If you said yes to most or all of these questions, perhaps you should start your very own food blog!

Having your food blog is an awesome way to be part of a great online community, to connect with other food lovers and share your passion and recipes with readers from all over the world. It is such a rewarding experience and can truly make your skills and passion for food grow even more.

Starting a food blog is super easy. In only 5 easy steps, you can start and design your very own beautiful blog. In this post, I decided to share with you some tips to start your blog based on my experience in starting my website. Here are the steps to follow to start your own gorgeous food blog:

Without waiting any longer, you can take the next 10 minutes to read through this post and make your food blog dream a reality!

1. Name your Blog

Name and Tagline: Find a name that represents you and the general theme of your blog. Your name should be simple and catchy. Choose it wisely because it will define your identity. Along with your blog name, find a tagline to further define the type of recipes that people will find on your blog.

For example, I named my blog Homemade Hearts because I want to share recipes that I create from scratch, and with love. My tagline helps adding a specialization to my type of cooking: Gluten-Free recipes for a Homemade Life. With this tagline, I let my readers know that on my website, all the recipes will be gluten-free and from scratch.

Other examples of blog names and taglines are:

Chocolate Covered Katie: The Healthy Dessert Blog

Pinch of Yum: A Food Blog with Simple and Tasty Recipes

Minimalist Baker: Simple Food, Simply Delicious

Oh She Glows: Vegan Recipes by Angela Liddon

So you get the general idea here: all of these super popular blogs have simple titles and clear taglines that describe the information they share on their website.

The key to finding your name is to brainstorm as many ideas as you can, get feedback from friends and family, and select the name that most represents you and your vision for your blog. Once you have selected your blog name, you need to secure your domain name and web hosting server.

Domain Name: Your domain name is your website address. Try to keep it simple and in line with your blog name. Mine is homemadehearts.ca. In my case, I selected .ca because I live in Canada, but .com is the most common. You can go on Bluehost to verify if the domain you want is available. If it is available, you can purchase your domain for a small annual fee, or get your domain for free if you decide to host your website with Bluehost.

Web Hosting: Once you have your domain name, you need to select a secure web hosting service. I use Bluehost and am very pleased with their service, which is very affordable, reliable and easy to use. Also, as I mentioned above, you can have a free domain name if you purchase web hosting with them. You can get an annual hosting plan for a small monthly fee.

When you purchase your web hosting package, I also recommend to get the Domain Privacy Protection. This only costs a few dollars per year and it will keep your personal information hidden from the public. I think it is totally worth it!

2. Select a blog platform

Now that you have a name, domain and web hosting service, you need to select a blog platform. A blog platform is a software that is designed to facilitate your blogging experience.

If you are like me and don’t know anything at all about html and website coding, you can select a platform that will do it all for you. I use WordPress.org, which I love. It is easy to use and most of all, it is free! You can customize your site with any theme that you want and incorporate lots of plugins to create an interactive website.

The other bonus with wordpress is that you can set it up directly through your Bluehost page. You simply login your Bluehost profile and under the “Website” category, you will see “Install WordPress”. All you need to do is to click on the WordPress logo and follow the instructions to install WordPress. It is super simple and should not take you more than 5-10 minutes to install a Wordpress blog platform that is linked to your domain!

3. Customize your blog and make it pretty

Once you have installed WordPress, it is time to build your site and make it super pretty! To make your site pretty, you can use some of the free themes that WordPress offers.  This is a great place to start and figure out the whole blogging thing, and I originally started my blog using one of the free themes.

If you find that your free theme gets limiting, you can purchase a premium theme that will allow you to customize more aspects of your website. Right now, I use a theme that was developed by StudioPress and uses the Genesis Framework. The theme I selected is the Foodie Theme and I love it so much. I love the layout which is perfect to feature your photos, develop recipe index and just have a super clean and professional looking food blog. You can view this theme and lots of other great Themes on StudioPress website.

4. Introduce yourself 

Now that you have your site up and running, you can start creating content. The first thing you should do is to create an About page and write about yourself and your blog. Readers are often curious about who is writing all the delicious recipes on your site so it is important to have a page about yourself. This page is not only an opportunity to share your personal story and motivation behind your blog, but you can also clearly state the vision for your blog.

