That I love food photography will come as no surprise to anyone who follows me on Instagram. In fact, my passions for cooking and photography really started to grow around the same time, so I suppose it’s natural that I like to combine the two. Fortunately for me, I’m not the only one. There is no shortage of food photography inspiration around and today I’d like to share with you a few of my favourite sources.

In addition to my ever-growing stash of cookbooks, I’m an avid reader of food blogs. Over the years I have followed an awful lot of food bloggers, off and on. These days , in order to get my readership a food blog has to have either consistently solid, workable recipes or fantastic photography, and preferably both. The following blogs have consistently inspirational photography, plus some pretty tasty recipes.

Nectar is the food blog of photographer Jen Altman. Jen brings her amazing food photography skills to Nectar, a blog she calls “A slice of life and rock & roll”. Jen’s kitchen table has some enviously gorgeous light (and a great chalkboard wall backdrop) that sets off the photography of her dishes beautifully. Her recipes are homey but refined and her photography is straight-up gorgeous, as are her three daughters, who often make an appearance as happy diners.

Heidi Swanson’s 101 Cookbooks is one of the best-known and longest-standing food blogs on the web. In addition to her ability to create healthy and tasty vegetarian recipes, Heidi is also a talented photographer, having done all the photography for her site and her two cookbooks. Heidi has said that her special talent as a food photographer is making brown food look good, referring to the often less-than-photogenic qualities of vegetarian food. Not only does she excel at making all of her recipes look good, her travel and other photography, some shot on a Polaroid Land 180 camera, is also inspiring.

Seven Spoons is the food blog of fellow Canadian Tara O’Brady. Tara’s recipes are straightforward and welcoming to cooks but her photography is really outstanding. I love not only how she photographs the finished dishes but also how she makes individual, often raw ingredients look lush and glamourous. I’m also inspired by her downward-shot tablescape photos. Seven Spoons was a finalist as one of Saveur Magazine’s best food blogs 2012 in the photography category. Tara also spoke about her food photography in this interview with greatphotos.com

Another of Saveur’s photography finalists is the Not Without Salt blog of Ashley Rodriguez. Ashley is a trained pastry chef-turned home cook who writes about and photographs the dishes she makes and serves to her family. She’s not afraid to get in close when she photographs her dishes, showing off their textures in a beautiful way. Ashley, like Heidi and Jen, also shoots film, which of course brings her work close to my film-loving heart.

If you’re looking for some food photography inspiration, I’d encourage you to check out these blogs. Though you don’t need to go far for delicious food inspiration. I found these beauties in the Mortal Muses Flickr pools:

“Tea, the art of life.”

By stjemsol

Pomegranate

By Suzie Banks

homemade cinnamon biscuits

By slightly everything

If you’re inspired and looking to do some food photography of your own — maybe of a celebratory meal or two this month — Lindsey offers up some great tips for food photographers in this Muse University post.

Debra ~ Manifeisty