Forty two excited food blogger delegates converged on one of Adelaide’s culinary jewels – the Adelaide Central Market – to learn from the best in the biz on the first full day of Tasting Australia’s “Words To Go” food blogger conference.
Secreted above the market floor in the sparkling test kitchen, we were welcomed with our very own barista serving Il Mondo Caffe coffee and T Bar Tea Salon teas. To go with the beverages, a basket was filled with shiny danishes from Boulangerie 113 .
To inspire, a cart laden with Central Market produce decorated the space and welcomed us to the first Australian fully integrated blogger program at a food festival.
A welcoming sign indeed. Photo: Willunga Wino
Program Director Amanda McInnerney, herself a food blogger at Lambs Ears & Honey, made the opening address and then introduced our MC for the Words To Go conference, Adelaide City Councillor Megan Hender.
Our first speaker was Lauren Bath, Australia’s first professional Instagrammer. Professional in that Lauren has been able to make a comfortable income from her snappy, square, photography. Lauren also boasts more than four MILLION followers on Instagram – amazing!
Key tips learned from Lauren include:
- ALWAYS edit your pics. If Photoshop is beyond your capabilities (or budget) downloading Snapseed is a quick & easy to use option
- People love to see people in pictures. Put yourself – or part of yourself – in your photos. Your feet, your hands, anything.
- Cute animals are always winners!
Second at the podium was Robyn Eckhardt, one half of blog Eating Asia. But not just the blog, Robyn travels the world and produces articles for SBS Feast, New York Times Travel Section, and Saveur. Plus there is a cookbook in the works, focused on Istanbul and Turkey.
- Head straight to the markets when arriving somewhere new. Take time to sit & observe.
- Go with your curiosity or special interest – if you are into bread, visit bakeries & flour sellers.
- See if you can find repeat patterns by talking to people – this can become the central thread in your writing.
Third up was Kaz Makepeace from yTravel blog, that has 4.5 million readers following the adventures of Kaz and her young family as they travel around Australia for 18 months.
- Whatever makes your heart sing, will make you happy so be brave enough to take a sabbatical and pursue it.
- Traditional school is not the only / best form of education. Life lessons, ethics, and a sense of curiosity are learnt through travel.
At this point we took a short break for morning tea, hand delivered by Jeremy Mavromatakis of Boulangerie 113, who had been up since 41m baking for us before heading to hospital with a (non contagious!) illness. Boy were we grateful for his efforts. This was the best muffin I’ve ever head, rich with fresh blueberries and toothsome with almond meal.
Blueberry muffin. Photo: Willunga Wino
Next to share their wisdom was Katie Quinn Davies, of worldwide blog phenomenon What Katie Ate, author of cookbooks, and lifestyle photographer – busy lady!
First Katie dispelled the myth that food & recipe blogging and photography is glamorous – with this brilliant photo of her kitchen after a recipe photo shoot. I sure wouldn’t want to clean this up!
Key outtakes from Katie’s chat were:
- People don’t want to see perfection. Scatter crumbs, sprinkle seeds, crumple napkins;
- Place blackboards, mirrors, and white cardboard or foam to bounce light where you want it;
- Follow the rule of thirds, don’t place the horizon line through the centre of an image.
After the cooking and photography. Photo: Willunga Wino
Photography break out session.
Delegates split themselves up between Katie Quinn Davies’ discussion on photography in low light, and Lauren Bath’s introduction to in-phone Snapseed editing.
Lauren taught us:
- Feel free to start out with a camera phone;
- Always edit – try Snapseed;
- Get a copyright for your work so that it cannot be stolen or used without fee.
Katie shared with us:
- If the room is dark, use a tripod and up to 22 second exposure times;
- Buy the best camera you can afford, second hand cameras are good value;
- Invest in a digital photography course.
Lunch was no ordinary conference fare.
This was a lavish Game of Thrones-eque spread.
Barossa Fine Foods generously presented us with a lunch spread that was nothing short of impressive.
It included no less than:
Harris Seafood cured salmon
Bread McGill Rd
Black Forest ham cold smoked prosciutto
Porcini mushroom French salami
Ham off bone
Smoked wagyu beef marble score 6-8
Rare roast beef
Duck walnut
Chicken almond
Smocked chicken breast
Antipasto from Melb own mix
Zimmis pickles onion
Deconstructed salad
Lucia’s olive oil and sticky balsamic
Bread McGill Rd
Black Forest ham cold smoked prosciutto
Porcini mushroom French salami
Ham off bone
Smoked wagyu beef marble score 6-8
Rare roast beef
Duck walnut
Chicken almond
Smocked chicken breast
Antipasto from Melb own mix
Zimmis pickles onion
Deconstructed salad
Lucia’s olive oil and sticky balsamic
Alexandrina and Udder Delights cheeses included a delectable goat camembert which went very nicely with sourdough and the handmade chutneys.
Greg Snell, the winner of “The Best Job In The World” SA Tourism campaign – expanded to all states by Tourism Australia after QLD launched the campaign a few years ago. Greg was officially the “SA WIlflife Caretaker” for six months, travelling all parts of Aouth Australia and communicating what he found via Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and his online blog.
Greg shared these hot tips with us:
- On Facebook, minimise your narrative (comments) – limit yourself to one sentence per picture;
- Photos create much more engagement on Facebook than videos or blog posts, so create and share albums with a brief description;
- To grow your audience, invite and seek out guest posts.
David Hagerman is the photographer half of Eating Asia. Using a unique perspective of capturing the colour and movement of people going about their daily lives, David found he was always also drawn to food. In Turkey, he is fascinated by bakeries and takes beautiful shots using unusual angles, always with people creating tension and drama in the images.
David shared a wealth of advice including, when shooting at the beating food heart of any city – the market:
- Take an overall shot of the market, to set the scene, and try if you can to get high above the action and take your picture straight down;
- Take a mid range shot, try to capture some interaction between people, or a specific moment;
- Highlight the details, the small scale, like a banana flower, or bamboo shoots;
- Capture tension and movement by using shutter bursts.
A panel session with Helen Yee from famous Sydney blog – Grab Your Fork & Robyn Erkhardt of Eating Asia discussed street food. To stay healthy they suggest:
- Look for stalls that are very popular, try to choose cooked/boiled foods, and avoid meat, ice and water;
- Ask locals, for example, a taxi driver, “where can I get a great x dish?”.
Despite being still full to bursting from the impressive lunch spread, Boulangerie 113‘s delectable croissants were too tempting to pass up. Named ‘best croissants in Australia’ by Alliance Française they were huge, soft, buttery and flakey inside with crisp, golden brown exteriors. Easily the best I have tried!
Chloe Reschke-Maguire representing Yelp Adelaide spoke about tactics to help turn your followers into raving fans. Yelp is a business reviewing website that includes restaurants but also all kinds of business, from accountants, to hairdressers, to service stations.
Chloe shared these tips with us:
- Ask people to like, share and forward on;
- Be easily found in all searches and allow posts to be shared;
- Be the expert and share information with others, submit editorial, photos, and videos at events.
Thank you to the sponsors of Day 1!
Willunga Wino attended as a guest of the Tasting Australia Words to Go Conference 2014.
Comments Make My Day – so tell me, what’s your best tip for blogging or photography? Have your say below!