If you are one to photograph absolutely every single solitary moment of your life, you’ve probably attempted the holiday meal. In honour of Thanksgiving and upcoming Christmas, here are a few holiday food images which sparked my creativity and my personal thoughts towards them.

This beautiful shot of cranberries is by Cosil. I adore the composition and the white/red contrast.

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Kimi C. makes a new batch of these turkey cookies every Thanksgiving and takes a photo (Kimi, the photos get better every year by the way!) This made me think of the following tip: photograph your holiday food projects. The kids’ gingerbread men will only last forever if you shellack them for the tree or photograph them :)

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Why am I torturing myself with photos of Mom’s Thanksgiving meal last year? I love taking a photo of my yearly holiday plate before I dig in. Flash makes food look disgusting – try to get a shot without the flash to catch the ambiance and lighting. I’d recommend a high enough aperture to keep everything sharp and a slow shutter speed to take in the light (which will likely not be natural sunlight around dinner time). Test different white balance settings as well. I loved a warm ‘shade’ setting for this image.

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Short of photos of people shovelling it in, it can be hard to photograph food with people involved. I like this one from R. Lily because it involved people without taking focus off the edible (or in this case, drinkable) elements. It’s still at ‘food level’ but you get the feeling that people are having a good time.

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I think the composition of this holiday table from Postscript Love is beautiful. Beautifully flowing image of the event before it gets disturbed.

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KISS = Keep it Simple, Silly! Love LOVE this bowl of soup. Simple, imaginative framing, point of view, colours. Makes an ordinary (non-holiday) food look extraordinary and the warm colours makes it holiday in an instant. (image by Cosil)

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I actually smelled peanut butter as soon as I saw this photo. If you’re a portrait-lover, think of your food as any other human subject and set it up like a beautiful portrait for beautiful results like this. (image by Cosil)

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Got any of your own holiday food shots to share? We’d love to see them in comments below!

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