Some time ago I decided to start documenting my family's recipes. My mom comes from Perú, my father is Argentinean, my grandparents are Chinese and Spanish, so the food at home was extremely diverse.

Just before deciding to move out from home, I decided all this needed to be documented. This is how a journey of documenting more than 60 recipes began for 8 years. Photography of each dish, copywriting of the recipes and graphic design of the book were done by me.






Here are some details of the book and the process I followed to make plus some tips cause everything doesn't always go as planned 😅


As my two previous photobooks (Erasmus photobook and China trip photobook) I decided to print in Blurb (Even though I wish Blurb have sponsored this post, this is not sponsored just honest review haha)

Biggest Learnings of Food Photography as Amateur 

  - Learn how to do a balance composition, like adding extra elements to the picture, maybe some ingredients, a spoon, another plate, a glass.
  - Play with color contrast and textures!
  - Take the photos fast! (you can tell when the soup you are doing a photo is cold or the ice cream is melting)





Before making this book I hadn't had any experience in food photography. I started documenting my family recipes just one year before I move away from home, I was 17 years and this was 2011 (left photo). I finally got to finish it in 2019 (right photo). This is the reason that pictures in the book are diverse in quality, they not only reflect my family cuisine but also reflect 8 years of learning and improvement.

Sus hijos comentan que su padre no le gustaba que visiten su ciudad, que algo para él. Sin embargo hoy, después de varios años después de su muerte, Campanopolis está abierto al público con visitas guiadas que ayudan a cubrir los costos de mantenimiento del lugar. Nosotros fuimos con esta agencia que hace visitas guiadas.

His children say that his father didn't like anyone visiting the city, that was for him only. However, today after several years after his death, Campanopolis is open to the public through guided tours that help cover the maintenance costs. I went with this agency that make guided tours.

Hay algo de la fotografía en papel que nada puede remplazar. Después de un semestre de intercambio en Holanda, de muchas anécdotas y muchos viajes e inevitablemente muchas fotos, decidí hacer algo con todas esas fotos que generalmente quedan en mi cámara. Era la excusa perfecta para hacer un libro de fotos!

As much as I love technology and digital stuff, there is just something about printed photos that nothing can replace. After a exchange semester in Netherlands, lot of stories and trips, I inevitably collected a lot of photos! So I decided to something with them, since they always just stay in my camera, it was the perfect excuse to make a photobook!



Si me siguen hace un tiempo recordaran que en verdad es el 2do libro de fotos que hago. Sin embargo ya pasaron casi 4 años del primero que hice. Para este libro, quería mantener el diseños sencillo para destacar las fotos. Decidí no hacerlo con la aplicación de Blurb pero hacerlo por mi cuenta con Adobe InDesign, lo que me dió muchas más libertad de como hacerlo.

Si nunca usaron InDesing, es super intuitivo de usar, es el programa que tiene Adobe para hacer documentos. La herramienta de Blurb no es mala tampoco pero es un poco más limitada.

If you had been following my blog for some years you will remember that this actually the second photobook I made! However, it been more than 4 years from the last one. This time I wanted to keep the design clean, I choose Blurb again, but I used InDesign to designed since it gave my more freedom regarding to the design. 

If you never used InDesign before, is the tool Adobe has to create documents, is super simple to use!



Con un poco más de 200 hojas llegué al tope de lo que Blurb permite imprimir. Elegí hojas mate y tapa dura. La calidad de Blurb es realmente excepcional y no deja de sorprenderme. Agrupe las fotos cronológicamente por ciudad, y por cada ciudad le agregue un pequeño mapa y texto.

With a bit more than 200 pages I got to the limit of pages Blurb print. I choose mate pages, and hardcover. The printing quality of Blurb never ceases to amaze me, the book is well done and it feels good in hands. It really looks like a professional photography book! To organize the photos I did it in a chronological way, order by cities, with a small description at the beggining of each.






I won't lie, it took me quite a time to make this book. mainly selecting and editing the photos; because I usually travel with three cameras: the DSLR, the GoPro and the iPhone. So after 6 monthes that translate in A LOT of photos. Texts of the cities also took me a while to write, but seeing finish is rewarding!is super nice memory, and makes a nice coffee table book :) 

The calligraphy of the cover is mine, that I did it by hand and then vectorized in Illustrator. 

No voy a mentir, me llevó bastante tiempo hacerlo! Desde la selección de fotos, dado que siempre viajaba con la GoPro, la cámara de DSLR, y también sacaba con el celular, así que imaginense durante 6 meses sacando fotos con tres cámaras cuantas fotos tenía para elegir!

La caligrafía de la tapa la hice a mano y luego la vectoricé con Illustrator!

Segunda vez y no dejo de recomendar Blurb, la calidad es buenísima y la posibilidad de hacerlo con InDesign da muchísimas posibilidades de hacer tu libro como quieras :)