekend, I wanted a place to, like,
(12:02):
share my work other than social media,and so a blog seemed like a good idea.
And so that's what it was at first, andit was called Up Close and Tasty, and
I don't know how I came up with that.
It was, like, on the train ridehome from work or something.
I'm like, "I just wanted to runwith it." I'm like, "I just wanna
get this up and running so I havea place to post these pictures nice
and big and talk about what I did."
(12:24):
And so that's how it started.
And then once I decided to go all in,I created an actual portfolio site
where it looked like a professionalportfolio site, but the images were a
mix of random little restaurant shootsI would get and cellphone pictures from
the grocery store or things I was doingin the entryway of my house at the time
(12:45):
before I had this basement area 'causeI was very reliant on natural light,
and I have this giant window up there.
So it was just a com- a mishmash of foodphotography that I thought was good, and
when I look back, I laugh a little bit,but it's always fun to see the growth.
Yes.
Yes.
(13:06):
I took some pictures of churros.
Oh, yeah
… And very early, like first year, and at the time that I shot
them, I thought, "This is art."
Yes, it is.
And now I look at them andI'm like looking at all of
the, like, oh, that lighting.
Oh God, what was I thinking?
(13:27):
It's not even in focus.
Yeah.
I had this thing where Iwould tilt the horizon line.
No, I'm serious.
I should send you a picture justto give you a laugh, because I
remember shooting some wings, and Iliterally kind of tilted my camera.
I'm like, "This is cool." And Imean, if you saw this, you'd be like,
"What was going through her head?
(13:50):
They look like they're gonna fall outof the frame." Like, this wasn't subtle.
I don't know.
But you know what?
Being able to play and experimentand take shots like that, and then
look back and know that you've,like, learned something from it,
like don't do that, is invaluable.
Our experience, and we're all beginners.
We all start somewhere.
(14:11):
For real.
For real.
Like, when I started the food blog withmy friend Charlotte, it really was just
us flying by the seat of our pants.
We didn't know whatthe hell we were doing.
But we basically would create afour-course meal based on a book
character, 'cause we both loved to read,but our blog name was Let's Taco About It.
(14:32):
So every month was a different theme.
Oh, that's cool.
And one month, we featuredHitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and
we thought we would do, like, thisScience fiction, a lot of silver.
Oh.
And it just had theweirdest shit on the menu.
Oh, we had a lot ofblack, a lot of velvet.
(14:54):
And, like, I could picture what Iwas envisioning, like, what I wanted.
Yeah.
But I just could not getthe technical side of it.
And then also, Charlotte does not liketo bake, and so she was like, "We're
gonna make these whale-shaped marshmallowcookies," except we didn't get, like,
the whale cutout, so she tried to, like,make the whale DIY, and it just did
(15:17):
not look like… It just, it did not.
So that whole shoot was a shit show.
And we did not getanything that we wanted.
Okay.
At some point during theshoot, we just said, "This shit
sucks, and we're, like, done."
It sounds hilarious.
(15:39):
We were done.
I was like, "I cannot figure outhow to fix this lighting. It looks
terrible." And I just, I can't do it.
Were you using naturallight too at the time?
No.
At the time, I was using these LEDconstant lights, like, continuous lights.
Oh, sure.
(15:59):
Okay.
Yeah.
And I didn't know anything about fill.
I didn't know anything about keys.
So we just had all these lights,and they were pointing everywhere
and nowhere at the same time.
I love it.
Sounds about right.
We couldn't figure out how tolight the silver, and then the
(16:22):
damn whale kept falling apart.
I think that's what, like, madeus quit at that point because
the whale just, ink, fell apart.
Oh, no.
And we were like, "We're done." Like,"Fuck this." Like, "We are so done.
Let's just eat this shit and go."
Oh, that's so funny.
Oh my God.
It was so bad.
But when I look at those photos and,like, it brings me joy because I
(16:44):
laugh at the frustration, the day, thejokes that we cracked and everything.
So with that long-winded story, whichearly images still make you smile?
Like, laugh smile, or smilelike, "I'm proud of that"?
One or both.
Yeah.
The wings picture is a classic 'cause,I mean, those wings were falling out
(17:08):
of the frame, and I thought, "Thisis artsy looking. This is so cool."
This is so commercial.
But one image that I am very proud of isthis octopus in a bowl shot that I did.
I went to the grocery store and no plan.
