Daylesford Food Photography Masterclass Roundup

HELLO! I am sorry for the late of updates because the 3G here is really expensive and the wifi in my hotel isn’t working very well till now.

It was my last night in Daylesford as I was typing this blogpost. Snuggling in bed after packing my close-to-bursting luggage, staring at the three crawling millipedes right above my bed, I decided to write something so as to keep an eye on where they were heading to.

The food photography masterclass had been truly a fun and enriching experience. Turning the clock back to about a month ago, I was feeling unmotivated in blogging and I felt kinda stuck in what I was doing. There was no sense of achievement and my photos do not appear appetizing to me anymore. Plus, I was asked to do lotsa food styling when I was still working for a catering company. But the lack of experience makes things very difficult.

So when I looking for inspiration for my food styling project, I came to know that Billy Law and Ewen Bell were organizing this Food Photography Masterclass. Immediately, I dropped them an email, checked my bank account, booked air ticket and accommodation, and here I am, lying in the bed of a farmhouse in Daylesford, the beautiful countryside of Melbourne.

The farm house is so pretty. And best thing is, there is totally no reception in the house! If I wish to use internet, I either visit the town, of climb up the hill to get limited reception. But having no reception isn’t a bad thing, as I spend more time doing photoshoot and truly enjoying myself in a countryside holiday.

Billy is Australia’s prolific food blogger who also happened to be a contestant on MasterChef Australia 2011. He cooks well, style well and shoot well. Ewen is editor at large for Digital Photography magazine in Australia and he is really good with cameras. So it has been a privilege to learn from them. Rule of thumb when it comes to styling, keep adding things to the shoot. Do not afraid to make it messy. We spent a lot of our time shooting, editing the photos in our laptop and printing our works in A3 size.

We also visited Jonah’s pig farm nearby to shoot the pigs! Jonah has two dogs and well, I don’t go very well with dogs. They think that I was playing with them when I was running around screaming like a mad woman. Haiz. But it is definitely lovely to shoot the pigs. Rule of thumb is to go slow and go low, so as to get some nice shots.

Coming to Australia has always been my dream. When I was younger, my Mum would always tell me “Next year, let’s go Australia”. Unfortunately, my next year never happens and it has always been my dream to visit this country. But I had failed to put any sort of plan in place to make this happen. I only had a lofty dream, not steps laid out to get me from where I was standing to where I wanted to be.

Resolutions, whether they’re made on the first of January or any day of the year, are refreshing. It’s a chance to start again—the closest you can get to a “redo” of the past. Sometimes, all we need is the courage to take the first step. I don’t want to be thinking about all the what-ifs. After all, the panic appeared to be the fear of not achieving the resolution. For me, that hope and possibility was enough to take the leap of faith and go forward.

I AM GLAD I MAKE THE TRIP HERE. THIS IS THE BEST TRIP IN MY LIFE SO FAR!