Here are a few questions that you can answer in your About page:

• Who are you?
  • To personalize your blog, include your name, a picture about yourself and a few fun facts.
• What is your food blog about? How is your blog unique?
  • Describe the purpose of your blog and what type of articles/recipes readers can expect to find on your website.
  • Describe how your blog is unique and how it reflects your personality.
• How should people use your blog, where should they start reading?
  • Help reader navigate on your website by directing them to certain articles at the end of your About page. For example, you can include a link to your recipe index and contact page.
  • Include other relevant links, such as links to your social media pages.

If you cannot answer all these questions the day that you create your About page, don’t worry. You can start by including a bit of detail about you and the purpose of your food blog, and then you can add more information with time. I recommend to keep your About page current by reviewing it on a regular basis. Here is my About page, I try to update mine every other month to ensure it is always current.

5. Publish your first recipe

Now that you have done all the hard work, you can begin the fun part!!! Go to your kitchen, create some amazing recipes, take photographs and publish your posts. If you don’t know where to start, where to get your ideas or how to develop your own unique recipes, you can read my post about recipe development here. This will hopefully give you inspiration on how to create your own unique recipes in 6 easy steps.

If you want your blog to take off, you should really decide on a regular posting schedule and stick to it. I post 2 recipes every week (usually on Tuesdays and Thursdays), and this helps my readership know when there will be new content on my site. Posting on a regular basis really helps maintaining an active readership.

Congratulations – you now have a beautiful website! Now, the real work begins. You need to post new content on a regular basis. Get creative with your recipes and posts to always have some fresh and original content for your readers.

If you want to read more about food blogging, here are a few resources that I found (and still find) super helpful:

Food Blogging For Dummies, by Kelly Senyei

Will Write For Food, The Complete Guide to Writing Cookbooks, Blogs, Reviews, Memoir and more, by Dianne Jacob

Hope you enjoy starting your blogging experience! Do not hesitate to ask any questions you may have or share your website with me to connect!

Light is the true building block of photography and I believe is it really important to master lighting in order to become a great photographer. Through my food photography, I have played quite a bit with natural and available light, but have had limited exposure to artificial light. This unit provided me with some of the knowledge needed to understand the various types of lighting equipment and how to use them to obtain great results. After completing this unit, I feel a lot more comfortable with artificial lighting.

Unit 3 – Harnessing the Light, was broken down into 8 lessons:

• Lesson 1. Natural and Available Light: This lesson covered  sunlight and available light and how to best capture it to give the desired effect/mood to your photograph. We looked in detail at light direction, colour, quality and also learned about night time photography.
• Lesson 2. Artificial Light – Continuous: In this lesson, we were introduced to continuous artificial light such as floods and spots and their characteristics (intensity, direction, quality and colour). I found this lesson very valuable because we learned how to set up a home studio at with basic equipment. During this unit, I set up a small studio in my living room and was able to get lots of practice done. This practical experience really helped understand the principles tought during this lesson.
• Lesson 3. Artificial Light – Flash: This lesson on flash was extremely complex and probably the most difficult of Unit 3. There were lots of numbers and calculations for using guide numbers, synchronization speed, ratios, outputs, etc. When I got my new Canon Speedlite and tried to play with it, I realized that these external flashes are quite complex and I will likely have to supplement what I learned in the course with additional readings and videos. I have also started re-reading this unit a second time to see if I missed any key elements that would help me use my Speedlite properly. I can do the basics but I feel that there is so much more that I haven’t completely grasped yet.
• Lesson 4. Travel Photography: This was such a fun and simple lesson that was very quick to complete. There was very interesting information about what gear to pack when traveling, how to prepare for airport and customs and how to protect your gear in extreme conditions (hot, cold, humid, rain). There was also information about how to get great travel photos that are different and unique, and finally tips on how to organize and process your travel photos.
• Lesson 5. Landscape and Flower Photography: This lesson, similar to Lesson 4, was very interesting and quick to complete. In the landscapes section, we learned about lighting, reviewed information about depth of field, and touched on framing and converging lines. We also got some tips on shooting in different conditions such as sunset, fog, snow, water and waterfalls. In the second part, we learned about various ways of photographing flowers indoor and outdoors.
• Lesson 6. The Perfect Print: This unit was quite interesting and I surprisingly learned a lot of stuff I did not know about the different types of printing labs, colour, and even the different types of paper that are out there.
• Lesson 7. Essential Business Skills – Introduction to the Business Correspondence: I did not learn much new information in this unit on business correspondence, which mainly focused on how to write emails. I can see the value of it for people who do not have much experience in the business world. I did not learn much in this lesson, but it was very short, so it’s ok!
• Lesson 8. Optional – The Darkroom: I have to be honest here, I did not go through this lesson since it is optional and I am not planning to do any darkroom work in the near future.

After finishing all the lessons, I completed the open book multiple choice exam. I found the exam to be an excellent opportunity to go back through each lesson and review the information one more time. This helped make the information sink into my brain even more. As I mentioned in my previous posts, I find that I need to see information 2-3 times to really remember it, and the open book exam is an excellent way to review!

Finally, I completed my Photography Project for Unit 3, in which I had to submit 6 photos to demonstrate that I understand some of the lighting techniques that I learned in that unit. I submitted my pictures for the photo project and received feedback from my instructor about 3 days later. My instructor sent me 10 minutes of comments on my photos and I always find his comments so constructive. He highlighted what I did well, but really goes further by outlining some tips and ideas to push the concepts even further. I truly enjoy listening to his review and tips to improve even more. Here are the photos I submitted:

Photograph 1 – Direct Sunlight coming at 45 degree angle: For the first submission, I had to photograph an outdoor object (not a person) that was lit by direct sunlight coming at 45 degree angle. I went down the road one evening and took a few pictures of sailboats. On this picture, the sun lighting the rocks at a 45 degree angle. To take this picture, I used my 24-105mm lense at a focal length of 65mm, shutter speed of 1/100 and F-Stop of f/11.

Photograph 2 – Sidelighting: For this photo, I had to photograph an outdoor object (not a person) that was side lit by direct sunlight coming at 90 degree angle. Sidelighting is great to bring out texture in an object. I went under a bridge and was just amazed at how much texture that pipe had with the paint peeling. The sun was lighting at a perfect 90 degree angle so I captured a few shots and this one was my favourite. For this shot, I used my 24-105mm lense at a focal length of 85mm, shutter speed of 1/80 and F-Stop of f/11.

Photograph 3 – Backlighting: For the third picture, I had to photograph an outdoor object (not a person) that was enhanced by the effect of the sun coming toward the camera to backlight the object. I decided to photograph the sun coming through the branches of a tree, I like the effect and the transparency of the leaves that comes out – I will play around more with backlighting. To take this picture, I used my 24-105mm lense at a focal length of 24mm, shutter speed of 1/80 and F-Stop of f/11.

Photograph 4 – Diffused Lighting: For this picture, I had to take a portrait where the sun is diffused by clouds or shade. Our wedding anniversary was the perfect day for this – an overcast day with a bit of rain. We went back to the place where we had a picnic on our wedding day last year and took a picture in the same spot. This is a tradition that we will do every year, bringing the picture of the previous year with us to get a fun picture each year. To take this shot, I set my camera on a tripod with a timer. I used my 24-105mm lense at a focal length of 85mm, shutter speed of 1/60 and F-Stop of f/11.

Photograph 5a – Still Life with 45 degree light: For this still life picture, we had to shoot a subject with 45 degree frontlight indoor or outdoor. I was so excited to have the opportunity to pick a subject that is related to my true passion: food photography! Since it is fall, I thought I would set up a still life with a basket of apple, my grandmother’s tea pot and some handwritten recipes. I lit up this picture using my Canon Speedlite 430 EXII diffused with a white umbrella that I placed 45 degrees to the right of my camera. I used my 50mm prime lense at a shutter speed of 1/200 and F-stop of f/8. I really enjoyed playing with the strobe for this shot!

Photograph 5b – Still Life with Reflected Light: For this last picture, we had to use the same subject as above but add a reflector board to open up the shadows. In this case, I just added a white foam board to the left of the subject and you can see that the shadows are more open. The camera and flash are set up exactly the same as for photo 5a. It is pretty amazing to see how much light reflects off a white foam board! For this particular picture, I think I actually prefer the more moody look of photo 5a. What about you, which one do you prefer?

I am loving this course and as I write this, I am already through half of Unit 4 – Photographing People. This unit is so interesting! I get to practice a lot more with my studio setup and lighting equipment!! I can’t wait to share my next review with you!