Just wanted to see, like, do you ever goand, like, with no plan and just to see
(17:31):
what food stands out to you and you'relike, "That's what I'm gonna shoot today"?
That's what I did.
Oh, I, I've never donethat, but now I want to.
Well, it was kinda fun.
I s- I didn't have an idea, andI thought, "It'll come to me.
I'm just gonna go to the store and walkaround, and maybe it'll be carrots.
Maybe it'll be some beautiful redbeets." But in it, I went to the fish
(17:51):
section. I'm a huge seafood fan, soyou'll always catch me in the seafood
area of a grocery store. And they hadthese little baby octopus and octopi,
and I thought, "I'm gonna mess with that.
I could do something dramatic with that."And so I brought it home, and I didn't
wanna touch it, but I did 'cause itwas kinda slimy, kinda gross-looking.
(18:13):
But I had this little bowl, and I put iton our wood dining table at the time, and
I used kind of a smaller speedlight off tothe side and just started taking pictures.
And I had, like, the octopus coming outof the bowl, and it ended up getting
recognized by the World Food Photographerof the Year Awards or something.
(18:35):
And those in London.
They used to be the Pink Lady FoodPhotography Awards, but they rebranded.
They renamed.
So it came in second.
What?
Yeah, in the Cream of the Crop category.
That's incredible.
So I've always been really proud ofthat because there were no rules.
There was no brief.
(18:55):
There were no expectations.
But I went to the store, found whatI wanted to shoot, took it home, and
experimented and played, and I think itjust came out, like that sense of freedom
came out, and it's a very dramatic image.
I'll send it to you soyou can take a look at it.
(19:15):
And that was quite a few years ago,but I'm still, like, proud of that.
I don't look at that image and thinkI would've done something differently.
Like, I just still really like that.
The whole process was a good experience.
Man, I mean, I love the idea of walkinginto a store and then choosing right
then and there what to photograph.
I've never done that, and nowI'm like, "I have to do it now."
(19:37):
It's kinda freeing.
It's just freeing.
There's no limitations.
There's no expectations on yourself.
Just see what stands out to you andsee how, like, the idea comes in
your head, and take it home, andhave your way with it, you know?
When did you feel your workfinally, like it clicked, like
you found this is the path?
(19:58):
I feel like I need reminders of it,that it's clicked often, even today.
I can have self-doubt with my work a lot.
I think I tend to be a little too much ofa perfectionist with it at times, so that
image is a reminder where it's like youdon't have to have it all figured out.
You don't have to have a plan.
You're doing this 'cause you enjoy it.
(20:19):
Don't lose sight of that.
And so I feel like when I taketime to remember that for upcoming
shoots, past shoots, it helps meremember that it continues to click.
There's not just one time for me,'cause there's more images that you're
gonna create that you're going to love.
(20:40):
And there's a quote I really like.
Her name's Imogen Cunningham, I think,and it's, "What's my favorite photo?
The one I'm gonna take tomorrow." AndI really love that because it kind
of… I don't wanna, like, make it.
I wanna just keep getting there,'cause this process is what
keeps us coming back to it.
(21:00):
Yes.
I always feel like that carrot needsto always be there for me, and I know
it's time for me to challenge or trysomething different or new when I find
myself going through the flow, goingthrough the motions, and there's, like,
nothing really exciting, but there's,like, "Eh, it was just a shoot."
(21:21):
Right.
You just walked away.
I just walked away.
Yeah.
And I was like, "Oh, these are nice." Igotta feel something at the end of it.
And you touched on this a littlebit earlier, but I wanna explore
it a little bit more aboutyour day job, your office job.
When did you know thatthis is time to go all in?
(21:41):
Pretty much once debtwas paid, I was ready.
I mean, I was ready before that.
I was so excited.
I honestly got a little emotionalwhen we kinda sat down and looked at
our finances and realized, "Okay, weshould really get out of debt," and
realized that's gonna take some time.
'Cause we had steadyincome from both sides.
Mike's working, I'm working.
And so it was kinda easy to, like,put a vacation on a credit card
(22:04):
and pay it off slowly or whatever.
So I was ready to quit, and I couldn't,so I was a little discouraged at first,
but I realized we have to do this rightbecause I didn't wanna have to have a
plan B. I wanted to go all in and stay in.
And so I'm really happy we didit the way we did, but I knew.
(22:27):
I knew I wanted to quit.
I would've quit much sooner if myhusband wasn't more practical than I am.
