My recipe for Gluten-Free Pad Thai was one of the first recipes that I posted to Almonds & Avocados. Although I love the recipe, the photo that I had taken for the post was absolutely horrendous. Unfortunately, I didn’t know much about photography at the time. When I began Almonds & Avocados, I knew that I was passionate and excited about sharing delicious, healthy recipes with the world! What I didn’t realize was that if I shared yummy recipes along with dismal pictures, people might not be so eager to actually try the recipes. And why would they? If the food looks like a hot mess in the picture, then it’s probably not worth wasting valuable time, effort, and ingredients to find out whether or not it tastes better than it looks.

Though I haven’t developed into the most skilled photographer, I do think that I’ve come a long way. Just take a look…

Which would you rather have: this?

or this?

Ugh, that first picture just makes me cringe–so embarrassing. While the food in these pictures looks entirely different, they were actually made exactly the same way! That’s right, I followed my original recipe to a T in the second photo; the only difference is that I used artificial light in the first photo and natural light in the second along with a bit more food styling. I don’t know about you, but I would much rather eat the Pad Thai in the second photo!

Since I whole-heartedly believe in the saying that “You first eat with your eyes,”  I thought that I would try to re-photograph some of my older recipes–you know, to give them a fighting chance. Besides, there are so many recipes–like this Pad Thai–that I eat on a regular basis even now, so long after they were first posted, that it would be a shame for them to be passed over simply because I was once (and perhaps still am) an unskilled photographer!

To get the original recipe for my Gluten-Free Pad Thai, click here!