If you are interested in learning about other sections of this course, here is my review of  Unit 1 – You and Your Equipment, and Unit 2 – Capturing the Image.

Note: This post is not sponsored. The opinions expressed in this post are my own.

Have you ever heard of umami before? I, myself, did not know anything about this secret fifth flavour before my visit to New York City two weeks ago! Let me tell you how I discovered this amazing secret…

I have been intrigued by The Natural Gourmet Institute for a few years now, looking at the Professional Chef Training that they offer for natural, health-supporting food and dreaming that one day, I might be able to do this Chef training. When I booked my trip to NYC, I decided to register my husband and I at one of their public classes to get a glimpse of the Institute. The class I selected was called Vegan Umami. I chose this class because I was just so intrigued by all the possibilities to learn new things about umami (it would be easy since I knew nothing about it at the time)!

When we first stepped into the Institute, I was immediately inspired by the atmosphere. The place was buzzling with chefs and students sporting white chef outfits wh0 were going from one kitchen to another with loads of ingredients, kitchen tools and books.

We were guided to the kitchen classroom where our course was to take place and handed an apron and a booklet of recipes that we would make during the evening. I was flipping through the pages while waiting for the course to start, and was so excited to look at the menu:

• Smoky Mushroom “Bacon” Cannellini Crostini
• Vegan Caesar Salad with Garlic Confit Dressing and Roasted Chickpea “Croutons”
• Heirloom Tomato Salad with Cashew Ricotta and Balsamic Pearls 
• Creamy Fresh Corn Polenta with Seared Trumpet Mushroom “Scallops” and Red Chile Infused Oil
• Massaged Kale with Pine Nuts and Warm Golden Raisin Vinaigrette
• Baked Eggplant Rollatini with Miso Basil Pesto and Crispy Capers
• Dark Chocolate Hazelnut Crust Tartlets with Whipped Coconut Cream

All these items just looked like they could be served in a five star vegan restaurant! In only 3 hours, we would prepare a 7 course vegan feast while learning how to incorporate the umami flavour in all the dishes with health-supportive ingredients such as miso, mushrooms, seaweed, tempeh, etc.

The course, given by Chef Olivia Roszkowski, started with an introduction on the Institute and the concept vegan umami. The introduction was followed by a demonstration of a few cooking techniques such as pickling, smoking, grilling and making infused oils. This was really interesting and I learned a few really cool tricks, such as how to smoke tempeh at home with micro woodchips and how to pickle strawberries that are busrting in flavour.

Then, we started the fun hands-on part. We split up in groups of 3 and each group prepared 3 of the 7 recipes listed above. It was amazing to cook in a professional kitchen! There were a few great helpers that were cleaning up all of our dirty dishes and answering our questions as they arose. This made the cooking process a lot faster and enjoyable! Once we were all done cooking, we plated our dishes, placed all the food on a large table and gathered around another table to eat all this delicious vegan umami dishes. Everything was so delicious, but if I had to pick my favourite dishes, it would be the Baked Eggplant Rollatini and the Dark Chocolate Hazelnut Tartlets (unfortunately I did not get a picture of those tartlets!).

The coolest new technique I learned in the course was how to make balsamic pearls! Seriously, look at these beautiful black pearls that look just like caviar on top of the heirloom tomatoes. Those are the ones I made, they are not all even, but with a bit of practice, I should get better at it!

I really loved this experience and really hope I can go back for more training one day!!! I am hoping to be able to participate in the 2-week Summer Basic Intensive Class next year, we will see if this happens!

I am curious to know if you have ever taken cooking courses and if so, what are the favourite things you learned during these courses. Leave your comments below!

Unit 2 took a bit longer to go through than Unit 1 because it was very loaded with lots of technical information (some parts were even quite dry…but I understand that not everything about photography can be exciting). Unit 2 – Capturing the Image, was broken down into 7 lessons:

• Lesson 1. Image Capture: This lesson covered how an image is captured digitally or on film. We learned about the different types of memory cards, different types of film, white balance and ISO amongst other things.
• Lesson 2. Exposure: This was by far the longest, hardest but most valuable lesson so far in the course. Lesson 2 is filled with technical information on aperture, shutter speed, exposure brackets, camera metering, histograms, light meters and a lot of other tricks to get good exposure. This lesson alone probably took me about 3 weeks to read, but I definitely learned a lot of information that I have been putting in practice since. I really saw a huge shift in my understanding of good exposure.
• Lesson 3. Exposing and Developing Black and White Film: During this lesson, I learned how to develop black and white film with minimal equipment. It was quite an interesting read, but I tried to flip through it quickly because I don’t have any intentions of developing black and white film in the future. When I was in University, I used to go in the darkroom and developed my own black and white film, so it was a great refresher, but I dont think I will be doing that again. Now that we have digital cameras, I have no interest in handling chemicals to get my pictures developed.
• Lesson 4. Digital Processing: This lesson covered the principles of Image editing, file types and scanners. There were definitely some interesting parts, but there was a strong emphasis on scanners, which is not something I am looking to use now. However, I do understand the value of this information and will likely be very happy to flip back through this lesson when I need a scanner!
• Lesson 5. Filters: A very short and to the point lesson showing the various types of filters that exist out there, with examples of how each of them is used. This was a very captivating and quick lesson that I enjoyed.
• Lesson 6. Developing Your Eye: This was my favourite less of Unit 2. It covered composition and presented 12 guidelines to improve the composition of your photo. The concepts and guidelines really got me thinking about looking at a scene from different points of view to get the best composition. I have learned so many concepts that help me understand and better analyze pictures I look at. I can finally find the words to describe what is good and what could be improved in the composition of a shot. This is a lesson that I will definitely read over and over again to ensure that all the guidelines are really well embedded in my mind and can transpire in my photographs. This lesson was the basis for the photo project to be completed in Unit 2.
• Lesson 7. Essential Business Skills – Introduction to the Business of Photography: Each unit ends with a Business lesson. In this Unit, the business lesson covered starting up a photography business. The information really touched on the legal aspect of the photography business, such as different types of businesses, taxes, leases, privacy and photo release forms. I do not want to start a photography business right away, but this is something that I might be interested in a few years so this is definitely great information to read.

After completing all the lessons, I completed the open book multiple choice exam. I found the exam to be an excellent opportunity to go back through each lesson and review the information one more time. This helped make the information sink into my brain even more. I find that I need to see information 2-3 times to really remember it, and the open book exam is an excellent way to review!

Finally, I completed my Photography Project for Unit 2, in which I had to submit 3 photos to demonstrate that I can put in practice some of the techniques that I learned in that unit. In June, I went to visit my parents in rural Québec, so I took this opportunity to practice the new concepts I learned. The bonus is that my dad is also really into photography and I was able to borrow some of his great lenses. It was awesome to get to play with different lenses – I particularly loved his 70-200 lense!!!

I submitted the three pictures for my photo project and less than 3 days later, I received feedback. My instructor sent me 10 minutes of comments on my photos and I find his comments so constructive. He highlighted what I did well, but really goes further by outlining some tips and ideas to push the concepts even further. I truly enjoy this constructive criticism. Overall, I need to work on applying the rule of thirds and adding secondary subjects. Here are the photos I submitted:

Photograph 1 – Focus attention on subject: For the first submission, I had to place a person or object to focus attention on the subject using two methods:

1. place the subject up front so it is larger than everything else
2. place the subject off-center, following the rule of thirds

One day, we went to the new piece of land that my parents got to build their cabin. It is currently forested so as I was walking around to check out the property, I saw some beautiful fiddleheads. There were ants marching up and down one of the fiddleheads so armed with my dad’s 70-200mm lense, I shot a close-up scene to check out the action. This was the perfect subject for this first photo: a fiddlehead that is larger than everything else in the background, and that is placed off-center, along one of the vertical line present in the rule of thirds. One of the comment of my instructor is that to make this picture even more interesting to the eye, I could have added a secondary subject in the background along the right vertical line. I will definitely try this next time.

Photograph 2 – Framing: In this picture, I had to use framing to focus attention on the subject. When we were driving, we saw this really cute barn and we stopped just in between two trees to photograph it. The two trees are acting as a nice frame for the house. Unfortunately, I somehow did not feel like getting out of the car (I was tired from a long day in the sun and there were just so many flies biting me!), so the branches overlap with the roof. I should have stepped out of the car and lowered myself to get a better shot, and this is the main comment my instructor had to improve this photo. To get this shot, I used my 24-105mm lense at a 70mm focal legth, and set my camera in manual mode with f/16, shutter speed of 1/200 and ISO 400.

