It all started when I would follow my Chef of a mother around in the kitchen. I was immersed in food my whole life, being spoiled with restaurant quality dinners and sweet treats to die for. The older I got the deeper my love for food grew. It was a slow evolution to where I am today but it finally all started to click. The environment that felt so familiar and the career that felt fulfilling have fused into one!
When I was a kid I remember using food as my love language. I would want to make special meals for people for holidays, birthdays or being sick. I would always want to make my parents tea or whip up a "special" dinner. By special I mean seasoned chicken over rice, scrambled eggs or chicken quesadillas. Keep in mind I was like 10 years old, okay? (Side note - I'm known across multiple friend groups for having the best scrambled eggs, we all have to start somewhere) ha!
The food giving love language didn't stop there. In high school I would bake my best friends cookies for their birthday's, just because. Christmas cookies? Of course I started the day after Thanksgiving. Any excuse to be in the kitchen, working with my hands, trying something new and bringing joy to someone else. I mean how else can you accomplish all of that if not with cooking or baking? Food is my way of sharing a piece of me. I'm not the world's best at home cook or baker, nor do I know it all - but because of growing up in the kitchen I know my way around a recipe or two. (Plus, I'm all for trying something new). Food has a way of lighting people up, they get excited to receive it and hopefully even happier to eat it. Then there's me, over the moon for being able to gift it.
I remember watching food network all the time with my family. The baking championships and competitions were so much fun to watch. I got so excited in middle school to participate in an event to decorate a cake and I actually won! It was decorated like a bucket of popcorn (food made into food, obviously). I can see it in my head I wish I had a picture to still show you guys. It was pretty impressive if I do say so myself. There was even this tv show called Cupcake Wars, it became very popular. So I got the idea to host a cupcake wars at home! It was my best friend an I versus my sister and her best friend. I don't remember what we made but we won, however my sister's team forgot to add in an ingredient creating quite the interesting result. (I think it was the sugar haha) If you scroll down the depths of my instagram you just might be able to find a picture of them. Along with all the other Ask Ash Photography originals, it's crazy how far I have come from my iPod touch camera photos to now.
I never seem to get bored of food. There are endless amounts of flavor combinations and recipe variations. If I had to choose between baking and cooking, I think baking would take the cake, literally. Baking you have to be more precise and a bit more intentional which can be daunting to some people. However, if you are good at following directions you can't go wrong. So baking is the perfect fusion of two parts of my personality - creative and structured. Hard to believe those two can exist in one person, I know. Once you start to get in the habit of baking and you do a variety of recipes for the same outcome, you start to notice the similarities. Like why baking powder and soda? Once you know a few ingredient basics you can really start to get playful with baking and that's what I love the most. Infusing flavors into recipes just for fun!
The best thing to ever happen to creatives like you and me was Pinterest. I'm assuming you know what that is. If you don't you better go click this link, make and account and follow my page. You'll have access to endless recipes, flavor combos and ideas. The best part is, it's truly structured towards creatives. As a foodie and photographer you could imagine I basically live there. I remember when Pinterest first came out my older sister told me about it. We were at the dining room table and I only had internet access on my iPod touch when I was at home. I wasn't allowed social media without my parents "okay," so naturally there I am begging my mom to let me make an account trying to convince her it was safe. Thankfully my sister, Heather, paved the way to prove this claim to safety. I started my Pinterest account and I was in heaven! So many bloggers giving out their ideas for everything. Not just food but crafts, diys, clothing ideas and so much more. Being a foodie you could imagine how many pins I had on various different boards. I had sweet and savory boards, snacks, dinners, brunch, cookies, baking, cooking etc! I recently went in and organized it all so I could have a more clear idea of whats saved and where. Yes, I've had the same Pinterest account for over 10 years! It's helped me feel creative when I lost my spark. As a creative it's truly it's my favorite social platform to turn to.
All in all I guess you could say I'm a foodie. Mix that with my love of all things aesthetic and you've got yourself one happy food photographer! The inspiration for food and photography never ends for me! It's been fun leaning into new ideas to make at home and think about how pretty I can make them. I'm even taking it a step further and offering food photography to restaurants and cafes. Also adding to my blog the best food places I find while I'm traveling in-between New Jersey and South Carolina. When I finally let these two worlds collide one idea would just lead into another and come back around to make a full circle. It feels really unique and genuine to myself and my story and I can't wait to see where it takes me!
Leave a Reply