Damn him for being practical.
No, he was the wise one.
He was the wise one.
When you did turn in yournotice, what was going through
(22:49):
your mind before you hit send?
Well, I did it in person with my…Matt Ronaldo, he was the head of
everybody, so I went to my main boss,and she and I went to this little
room, and I said I needed to talkto her, and I was a ball of nerves,
like, all morning thinking about it.
I knew I wanted to do it.
(23:10):
I wasn't second guessing it.
I just was really nervous,like, "This is it.
This is it." And so we went and we satdown, and her name's Abby, and I sat down
with her, and she's like, "So what's goingon?" And I'm like, "I'm leaving." And she
said, "Well, where are you going?" I said,"I'm gonna do food photography full time.
I'm gonna work for myself and-"She, like, jumped up so excited and
(23:32):
gave me a hug 'cause she was like,"I'm prepared to fight for you.
Where are you going?" But nobodywanted to, like, stop me from this.
And so it went really well.
I put in my two weeks and starteddelegating my work and clients to other
people, and the word started gettingout, and it was a weird last two weeks
(23:54):
'cause it's very much like senioritis.
You're kinda like, "I'm out of here.
I don't care if that client brings upa last-minute request that we already
agreed wouldn't happen." You know, like…Yeah, so I was in a really supportive
environment, so that helped a lot.
I wasn't, like, scared to tell people.
I was just nervous 'cause it'ssuch a big deal to take that leap.
(24:17):
Yeah, once the words are out-
Yeah.
They're out.
Oh, yeah.
What was the hardestpart of taking that leap?
I think a lot of creatives, you canprobably relate to this, it's going
from being a creative person to acreative person and business person.
(24:38):
I'm used to wearing the creativehat, finding the clients, doing
the shoot, doing the editing,being, "Yay, I love my images,"
or, "Oh, that was a terrible shoot.
I'll learn and make up for it nexttime." The business piece, that's a hard
piece to learn as a creative person,'cause we're talking pricing yourself.
We're talking admin work, emails,invoices, your profit and loss,
(25:02):
finding an accountant, settingup your business registration.
Like, there's all these thingsthat aren't that fun to do, but you
have to do them, and I think- Thetoughest lesson is just learning to
think like a business person, too.
A lot of us get out of the gate andwe're like, "Oh, I'm a photographer,
and I wanna work for everybody,"and that's not gonna last.
(25:28):
You're so right.
You're so right.
Yeah.
The business piece took awhile to get my head around.
I think it still does sometimes, 'causethis is a tough industry to be in.
It really is.
You have to develop alittle bit of a thick skin.
But it's really been insightful.
It's been really insightful.
Like, I've learned a lot about myself,and I've had to grow in different
(25:51):
ways as a business person and let goof some of my old ways of thinking
when it came to, like, creative andputting myself out there and the
types of projects I say yes or no to.
That's been the hardestthing for me to learn, too.
It's not even just the business side,it's the people pleasing, like asserting
(26:12):
and boundary setting and the cojones,if you will, 'cause I just wanna say yes
to everything, to the most wildest shit,and then we have this unrealistic shoot
timeline, and then I'm losing my mindtrying to figure out how am I gonna meet
all of these demands that I said I couldguarantee in a day, and now the fuck.
People who are just creative atheart, I feel like it's harder for
(26:36):
them to make that switch in between.
It's a transition, and peopleneed to be prepared for that,
which I don't think I was.
I think I was very excited to do this, andI wanted to learn, and I wanted to figure
it out, but I don't think I was preparedfor how hard it is to be an entrepreneur.
Oh, yeah.
And lonely.
(26:56):
That was something I was not prepared for.
Freelancing, like, I was alone a lotof the time, and I had to go out and
meet other people in the industryand build friendships with them.
What would you tell anyone standingat the same edge where you are,
where they're making the transitionfrom their day job to freelancing?
(27:19):
I think what I would say, my advice,which I wish I would've thought about a
little earlier, diversify your income.
And when I say that, I don'tmean, oh, well, maybe stay
part-time at your job and do this.
You know, you could do that.
I mean, everyone has to do things theirway, but what I'm referring to is not just
(27:41):
being solely dependent on client work.
Which is exactly what I didfor several years into this.
And then when COVID hit, allmy client work went away.
It was eye-opening, very eye-opening,because I realized I can't just be
dependent on client work 'cause if it getstaken away like this, what am I gonna do?
