I know this is a popular trend. There are blogs and blogs and blogs containing hundreds of photographs of food. Some seems to make a little more sense to me, like the School Lunch Project where a school teacher committed to eat school lunch every day in 2010, and took a picture and review of the “meal” in an effort to document just how lacking they are. And oh, boy, are they ever. Now, these seem to include what the teacher brings into lunch, and I am less enthralled.

Also, I love the Pioneer Woman’s pictures of her food. These, though, are pictures of food she is cooking, and not food she is ordering. I love the pictures that go along with the step by step instructions. These make sense to me.

And, even pictures in food review blogs make sense to me. I understand why people would want to see what they will get when they order some delectable sounding meal, and I support the use of the technology to bring a fuller review of a restaurant. This makes sense to me.

But it seems there are other people who are just “regular” people who have decided to document what they eat on a regular basis. A cup of bought coffee in the morning? Lets take a picture of how it sits on the napkin. Quick sammy from Subway in the afternoon? Lets take a picture of it next to the bag of chips for posterity’s sake. Dinner date? By all means, lets make sure we get this on the interent. Stat. These aren’t art shots or shots being used to illustrate a point in a more global story. They are just food.

I can’t help but picture myself as the food blogger’s dining companion. I imagine that there is a lovely little conversation going on while we wait for our food, but everything stops when the wait staff brings the food. Out comes the camera, and my companion moves the plates and other items on the table around to get the best shot. Then, perhaps, my own plate is photographed in the same manner. Then what? Attempt to pick up the thread of the conversation that were clearly not important as taking pictures of what we are about to eat?

And how, exactly, do you not feel a little weird about eating the food that has been so carefully photographed just seconds ago? I feel like I would hear the stereotypical calls of the photographer echoing in my head to the food, “work it, baby carrots” “come on, bleu cheese–pout like you mean it” “show me some love you tart little pear.” I’m not sure I could do it.

Then again, I’ve never had a problem eating birthday cake.

I finished up and got them something to eat. When I handed Maggie hers, she looked at me and said, “it didn’t work.”

1. Camera – slight possibility it was left in NC or TN after the Polar Express.
2. Dustpan – you’d think it would be with the broom, right? Yeah, not so much.
3. TiVo remote – we’ve found a few broken tivo remotes, but not the one we need.

If you know where any of these items are, or have a good idea of where they might be, please let me know!