Shoot! I'm Hungry.

I am a food photographer. I love being a food photographer. I love photography. I love food. The beautiful synchronicity of vibrant colors against rich textures, the highlights on a glistening sauce or juicy fruit, the ooze of melting cheese and lushness of whipped creme, all larger than life and perfectly presented, enticing you to stick your fork, your finger, or your face directly into the plate... These are the images I love to create.

www.caratompkinsfoodphoto.com

After a day of arranging and rearranging lights, backgrounds, ingredients, components, and dishes just so; your face inches from every steaming, dripping, fresh-from-the-oven creation; your back aching a kind of ache you can only know after being unendingly contorted holding a 5-lb weight head-high while trying not to fall over or even breathe; when the final shutter clicks and you stand up straight for maybe the first time in hours, heaven lies in getting to finally sit down and sample a few bites of that glorious food. You don't even care that it's lukewarm, that the sauce has separated, the bread is soggy and the vegetables have wilted. It is perfection.

www.caratompkinsfoodphoto.com

Before I was a food photographer, I was simply a food lover. I grew up in a house where every night and weekend morning, we sat down as a family to a home-cooked meal. My dad made omelets and enchiladas; my mom made soups and pasta. My grandmother left behind an anthology of baking notes and recipes; my grandfather's beat-up cake tester is my favorite kitchen tool. My great-grandparents were bee-keepers and jam-makers. Holidays were celebrated not with religion, but with culinary tradition. Thankfully, I was blessed with a fast metabolism, because my life is food, and I am ALWAYS hungry. Granted, this was easier in my teens and twenties than it is in my thirties, but I will gladly be slave to a daily workout routine in exchange for the ability to participate full force and with gusto in this life that I was born into...

Shoot! I'm hungry.