(28:07):
So I think I would tell people to considertheir plan for income beyond client work.
Obviously, client work is important.
We need that.
That's our bread and butter.
But there's a lot of other things thatfood photographers can do to make money,
like supplement, like on the side.
I wanna talk about is youriPhone photography course.
You mentioned about how you had your phone
(28:32):
and you were taking photos, andyou were just really noticing
light first and using your iPhone.
So what prompted youto create this course?
That's a really good question.
This course I feel has been in theback of my mind for a couple years
before I actually really dove into it.
(28:53):
So when COVID hit and my client workwas canceled, I decided to dust off
my old blog, and I actually kindashifted gears with it and took a more
educational route around food photography.
And I signed up for an SEO classonline for bloggers so that I could
actually reinvent the blog to be ahelpful resource for people, and I
(29:19):
connected it with my main website,and it grew my traffic so much.
When you learn how to write a blogpost and what SEO is and how to use
keywords, Google loves that, and Ijust ran with it 'cause I had time.
I didn't have anything elseto do … besides my creative
(29:41):
test shoots that I would do.
So yeah, I got really into, like, sharinga lot of educational posts on the blog,
which led to diversifying my incomemore 'cause I started partnering with
advertisers and affiliate partners,and this free resource that was helping
people was now starting to help me, too.
And not just for the money.
(30:02):
It was really fun to teach,like, in an article like that.
I really enjoyed it.
And so then I was like, gosh, I work witha lot of restaurants, too, and whenever
I'm there, their social media manageror their GM is there with their phone,
taking pictures, not enjoying the results.
(30:22):
And I thought, "What if I did a course forpeople who are relying on their smartphone
for a lot of ongoing food image needs?" Imean, you can't hire a food photographer
every time you need a new food image,and the iPhones are really good.
I thought, "What if I did a courseto help people learn food photography
(30:43):
with their smartphone camera?"
And so I went back and forth on that.
I was worried, I think, at first, that,like, am I dumbing down what we do?
Like, I don't wanna takeaway from… I love my Fuji
cameras, my artificial lighting.
Like, I love my gear, but theiPhone camera is really damn good,
and people just don't know howto use it for food photography.
(31:07):
So I finally got up the courageto just dive in and create this
course, which took a while.
There's technical things, like you wannahave audio, and you need to know how to
talk to the camera, and how are you gonnarecord yourself doing a demonstration
where people can actually retain whatyou're doing and see really well.
(31:29):
So yeah, the iPhone course kindof grew from my blog, and then
my restaurant clients needingthis ongoing support system.
So I guess that's a reallylong-winded answer to your question.
No.
No, it's not.
I mean, it's good that you'reteaching this because we can't
(31:50):
take our cameras everywhere.
No.
And the iPhone is a fantastic camera.
It is.
And it's come such a long way.
In what instances would a foodphotographer be able to use
it for a course like this?
So my course is really targeted towardsbeginners who don't know a lot about
(32:13):
food photography, like what goes into it.
So they learn about, like, thecreative side of food photography
and then the technical side of it.
They learn what goes into a food shoot,which basically the fundamentals are
invaluable on a shoot because it's notjust, okay, I have a camera and I have
(32:33):
a pretty plate of food in front of me.
It's not easy to get a good picture of itif you don't know what to think through.
So I show them what to thinkthrough and what steps to take
to create a beautiful image.
There's a lot of demonstrationsusing natural light in my entryway
upstairs and in different restaurantsettings that have good natural
(32:54):
light, and then there's demonstrationsusing artificial light actually.
Oh, that's so cool.
Yeah.
It's a comprehensive course,but it's very beginner-friendly.
There's a good support email wherepeople can ask questions, and I
respond very quickly 'cause I lovetalking about this and helping people.
And they take away a lot of tips andtricks with their smartphone camera.
(33:18):
And what I love the most about thiscourse is there's no barrier to entry.
Everyone has a smartphone camera.
You don't have to go out and buy a DSLRor a mirrorless camera to take this.
Just grab your iPhoneand let's get to work.
Heck, I could even see the food stylistusing this because, I mean, yeah, they
(33:38):
need to promote their work, but sometimesthey just wanna practice styling at
home, and they wanna be able to geta nice photo of it, and they don't
have a DSLR, and they don't want one.
Like-
No
… Every food stylist that I've talked to, they're like, "I knew I didn't
wanna do the photography. I justwanted to make it look nice."