Photograph 3 – Converging Lines: I had a lot of fun practicing for this photo. We had to use converging lines to focus attention on a subject. I was having fun taking photos at the railway and with docks, but I ended up submitting one of a path leading to a farm house. I also tried to apply the rule of thirds in this picture, but the instructor gave me some great input on how I could have improved my application of the rule of thirds. The first picture below is the one I submitted, and I am also including one of my mom walking on the railway bed behind their house and my dad photographing birds on a dock. For the farm picture that I submitted, I set my camera at f/22, with a shutter speed of 1/30 to try and make everything in focus, all the way to the horizon. I was also using my 24-105mm lense set at 55mm.

I am loving this course and I really can’t wait to dive into the next Unit!! Unit 3 – Harnessing the Light.

If you are interested in learning about other sections of this course, here are the other units I completed and reviewed:

Unit 1 – You and Your Equipment

Unit 3 – Harnessing the Light

Note: This post is not sponsored. The opinions expressed in this post are my own.

I have a full time job on top of this blog and lots of volunteering and social activities. I had to really think about whether or not I would have time to dedicate to a professional photography course because when I start something, I need to finish it. After doing a bit of research and really thinking things through, I decided that I really wanted to master my camera so I jumped in and registered for the Complete Course in Professional Photography.

I registered on April 17, and in less than 1 month, I was able to complete Unit 1. In case you are curious, there are the 6 units in the course:

1. You and your equipment
2. Capturing the image
3. Harnessing the light
4. Photographing people
5. Broadening your subject range
6. Professional pathways

Each unit is further broken down into various lessons, in which you have a combination of text to read, videos to watch, and audio recordings. I really enjoy the way each lesson is broken down into various mediums because it makes it more interactive and motivating to continue. I love that I can read a few lessons on my ipad before going to bed, or listen to an audio segment while doing dishes. You really have the opportunity to do this course anytime and anywhere! I had originally ordered the printed material, but since I had not received it after completing the first Unit, I called NYIP to cancel the order. They gave me a refund without any questions asked, which was great. Once I got started, I found that the web portal for the course is really well designed and I really did not need to use any printed materials.

I have to say that I have learned so much in Unit 1. Before starting the course, I was not able to use my camera in manual mode. After completing this small part of the course, I now use my camera exclusively in manual mode. In this unit, there was a lot of detail about the range of photography equipment that is out there, and there was also a great focus on how to use everything, including a great section on understanding the aperture, shutter speed and ISO to get sharp images. I still have lots of learning to do, but this is a major accomplishment that I am so pleased with. I feel like I have more control of my camera and can play with aperture and shutter speed to get the effect I want to show on a picture.

Each Unit ends with a multiple choice open book exam and a Photography Project to be submitted electronically. What is great about the Photoraphy Project is that it is reviewed by a professional photographer who provides audio comment on your work. In order to complete Unit 1, I had to submit 3 photos to demonstrate that I can do some of the techniques that we learned in that unit. Here are the photos I submitted:

Photograph 1 – Sense of Speed: For the first submission, I had to show a sense of speed with one of three techniques:

1. use a slow shutter speed to blur the image with a sharp background;
2. pan the camera to have a sharp subject and blurred background; or
3. set a high shutter speed to freeze the action.

My plan for the first photograph was to use a panning motion. I practiced on the streets of St. John’s to capture cars against the jelly bean coloured houses, but in the end, I got a nice shot of a bird taking off and decided to use that picture. It was pure luck as I just saw the bird and quickly changed my camera set ups to try and take a close up shot. I barely had time to set my camera and the bird started flying.  To get this shot, I used my 24-105mm lense at a 105mm focal legth, and set my camera in manual mode with f/4, shutter speed of 1/320 and ISO 200. I could have set the shutter speed a bit higher to really freeze the tip of its wings, but since the bird was not going very fast, a 1/320 shutter speed worked fairly well in this case.

Here is one of the shots where I practiced the panning technique. I did not end up submitting it because I am not quite pleased with the composition, but I will definitely keep practicing this technique, it gives quite interesting results!

