Hi guys! Hope your Thanksgiving was full of fantastic food, lots of laughter, and good memories! Ours was great, and relaxing, but now it’s time to do our Christmas shopping! Have you guys started yet? Every year I swear I’m going to get my shopping done early, and every year I still end up ordering those last minute gifts on Amazon! Thank God for Amazon! Am I right?! I get so much stuff from there, for my blog, my photography, and my life! I thought you might like to see some of the tools and gadgets I love and use in my kitchen and for my photography. Maybe this Holiday Gift Guide will help you get your shopping done early, and maybe it will help you with your own wish list! 😉 I’ve included links to each item, or you can just click the image to see it on Amazon. Happy Shopping!

Welcome to my 2016 Holiday Gift Guide for Foodies and Photographers!

Now Let’s Talk Photography Gear!

As much as I love healthy, vegan food, which is A LOT, I love photography even more! Before I started the blog I photographed mostly landscapes, still life objects, flowers and cityscapes. I love to travel and do a lot of shooting when I do. I do some portrait and wedding work too. I have an Etsy Shop where I sell my fine art photography. When I decide to start sharing my vegan recipes online, I learned to shoot food. It came together pretty quickly with the help of a few tools. Here’s what I use for my food blog and beyond, photography wise.

My current camera is the Canon 6D. I can’t say enough good things about this camera! It’s a great, entry level pro camera, that has great image quality and I’ve been really happy with it. One thing that is great about this camera is it’s high ISO capabilities, which means that you can shoot in darker conditions (inside), with higher shutter speeds without a tripod and not see too much grain in your photos. I am thinking about upgrading in the future to the new Canon 5D Mark IV, and the only reason is it has a more focus points. I shoot a lot outside on a tripod and would love more focus points. I ♥ my Canon 6D though and it’s like an old friend – or as my family sometimes says, our 5th family member! (I might be a little obsessed with photography!) I shoot 99% of all of my food photos in my little table top studio in my office, with artificial light. I know – you thought it was morning when I posted photos like these… but it wasn’t! I usually work in the late afternoon/evening and I like nice, bright and consistent lighting. So I use two of these Lowell EGO lights, and they work great! They sit on my table and I cover them with thin, plain white tea towels to diffuse the light, and because they look like window coverings if they get in the shot. I use the reflectors that come with them to reflect light back into the shadows. I highly recommend two of these, as I started with one, and felt that it didn’t give off enough light for my taste. I get them at B&H Photo. I order A LOT of photography stuff from there, if I can’t get it from Amazon. I have two lenses that I use for my food photography, and the good news is that they are both fairly inexpensive, as far as lenses go. One is the “Nifty Fifty”, and it is this 50mm lens. I use it for all of my over head shots, and most of my other shots as well, unless I want to get REALLY close, and then I use the 100mm macro lens. When I’m not shooting food, the 50mm is great for portraits, and the 100mm is great for flowers, bugs, and anything you want to capture the fine details of (like wedding rings!). When I’m not shooting for the blog – when I’m out and about with my family or shooting landscapes like this – I shoot with the 24-70L lens most of the time. It’s so versatile and I love it! Here’s a link if you want to check it out. When I’m doing portraits I shoot with the 70-200L and it creates the most creamy, smooth backgrounds! It’s heavy, and I don’t love carrying it around, but I do because it is soooo worth it! Check it out here! Fun item here – I love this comfy tee from SoulShine Company on Etsy! They are a new little shop and they do mostly outdoor/adventure shirts and I got this camera tee from them! IT would definitely make a great gift for anyone who loves photography! Check it out here

Back to the food photography – if you are interested in learning how to shoot food, know someone who loves to shoot food, or if you are already doing it and your shots aren’t coming out the way you want them to, I highly recommend this book. It really helped me improve my food photography quickly.



I hope that this Holiday Gift Guide has been helpful for you, and that it will make your shopping a little easier this year! I personally use every item on this list and if you have any questions about anything you’ve seen here, feel free to email me, leave a comment or hit me up on social media! Make sure you stay tuned for some delicious Holiday recipes, coming up in the next couple of weeks! You can make sure you don’t miss anything by signing up for my mailing list (just below the post) or by connecting with me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and/or Pinterest. Remember to eat healthy during the holiday season, enjoy treats occasionally, and above all, try to stay calm and enjoy! Sending you all love and hugs and best wishes for a wonderful Holiday season! Talk to you soon, Angel

*This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click through and make a purchase, you will be supporting my blog! The products won’t cost a penny more, but I will receive a small referral fee from Amazon for sending you over. Thanks in advance for your support! ♥