And they don't need it.
(33:59):
Yeah.
No, they don't need it.
I would love that.
So what was the most surprising thingfor you when you created this course?
How much I would enjoy doing it.
'Cause there's a lot of misleadinginformation online about, "Create a
course in two weeks and make six figures."And it's like, that's not how it works.
(34:20):
You're leaving out a lotof important information.
So again, it was like the process,kind of like, similar to when I
was learning food photography.
There was the process of learning howto set up my camera and talk to the
camera and get my audio set up correctly,and then how am I gonna teach this?
How can I share what I know to somebodywho doesn't know anything about
(34:42):
this using their smartphone camera?
And then I was like, "Can I do thisusing the smartphone camera?" So it
was really neat to, like, create somebeautiful work with my iPhone camera
in the course that other people couldfollow along with and create too.
It's a lot of work because apps change.
Did you know that?
What?
(35:02):
I'm just kidding.
But they do.
The interface changes, and then I needto plan ahead for that to re-record
some videos to show the new interface.
So, like, I'd have to rethink somelessons and modules and be like, "Okay,
if this app changes again, it's gonnabe easier to update because I've now
(35:22):
set the structure of the information upa little differently," type of thing.
And then now you have a new course.
Yeah.
The iPhone for drinks photography.
That one I really wanna hear about.
Yeah.
Mastering iPhone food photographyis… The doors are open for that
one, so people can sign up for that.
(35:45):
Mastering iPhone Drink Photography is inprogress, so that's not completed yet.
So that's people can join the wait list,which is awesome 'cause then they'll be
the first to know when it's available,and I usually have some people, like,
sign up early and give me some feedback.
It took me a while to dive into drinksas a food photographer, so that's
why I wanted to separate the two.
(36:07):
Because shooting food isdifferent than shooting drinks.
Like, there's other challenges thatcome into play, from glassware to
the shape of the glassware, lightingglassware, editing, and then staging it.
There's so many things to consider to makesure that you're getting a good image.
Whereas with food, you're probablynot gonna be dealing with as
(36:28):
many reflections and hotspotsand those types of challenges.
So it's gonna be similar to the foodcourse in that we are gonna talk about
the fundamentals and the framework of whatgoes into a drink shoot, but then we're
gonna do these demonstrations togetherwhere it all kinda comes together.
All the steps, we practice these stepsover and over and over again so that
(36:48):
they understand that they need tobreak that point-and-shoot mentality
when using their smartphone camera.
That's exciting.
It's very exciting, yeah, and it'sbecome its own little smartphone course
bundle focused on the food, and thenI'm working with mixologists, and
they're focused on their bar menu.
And there is a science behind both.
(37:10):
You touched on this a little bitearlier, but you talked about how
the business side of photography wasthe hardest lesson for you to learn.
What helped that lesson finally land?
I would say talking to people,getting advice, making mistakes.
The mistakes have kept me movingforward, if that makes sense.
(37:35):
Another thing that I thoughtwas that I wish I would've done
sooner was learn artificial light.
I was a natural light shooter fora very long time because I thought
that artificial light seemed tootechnical, too complicated, extra gear.
And you can create beautifulimages with natural light.
I'm not saying you can't.
(37:55):
But when I booked a restaurantshoot that was located in a
basement, I was freaking out.
It was a couple weeks out, so I signedup for this artificial light class online
and got myself a speedlight and startedpracticing with it as much as I could.
(38:15):
And then I remember specifically writingdown, like, Post-it notes or, like,
little note cards, notes for myself thatI kept in my back pocket for the shoot
so that I wouldn't forget something,'cause I was so nervous that it was gonna
be so complicated once I was finallythere, and it was a huge eye-opener.
Artificial light makesthings so much easier.
(38:37):
Like, I thought it would be so muchharder, and I was so wrong about that.
So a mistake I made was not learningthat sooner, but once I made it,
I moved forward in my career.
The mistakes you make along the way aren'treally mistakes if they push you forward.
When you look at your photography now,what feels earned and not learned?
(39:02):
Earned and not learned.
Let me think.
I think for me, when it comes to foodphotography, even from the very, very
beginning, I was always trying to finda connection between food and art.
And so I feel like with my style,I'm always bringing this artistic
eye every time I pick up my camera.
(39:25):
I'm always trying to tap into findingthat connection between food and art
'cause I wanna feel like I'm creatingart and not just taking a picture.
