In a time where healthcare professionals are as busy as ever, fellow foodie and hospital worker Zora AKA @cantzipmyjeans has proven that passion for food has no limits: she still takes the time to explore restaurants and develop her food photography skills. In this week’s foodie interview she tells us how she started her journey, reveals her favourite spots in HK and some food photography tips.
Hi Zora, you must be very busy these days! Tell us more about what you do and how do you find the time to nurture your passion for food and photography.
I am a healthcare professional working at a local hospital. During my days off, I love searching for good restaurants to fill my belly and I enjoy taking photos of delicious dishes and sharing them with others! I truly believe that every well prepared dish deserves to be documented with beautiful images.
How did you become a food blogger?
My journey of becoming a food blogger started in 2016. I call it “food therapy” because it relieves the stress from my high intensity work. I started to explore different restaurants, cafes with my colleagues and decided to record those good moments with camera!
Can you tell us 3 food photography tips that are essential for taking good photos?
Lighting: Use light to bring out the layers and the texture of the food! Natural light is the best to keep the colours natural and highlight the food texture.
Try out different angles: Take as many pictures as possible from different angles to discover what is the one that works best for your subject.
Nail the composition: Never fill up the entire scene with food and props, leave some empty space to balance the composition.
When it comes to eating, do you prefer to discover new restaurants or go back to your favourite spot?
Oh! Difficult questions, why not both?
What are your top 3 restaurants in Hong Kong?
Sofi Coffee (九龍城), Porker (中環) and Yat Tung Hin (佐敦)
Tell us one thing you like and one thing you don’t like when using the Dishtag app.
I’ll tell you two features that I like:
- Not having any restriction on image size!
- “restaurant feed” with detailed restaurant info.
Are there any features you would like us to add to the Dishtag app?
It would be great if the photos on Dishtag can be linked and shared to different platforms.
How did the pandemic affected you? Do you tend to cook at home more or order delivery more often?
The ban on evening dine-in services encouraged me to cook more myself, I have gathered lots of recipes and tried to cook them during the pandemic and some of them came out quite good! It is definitely a silver lining of the situation.
Discover more ‘behind the lens’ photography tips from fellow foodies:
