Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

The kind of camera will be dictated by what you want to do with your photos. If you are going to make money with your pictures then by all means get a good high quality camera.

If you are just having fun then you don't need to spend more than $200 to get a decent camera. Buy a table top tripod if you plan on shooting food. They are cheap and very useful. (you get get a regular tripod instead if you want)

Photography can be a very expensive hobby but does not have to be nowadays thanks to digital technology.

Turnning the on camera flash off is the most important step to taking more serious photographs of your eats.

It can be useful but tends to produce snap shots instead of photographs.

It also is the most disruptive thing a camera does. Also turn off the sound effect if you camera has one. That way no one will be quick to notice your photographing your food.

I have a degree in photo journalism and I found this article to be good but it missed a few suggestions.

First if you can use a tripod, even a small table top one could help. It will take a lot of the blur out of the photos and could really help with taking advantage of the natural light wich is usually pretty dim.

Next sit next to a big picture window if possible (if shooting in daylight hours). The natural side light from this is so pleasing and is usually soft enough to make for gentle shadows.

It is really important to look around at your light sources and think about what color they are and how bright they are. Then position your camera and subject so as to take advantage of the available light.

Today's technology has some real advantages over the film I learned on use those to your advantage.

I like Encyclopedia of Jewish Food by Gil Marks

Maybe they should call it the salad burger and be done with it.

I wouldn't waste my time with it. If I were given one I would sweep away all the veggie material and be upset that it is no bigger than your average small hamburger.

$13 is way too much to pay for a salad.

Back to my I'm the chef comment. I stand by it.

I have never been satisfied that anyone can cook a hamburger as well as me.

Even if the food on my plate is something I do not know how to cook I reserve the right to veto anything the cook puts on my plate.

I consider my judgement superior to the chef and have removed or added many ingredients to my hamburger. No chef has been able to match the taste of the hamburgers I fix for myself. If I leave it to another cook to decide all the ingredients of my burger I am always dissapointed to some degree. Most of the time I make only minor modifications. Usually I will add french fries and a little ketchup to my burger. Other times I have to clear off all the lettuce and tomatoes (which I do not eat.) and add more mayo or pepper.

I prefer to decide what goes on my hamburger. My tastes are superior to the chef becaue I know my tastes better. His job is to cook the meat and let me worry about how much mayo I want on it.

I am always my own chef. I have the final say on what I eat and how. If he can't do a good job at giving me what I want he can be fired (I will not return to his restaraunt.)

I'm a little appalled that the put a photo of Cheese food on this article. Worse yet I fear it may of influenced some to vote for "American"

Of course "American Cheese" in it's true form is a form of cheddar.

Perhaps they would o done better by putting a can of cheeze Wiz in the photo. It is as much real cheese as the cheese food they pictured.

Personally I like a good medium cheddar on my burgers but I will put a variety on occasion including Havarti or "American"

My first taste of Buffalo was in the form of hamburger. It was years ago. We were poore than now and I qualified for commodities from my Indian tribe. They gave us some packages of Buffalo burger meat. It sat in the freezer until we were out of everything else to eat.

My wife reluctantly thawed it out and gave it to me to grill. They were the best hamburgers. It is a truly tasty meat. Too bad it is so expensive. I kinda wish I could qualify for commodities again if I could get that kind of meat. It was wrapped in plain white plastic rolls in 1 pound packages. We hadn't seen Buffalo sold in stores at that time.

I hate to bust her bubble.....

Give me a break. If you put a burger I made between two donuts I would be insulted and never make another one for you. On the other hand if you don't have a good burger than why not. It sure couldn't be worse than some buns that are out there.

The best "bun" I have ever had for a good hamburger was homemade bread I made that was also grilled on the charcoal fire.

But as I said if you are using a thin tasteless piece of meat cooked indoors on a griddle than why not. There is not any flavor there anyway, you might as well use something as ridiculous as a donut.

A serious hamburger deserves a real bun. To me it's like giving Paula Deen margarine instead of butter. I wonder if she could tell the difference?

I have been doing customer service for about 4 years in the cell phone industry. I work for the evil empire, see the death star logo on our phones.

Before that I was working in Radio and TV, as cameraman and board op. I am a life long media guy, doing photography, videography/film, running sound for the different churches I have belonged to. My degree is in photo journalism.

However I have only been cooking for about 4 years. I was lucky enough to marry an italian girl from NJ. (I'm from OK) She makes the best food of anybody I know, except for some reciepes I make. She is the cook here. I make special dishes, she does the everyday stuff and rocks at it.

Anyway I took up food as a hobby thinking if you're going to have a hobby this is a practical one. Unfortunately it has ruined so much food I used to eat. Amazing how blissfully ignorant you can be about the food you eat until you learn how to make good food.

To all those who blog here and read this and are current or former military, Thank you for your service. You understand better than many how expensive a dish freedom is to serve to our children. Thank You.

When I was growing up I had three sisters and never even thought about helping to cook the food.

When I took up cooking as a hobby 2 years ago I started to help my wife, not just with setting up the table etc. I began doing some of the cooking (deserts or bread mostly, my specialties) I still leave most of it up to her. She has acquired skills as an Italian mother of three grown kids and she doesn't let me have much say in her kitchen,

She is well experienced at cooking for a big group. I am only learning but I am more than able and willing to help her prepare the food, even offering some advice on newer dishes or techniquesshe is not experienced in cooking like brining. Also new to me but I am the kind of cook that studies about the technique before trying it. I usaually have some sucess when I put some study into it.

Why does Michael Symon's Chef's uniform look like it belongs to a car mechanic. Is that just me or does anybody else wonder about the inspiration for his choice of uniforms?