So I feel like my workrepresents that in myself.
Every time I pick up the camera, Iwanna create something beautiful.
I never know if it's going to behit or miss 'cause we've all had
(39:46):
those shoots where it's like,"Oh, that didn't work out so well.
No one needs to see that." But withthe work that I'm proud of, it's,
for me, I'm trying to create someart that I'm enjoying creating.
What's the bravest choice you've evermade with your photography style?
That's a really good question.
(40:07):
I think the bravest choice I've madeis to try to stay true to my artistic
style and learning to say no toprojects that won't align with that.
Now, that comes at a cost becauseI've been in the commercial world.
I've done a lot of thosebigger production shoots.
There's a lot of people involved.
There's a lot of red tape.
(40:28):
There's a lot of parameters in place,and sometimes I feel that that hinders
the creativity of what we're doing.
So that has pushed me to say no to someof those projects and keep pursuing my
restaurant clients and my hospitalitygroups because there's a lot more creative
(40:49):
freedom, which allows me to stay intune with that, finding that connection
between food and art, and it's reallybeen awesome because my clients trust me.
It's been an adventure to getthat kind of trust where I
have more repeat clients now.
But because they're not trying to get apackaging shot perfect, they wanna show
(41:15):
who they are, and I wanna capture that.
And so it feels like a reallygood match when we partner up.
What I'm trying to say is basicallythat when art meets commerce, we're
forced to make some difficult decisionsbecause we wanna get projects that
we love, but we wanna make money too.
(41:35):
So you have to figure out how youcan do both, and I've had to really
kinda figure that out as I go.
Whenever you feel disconnected from yourwork, how do you find your voice again?
What brings you back?
Oh, man.
Creative ruts.
(41:56):
They're the worst.
Oh, man.
When I start to feeldisconnected, I take a break.
I love what I do, but Ineed to take breaks from it.
It's like too much ofanything isn't really good.
So I've learned to setboundaries for myself.
Like, I try to shut things down at night.
(42:17):
I'm not answering emails at 9:00 PM.
I'm not answering themat 8:00 PM or 7:00 PM.
I want a good night's sleep.
Sleep's very important to me,so I try to prioritize that.
I also, like, I go to yoga.
It's amazing what just going to aone-hour yoga class will do to, like,
sort of take you out of your head,reconnect with your breath and your body.
There's so much stress relief in that.
(42:40):
But when I need to find my visualvoice again, it's after those little
breaks where I can do that more easilybecause I've detached for a minute.
I don't have to detach for a week.
Sometimes maybe, but that's rare.
It's just if I need to take a dayand regroup, do something else, I'll
do that, and it helps me reconnect.
(43:02):
And then maybe if I can throw in a testshoot, whether it's with my team or just
with myself, where again, it's like goingto the grocery store without a plan.
Having a plan to do a shoot, butnot knowing what you're gonna do.
Just taking all the noise away and justhaving some fun again, 'cause it's easy
to get in our own head and start to takeit all too seriously, and sometimes it's
(43:23):
just you need to take a little break, andthen you can regroup and come back to it.
It's okay to take a break.
Yes.
It's part of the work.
I mean, I got that froma video about ADHD.
I've just been obsessedover, hyper-focused … on
watching videos about ADHD.
But this one video in particular, wishI could remember which one it was,
(43:46):
but they just said, "Rest is part ofthe work. That is part of your work."
Yep.
You need to rest.
So that is something that I'm gettingbetter about it, getting better
about not feeling guilty about it.
But it's true.
When you need to rest, you need to rest.
What's one small ritual that,besides the yoga, besides…
(44:09):
What brings you back to peace?
Well, I can't say yoga?
Yoga is really something.
It's very important in my life.
It does ground me quite a bit.
But I'd say-
Like, for me, to give you an example-
Oh, sure.
(44:29):
Okay
… For me, I love affirmation cards, and so I love a good affirmation
card, and that brings me back.
Like, today's affirmation is, "Whateverthe problem, be part of the solution.
Don't just sit around raising questionsand pointing out obstacles," Tina Fey.
And then on the back it says, "Thinkof an area of your life that you'd
(44:51):
like to change. What can you do topivot to a positive perspective?"
Oh, see?
That's good thinking.
It makes you think.
Yeah.
So, like, that's a little ritualwhenever I'm feeling a little tough
about the week, I pick a affirmationcard and that brings me back, and
that's my little ritual that remindsme of what it is that I'm doing here
(45:12):
and now, and that progress is movement.