Photograph 2 – Selective Focus: In this picture, I had to use a narrow depth of field to make the subject stand out. I went to a rocky beach in Holyrood to check out some icebergs and saw this old boat on the beach. I took a close up shot of the tip of the boat. I love the texture of the old paint and rusted metal. To get this shot, I used my 24-105mm lense at a 92mm focal legth, and set my camera in manual mode with f/4, shutter speed of 1/320 and ISO 200.

Photograph 3 – Feeling of Distance: In the last shot for Unit 1, I had to demonstrate that I can use the hyperfocal distance principles to get a view that stretches as far as the eye can see, with a great depth of field. In order to do this, we need to set the lens to a small aperture. In this case, I set my camera at f/22, with a shutter speed of 1/125 to try and make everything in focus, all the way to the horizon. For this shot, I wanted to get a bit of a close up of the iceberg so set my focal distance at 85mm. My instructor said the shot was good but suggested to use a wider focal distance to really maximize the effect.

I am loving this course and I really can’t wait to dive into the next Unit!!

If you are interested in learning about other sections of this course, here are the other units I completed and reviewed:

Unit 2 – Harnessing the Light

Unit 3 – Harnessing the Light

Note: This post is not sponsored. The opinions expressed in this post are my own.

There are many ways that can lead you to create your own recipes. I decided to share my own personal recipe writing process with you in the hope that it helps you to get to work and create those recipes that you dream about. Creating unique recipes is so rewarding and it only requires some imagination, a little bit of patience, and lots of perseverance.

My recipe development process can be summarized into 6 easy steps. You can give it a try or use it as inspiration to develop your own methods, depending on your personal style and preferences.

So without waiting any longer, here are the 6 easy steps to follow to create your unique recipes.

To help give you a better idea of how the steps work, I have elaborated on each of the 6 steps below.

Step 1. Find your Inspiration

Every recipe starts with an idea. There are many ways that you can make an idea grow in your mind. Sometimes ideas for amazing recipes can come to you when you are at work, in the car, or going for a walk. If that is the case for you, great news – you can immediately skip to Step 2! However, for those times when inspiration is lacking, here are some tips I use to generate ideas.

• Think about a recipe that you love and try to adapt it creatively. For example, you could make a recipe you love healthier (gluten-free, vegan – like these Healthy Nanaimo Bars), or present it in a totally different way (such as a deconstructed version).
• Select a feature ingredient and challenge yourself to create an original dish which features this ingredient. For example, when I heard about the Canadian Lentil Recipe Challenge, I bought a bunch of different kinds of lentils, without knowing what to make. When I got home, I started thinking about ideas to make a main course, soup, and dessert featuring this ingredient. This is how I ended up with this Soup, Pasta, and Cookies.
• Walk down the isle of a grocery store and challenge yourself to find a new ingredient that you have never used before, or to just find a few ingredients that you feel like eating and let them inspire you.
• Look in your pantry and find which ingredients seem to be calling out to you. Sometimes, on weeknights, when I am too tired to go to the grocery store or follow a recipe, I just open the fridge and pantry, select a few ingredients, and compose a delicious recipe on the spot. These can often be the most satisfying meals because you had no idea you could do something like this with barely any new groceries!
• When you are having a meal out at a restaurant, scroll through the menu and try to memorize a few ingredient combination or meals that could be fun to create at home, in your own way.
• Sit down in a comfortable chair with a cup of herbal tea and flip through pages of recipe books. When I want inspiration to create a new recipe, I will usually only look at the pictures and try to get ideas of what I want to eat. Another way to see lots of food pictures of course is to go on Pinterest or Foodgawker.

I highly recommend you to always carry a small notebook so you can write down any idea that comes to your mind. You may not create the recipe right away, but this notebook will become highly valuable when you are running out of ideas! I take a small Moleskin notebook in my purse everywhere I go and I also have a larger planner that I use more generally for my blog. Here is a sneak peak of the tool I use to develop my recipe and post ideas. You will see in the picture below that I created an entire tab for recipe ideas (4th tab).

Step 2. Develop the Concept

Hopefully by now you have an idea or a vision for the recipe you want to create. Now, you need to develop the concept for your recipe. Think of developing a recipe concept the same way a musician develops a song: first the musician must decide which instruments are to be included before they begin to compose their music.

Thus, when relating this analogy to your recipe, all you need to do is take a sheet of paper, and list the ingredients you want to use for your recipe and some of the main techniques you will be using. This list should be high level (i.e., without quantities) and is meant to help you remember the general elements of the recipe you wish to create.

