You would have definitely seen here food clicks and I am sure that moment must have left you in an awe !! Not surprised why she has such a follower base and why would you not stop yourself from clicking here blog for the recipes. Today we bring you the story of Binjal Pandya who has been sweeping out hearts away with her awesome skill of food blogging and photography. Ever wondered how she did all this..and here is her Foodie Story for you. I am sure after reading this you for sure will have another rocking Monday. So here is the lady behind www.binjalsvegkitchen.com !!
Who is Binjal Pandya?
I’m a Gujarati but originally from the beautiful city of Mumbai, India. I have traveled a great distance from home and now residing in the beautiful state of Pennsylvania, USA. It has been quite a journey for myself, wonderful Husband and two of the most amazing little people in my world, my beautiful daughters Riddhi and Maahi, who are “My biggest food Critiques” .
Let us know about you and your personal journey so far?
That’s very challenging question when did I exactly started my journey, let me think…OK…here you go…actually after 12th grade and obtaining my college education I was completely submerged in family business, so there wasn’t much time to do some of the things that I loved and enjoyed doing. However, through all the studying and hard work there’s always existed a strong desire for cooking. So whenever time permitted, cooking is what I seemingly found myself submerged in. I began cooking various styles of food for my entire family inclusive but not limited to my grandpa, granny (My Mom’s parents) and my cousins. They were my first food critiques prior to marriage. However, it wasn’t until I met my husband and was off and married that my real journey and experimenting with cooking began. Living with my new parents I cooked every day, breakfast to lunch, lunch to dinner and everything was prepared by such a special person, yours truly, Me!
When and how did this Food Blogging bug hit you and how have you been doing it so far?
This is very fascinating and unpredictable, seemingly overnight -because of my husband’s job- we’d find ourselves en-route to the USA. Finally arriving in the USA, life would never be the same as we had once known! One day near the end of September 2014 –by accident- whilst surfing the internet I stumbled across the Wonderful Food Bloggers’ World and since that very day I’ve plowed my hidden passion and love into food. With my husband’s belief in my cooking and support we started my Facebook recipe page in April 2014 (prior to our website) just for fun to pass the time. To our surprise we got good response from readers! So we decided to start blogging my recipes, writing my experiences and posting pictures of my delicious creations. I started viewing food pictures on my cell phone for recipes images. Slowly, but surely it transformed into a habit.
I would like to share here that in October 2015, I successfully completed one full year of blogging with more than one million views and until now more than 2 million views with almost 98,000 Facebook page likes. A huge thanks to my readers and my family and friends who’d given me their full support through it all.
Apart from cooking scrumptious meals your blog is particularly popular for your pictures. How did you start food photography and what are your thoughts around Food Photography and Blogging together?
As a Photographer, while on my journey and after witnessing my progress and commitment in blogging, my wonderful husband presented me with my first DSLR Nikon D7100 camera with 18-140mm lens to assist in fine tuning the inner photographer in me as well. You will notice a progressive difference in my earlier recipe pictures which were taken using a cell phone. Now, alongside cooking, photography too is a passion of mine as well. Recently I added 105mm and 50mm lens with tripod in my camera kit.
When it comes to photographing food, light is everything. It doesn’t matter if you photograph with an iPhone or a high-end DSLR. If you do not have good amount of light, you will not be able to produce any decent shots. Natural, soft day light is perfect for this purpose and the more of it you have, the merrier. As long as you are not seated outside, right in the middle of the midday sun, chances of finding a cozy spot, next to a big window should not be a big problem. Make sure the light comes from a side window, as side light brings out the texture of your food more.
Please share some tips around food photography which lesser mortals like us can pick up and enhance our skills?
There are plenty of options for you to choose from and the editing process is pretty easy. You start off by choosing a filter to your liking. From there you are free to choose the opacity of the filter by tapping on it. Further down, you can go into settings and fix white balance, exposure, saturation and many other things that need attention. I hear there are other apps which work similarly and produce great results.
What should the audience expect on you blog and how do you plan to take it to next level in coming times?
I started my blogging as a food recipe developer, however I seem more incline to food photography. You can also see the very clear difference in my food photography over the time. Recently, I have started to work as a freelancer food photographer and I believe I would like to peruse my further professional career as a food photographer.
You can also share your awards and accolades in the story here.
I would like to share here that in October 2015, I successfully completed one full year of blogging with more than one million views and until now more than 2 million views with almost 98,000 Facebook page likes. A huge thanks to my readers and my family and friends who’d given me their full support through it all.