So what would be something for you?
Well, because I can get in my ownhead and get… start to take things a
little too seriously, I try to connectwith things that will make me laugh.
I love watching stand-up comedy, improv.
(45:33):
I enjoy it so much.
I love ridiculous jokes, findingsomething funny on Instagram that I
can rely on and go to if I need to justwatch something that'll make me laugh.
So finding ways to laugh again is soimportant for me because it helps me,
like, realize, look, you're a foodphotographer, not a brain surgeon.
(45:56):
It's okay to not take this so seriouslyright now and find a way to laugh
again, and it's such a release 'causeit's like, ugh, I just feel lighter.
I love that Facebook's been showing mea lot of stand-up comedy 'cause, I mean,
that's like my favorite thing as well.
Oh, cool.
Yeah.
(46:17):
Yeah, I love stand-up co- I triedstand-up comedy for a minute.
Did you really?
I did.
I did, and I was startingto get good at it.
Oh, that's so brave.
I could never do it.
I have so much admiration for comedians.
I just think it's awesome.
I mean, just watching them on stage,but- I, right around the time that I was
(46:39):
getting into photography, I kinda likecame at a crossroads of what am I gonna
pursue, comedy or photography, 'causeboth are gonna take up all of my time.
And I realized that, like, I enjoycomedy, but I enjoy being a spectator.
I don't wanna be on stage.
I mean, I love improv, and I wouldtotally do that professionally if that…
(47:01):
And I probably could if I really wantedto, 'cause I'm very good at improv.
Ugh.
It's my jam.
That's so awesome.
My background is in theater,and we did a lot of improvs.
But with comedy, I realized that Ienjoy being a spectator more than a
performer, and I just loved the art,and I appreciate it even more now that
now that I took courses in stand-upcomedy, and I saw what goes into a joke.
(47:25):
But I can use my skills that I learned inthat class when I'm doing my introduction
calls or whenever I'm speaking with aleader, or I go to a networking event.
Like, I know how to, like, make jokesand make people laugh, and then they like
me, and they wanna work with me, and…Uh, 'cause laughter is that connector
where it's like, if I can make youlaugh, then I can make you my friend.
(47:46):
So we go from there.
But I just love watching, uh, stand-upcomics, but I love that Facebook has
been throwing little comedy clips.
Like, they're doing crowd work,and it's just, it cracks me up.
Oh, yeah, I love that, too.
I get so sucked in.
I'm like, "How long haveI been scrolling this?"
(48:07):
I'm loving it, though.
What are some comediansthat you like and love?
I'm a big fan of Nate Bargatze.
I hope I'm saying his last name right.
He's hilarious.
You should write these downif you don't know them.
I am.
I am.
He's great.
Jim Gaffigan always makes me laugh.
He's so funny.
And I love Tom Segura.
(48:28):
So funny.
And Fortune Feimster is hilarious.
She's so great.
And I'm
blanking on her last name.
But Tig- Tig, oh.
Notaro.
Yes, thank you.
Oh my gosh, that's her.
Yeah.
Yeah, she's so funny.
These people, they don't realizehow important what they do is to me.
(48:49):
It's like they make me laughso hard, and we all need that.
Tig Notaro and Maria Bamford.
Like Maria Bamford, what I like about heris, I mean, she has this very quiet voice.
Okay.
And you have to really pay attention towhat she's saying, and then if you don't,
then you'll miss the little tagline'cause the joke always comes later.
(49:14):
It's like she builds this perfect setup,and then the unexpected punchline.
Like, it's just the way she deliversher punchlines that crack me up.
They are masters of delivery.
It's so impressive to me.
It's so hard to make people
laugh.
I think it's so hard.
Yes.
So if you can do that, you're amagician because it's a true talent
(49:37):
to be able to make people laugh.
It… Not only that, but, like, thereare comics where their style of comedy
I feel like is the most difficult'cause they're, like, really quiet.
Like Todd Barry.
So Todd Barry has, like, perfected thiswhere he has this, like, really quiet,
dry delivery, and to be able to do thatand keep a room attentive and with you,
(50:05):
'cause most comics are energetic andloud and that and this, and not Todd.
Like, he is just like… He sounds likethe type where he's just on his way to
the store, and I guess, uh, I guess I'lldo some goddamn comedy, and I'm up here.