I like to use large Post-It notes for this step. I usually write a draft recipe title, and follow it with a list of the main ingredients I want to use, and write down any special techniques I want to use to develop the recipe. Once I develop my list, I stick it in my Kitchen Notebook and will use this to guide me in completing Steps 3 and 4. Below is a picture of what my notes look like in my Kitchen Notebook – the blue Post-It Note is where I write the concept for my recipe. It may appear as messy, but this is really meant to be a working sheet. Sometimes, I go through a few sheets before I am happy with the concept for my recipe. Your concept may evolve and develop further as you progress with Step 3. This is great and what this process is meant to be!

So once you have figured out the general concept for your recipe, you are ready to go to Step 3.

Step 3. Research

This is the part where you take your concept and do a bit of research on ingredients or techniques. I like to research before I test my recipe to ensure I have all the information I need to make the best of my recipe testing and avoid having to look things up as I am cooking.

I like to find out if there are any special tricks about a specific cooking/baking technique before I start. You can add some notes on your recipe concept page with any techniques or particularities about an ingredient that you might need during the recipe testing process.

For example, if I develop the recipe for a gluten-free muffin, I will look up various techniques for developing gluten-free flour blends, and research proportions of flours, starches, liquids, etc. Each recipe is different and this step might not be needed if you are making something that you are very familiar with.

Step 4. Test Your Recipe

Before you can test your recipe, you need to ensure that you have all the ingredients on hand before you get started. Once you have everything, you can start cooking your recipe using your concept sheet. It is very important that you take copious notes during your tests and write down all the ingredients, measurements and procedures in detail. I also recommend to write down product brands, where applicable, because sometimes a recipe can turn out really well with one brand and not work at all with another.

One thing I highly recommend is to let yourself be inspired during the recipe testing process. If you think of a new ingredient that wasn’t on your original list, give it a try! You never know in which direction it will take your recipe – it just might improve your recipe and make it stand out from others. Of course, don’t get discouraged if it does not work the first time. Sometimes it takes many tries to develop the perfect recipe.

If you modify a recipe that was developed by someone else and want to make it your own, the general rule of thumb to ensure that you are not copying a recipe is to change at least 3 of the ingredients, write your own procedures, and cite the source from which the recipe was adapted.

You can view the details of my recipe testing on the picture of my Kitchen Notebook above. My recipe testing exercise is found on the page located on the right side of the book.

Step 5. Photograph

It is important to take the time to take beautiful photographs of the food you create. People say a picture is worth a thousand words. This saying could now be more truthful. Personally, when I browse through cookbooks, I am immediately attracted by the pictures and am more likely to make the recipe if it is accompanied by a picture. Nowadays, with the Internet and the thousands of food blogs out there, it is critical to include beautiful and inspiring photos with your recipe if you want to stand out and create your own unique style.

Food photography is a beautiful art and it helps inspire others to make your recipes. I am still learning so much everyday about photography, but one thing that is key to a good food photograph is light. Natural light brings out the best in food and a picture taken during the day usually turns out so much prettier than the same picture taken at night with yellow artificial lights.

To learn more about food photography, I did an awesome food photography course from Pinch of Yum: {insert affiliate}. They give lots of great and simple tricks to make your food photos gorgeous.

There are also some really great books out there that I used to learn some more photography tips:

Food Photography: From Snapshots to Great Shots by Nicole S. Young

Food Photography for Bloggers: Focus on the Fundamentals by Matt Armendariz

Plate to Pixel: Digital Food Photography and Styling by Helene Dujardin

Food Styling and Photography for Dummies by Alison Parks-Whitfield

Step 6. Write

The very final step for creating your own unique recipe is to write it using the detailed notes that you took in Step 4. There are various ways for writing recipes, but whatever way you decide to go with, just be consistent. Develop your style and tone and no matter what, write consistent list of ingredients and include detailed instructions in your own words.

There are some great books that I read and use as references when writing my recipes:

The Recipe Writer’s Handbook by Ostmann Baker

Will Write for Food by Dianne Jacob

Once your recipe is written, combine it with your beautiful pictures and post it on your blog, print it in a book, or give it to your friends! Recipes are created to be shared. It is so rewarding to share recipes and flavours with family, friends and your community!