In the world of today’s Digital Revolution, also called the Information Era and the Attention Age, you are not just a food writer.  You are most certainly a blogger, too.  And most likely a budding – if not accomplished – food photographer.  I began my exploration into this field last summer.  My first food photos might have been at Hwa Sun Ji, an adorable coffee shop in Koreatown that I visited with fellow food-loving friends Sophia and Mimi.

See?  Here’s the proof, in a photo by Sophia from her blog:

But my interest in photography had begun before, during an internship at the LA Times writing for Calendar.  I worked closely with many photographers and photo editors, and their talent and dedication amazed me.  Collaborating with Anne Cusack on a James Franco story and Kirk McKoy about a historic L.A. framing shop, for example, fueled the desire to understand those little buttons on my Nikon Coolpix.   Thanks to tips and encouragement from Hal Wells, Ken Kwok and Kirk McKoy – photo editor friends with desks conveniently down the aisle from mine – I began to learn.

Still, most of my best shots, I’m convinced, are just flukes!  But I want to celebrate photo successes both accidental and intended.  After all, we eat with our eyes before our mouths.  And I’d like the chance to share my encounters with beautiful food with Lotus Bites readers.  So, about once a week I’ll post a particularly mouth-watering photo.

For the first in this series, called “Lotus Food Photo,” I present an image from the Pie Hole.  I visited this new bakeshop across the street from Wurstkuche in downtown’s Arts District last Saturday and sampled the Banana Cream Pie.  To be honest, it looks better than it tasted.   Ah, the magic of photography.

Doesn’t it look imposing, despite the humble brown paper? / Daina Beth Solomon