How Matt Armendariz Became a Food Photographer (and His Food Photography Tips for Great Food Photos) – Interview with Matt Armendariz

Matt Armendariz and Chicken SaladThere are some people that inspire you and teach you a lot even in very few moments you spend with them. I had a wonderful opportunity to interview one such person. This interview is not to be missed. About 40 minutes of pure food photography talk with one of the great food photographer.


Let’s Welcome Matt Armendariz

Times Online calls Mattbites.com 7th best food blog in the world. His blog has been recognized by several publications, editors and writers. His blog is selected by editors of Martha Stewart Living and is one of the charter members of Martha’s Circle.

Matt is also writing a cookbook that is set to release in Spring 2011. Matt has received a lot of accolades and recognitions from many magazines and newspapers including Times Online UK, CNET and others. Matt is also featuring in August 2010 issue of Bon Appetit.

This is a very special interview go on press the play button to listen to this interview.

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How Matt Became a Food Photographer

Matt has been in the food industry for more than 20 years. Before becoming a food photographer, Matt was a graphic artist and art director. In the interview Matt tells an interesting story about how he became a food photographer.

Role of Art Director in Food Photography

Role of art director varies greatly from shoot to shoot. Depending on the size of the photography shoot, art director may only provide creative input or may be very involved in a photo shoot. Art director is the person who communicates the idea and works with photographers and stylists to make sure idea comes out in the photo or video. In some cases, art director may also hire food photographers and stylists. Listen more at 7:52

How Can One Start Learning Food Photography

Technical knowledge are the basics of photography. Learn that. And before doing anything else, answer the most important photography question. Understanding the answer and then you work with those

How To Take Better Photos for Your Food Blog

Matt gives a great example on how food bloggers can improve food photography. Matt talks about asking yourself what are your passionate about, what is your blog about? What are you writing about. So then you take that idea and incorporating some kind of prop or element in the photograph. Listen more at 15:12.

Listen this Food Photography Interview to learn:

  • How Matt takes photos…
  • How Matt plans his photo shoots…
  • How is shooting for blogs different from commercial photography…
  • How Matt shoots photos for his food blogs…
  • How Matt learned food photography on his own…

 

Thank you

Thank you for sparing some time for this interview. You can view Matt’s food photography portfolio by visiting MattArmendariz.com. Matt can be found on twitter @mattarmendariz go say Hello to Matt.

What did you think about this interview? Tell us what can we improve. Who should we interview next? Speak your mind in the comments section below.

If you are visiting here for the first time, don’t forget to read/listen our interviews with Matt Wright, Aran Goyoaga, Adriana Mullen, Editor of Tastespotting, Clare Barboza, Liz Vidyarthi, Meeta Khurana and Mowie Kay.

For listening to upcoming Food Photography interviews, subscribe to the RSS feed or by subscribe to email updates.

Photos used in this interview are copyright property of Matt Armendariz.

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  3. Thoughts on Plating, Styling and Photographing Food – Food Photo Styling Interview with Matt Wright
  4. 11 Essential Food Photography Tips From Top Food Photographers
  5. How To Shoot Challenging Food: Interview with Lara Ferroni


22

07 2010

10 Comments Add Yours ↓

Comment Policy: Your feedback, comments and thoughts are very welcome as long as they are related to the conversation. However, if you are commenting just to get a backlink and your website is a spammy site in the niches totally unrelated to food photography, your comments will be edited or deleted. Participate in the conversation and share your knowledge.

  1. 1

    Great interview…I love his comment on picture taking/styling “If I am not pleasing myself it is not gonna work,” so true, I love Matt (swoon, fellow Texan) love his style, down to earth nature and his writing is very personal. Great Job!!

    sweetlife

    • 2

      Hi Bonnie, thank you for your comment. I liked that advice too… and very well said… if you are not satisfied with your own work, how will your customer like your work.

      Very deep thought it is.
      Thanks for your observation and comment.

  2. 3

    I love the “family prop” statement, talking about your family (or where your food/recipe came from) gives so much more context to your blog posts. Some great advice here. Well done Neel, you are awesome!

    • 4

      That is a great example that Matt gave. I also liked how he explained the vision and visual communication aspect of photography.

  3. 5

    I’m a big fan of Matt’s work! Cool interview!

  4. 6

    What a great interview….very down to earth guy…. approachable! His passion is evident in his photos as well what he had to tell us in the interview. Thanks for bringing more of his world to us!

  5. 7

    Hi there,

    I’m friends with Matt as I work as a food blogger and photographer (www.peterbagi.com / www.closetchef.ca) and this was a fantastic window into who he is. Super generous and really passionate. Even though I know Matt I really really enjoyed listening to this!

    Cheers

    Peter

  6. 8

    With 20 years of rich experience in the food industry, matt is undoubtedly the successful food blogger. This interview gives an opportunity for people like us to learn the basics of food photography and how creative spark can makes things work in a proper direction.

    This website is a great place to know the secrets behind successful professionals and learning these techniques and implementing them in a proper manner is what carves your success.

  7. 9

    What a very enlightening interview. That was really helpful especially to a budding photographer like me. It really is important to work with things you really enjoy with and knowing the basics of photography. Thank you man! I sure will keep these tips by heart.

  8. Philippe #
    10

    Hi. Since you interviewed Matt. Why not try interviewing Adam Pearson (food stylist). Although he is not a photographer he always work with Matt. Probably dwell on a topic of the relation of food styling with food photography as I think this goes hand in hand.

    Thank you for your site. Very helpful.


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