And then after I'm done, I'm gonna go eat.
And yeah, so, like he performed at Southby Southwest, and I was a volunteer at
(50:30):
the time, and I was fangirling over him.
I was just like, "Oh my God, he'sso amazing. He's so amazing."
And my job was to guard theback door, so he was back there.
He goes, "Are you a volunteer?"And I said, "Yes." And he goes,
"Will you hold my badge and myphone?" And I was like, "Yes."
(50:51):
That is so incredible.
And so I'm standing there holdinghis badge and phone, and I'm looking
at them both, and I'm like, "Oh myGod, I have his badge and phone."
And people were like, "Why is shefreaking out over Todd Barry?" And
I was like, "You don't understand.
This is like heaven." So…
And he put on a phenomenal show.
It was the best.
(51:12):
Like, my favorite memory of South bySouthwest was watching him perform
'cause he really… It was magical.
I would love that.
That is a skill that it's not even taught.
It's just born.
Like, I love his style of comedy.
So I have two more questions for you.
Okay.
What's something aboutphotography that you once believed
(51:34):
that you no longer believe?
Oh, wow.
This takes me back to when Ishadowed that photographer for a
day when I was still at my day job.
I had the best day, and it wasso enlightening because I used to
believe, and I believed this thenuntil that day, I needed the fanciest
(51:55):
gear, and a really cool studio,and all the bells and whistles to
do food photography successfully.
And I know now that youdon't need all that.
You don't.
And why I'm bringing up that day thatI shadowed the food photographer is
because I realized he's doing what I do.
(52:18):
He just has more equipment, morepeople on his team helping him,
and a really awesome studio.
I was there with my $300DSLR, which I don't even think
they make the model anymore.
And I used, I was usingnatural light at the time.
(52:38):
And it was just me.
But we were both creating food images.
We were both doing the same thing.
And that was incredibly inspiringto me to keep going because just
'cause I didn't have all that didn'tmean that I couldn't become a food
photographer, didn't mean that Icouldn't take beautiful pictures of food.
(52:59):
You don't need all the gear.
You don't need all the bellsand whistles of a fancy studio.
If you have a creative vision and acamera and artificial light… Sorry,
I had to throw that in just because Ireally do love artificial light so much.
You don't need what you think you need.
You don't need all of that.
My last question is, what isexciting you creatively these days?
(53:25):
Oh, man.
Taking a break.
No, I'm just kidding.
It's just been a busy year.
Oh.
I'm excited to put my feet up.
Does that count as creative?
No.
Yeah.
You can pick the socks.
You could design the socks and thenorder the socks and then wear the
socks and sit on your chair and-
(53:45):
There you go.
No.
I would say I've been getting in moreinto video over the last couple of years.
Oh, fun.
So I'm putting together a compilationof a bunch of videos I've been
working on just with some cool music.
And so I'm really excitedto get that put together.
So that's a project I'm really excitedto work on at the end of this year just
(54:07):
to kinda wrap up what I've been doingand just have a little fun with it.
Well, Regan, thank you somuch for being on the show.
I loved this conversation.
It was so nice to talk with you.
This is so good for the soul,and I have one last question.
Where can the listeners find you andfollow you and ask any questions?
(54:31):
And also, where can they get onthe wait list for your course?
Oh, sure.
Well, you can follow me on Instagram.
My name's just @reganbaroni.
And you can check out mywebsite 'cause my blog is there
with a lot of free resources.
And there's a course link as well, soyou can check out the courses available
and learn more about them to see ifthey might be a good fit for you.
(54:54):
And honestly, DM me or email me anytime.
I'm happy to talk with people.
Something that I didn't feel I had whenI was first starting out was a lot of
people to reach out to, to ask questionsto, to talk shop with, and I've tried
to build that community for myself.
And I just would love it if peoplehave questions and they just
(55:15):
want to talk shop, reach out.
Let's talk shop.
We'll find time.
Yay.
Thank you so much again for coming,and oh man, thank you so much.
Well, thank you for having me.
This episode is written and producedby me, your host, Mika McCook.
(55:35):
Like this episode?
Give us a five-star review on ApplePodcast and subscribe to The Savory
Shot wherever you get your podcast.
Or follow me, your host, MikaMcCook, on Instagram at Mica.mccook.
Or you can follow the podcast onInstagram at thesavoryshotpodcast.
(55:57):
If you have any questions, comments, orwould like to be featured on the show,
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