How I turned my Food Photography Hobby into a Full-time Profession & with the help of Squarespace

FROM THE HUMBLE BEGINNINGS from PHONE TO MIRRORLESS AND BEYOND, ALL THE WHILE USING SQUARESPACE TO TURN MY HOBBY INTO A CAREER DREAM OF A LIFETIME.

Do you wake up in the morning and think to yourself, “I’m going to take photos of food for work today.” Well, that’s me, every day, 7 days a week 360 (ish) days of the year, sometimes even Christmas! Many people would love to be in my position, so I try and never take my life for granted, but it hasn’t always been this way. This is my Food Photography journey, from the day I started to today. Hopefully, I will inspire you to launch your dream too.

Me and my furry assistant.

Are you ready for this?

How I started on the Food Photography journey I am on today...

Throwback to times when I was taking Instagram photos on my phone. (August 2017)

I started taking photos of my food about four years ago, before I owned a camera and I was living in New Zealand. I was working in the hospitality industry as a barista, and was looking for a creative outlet. I was by no means an active user of social media or technology, however toward the end of my time living in New Zealand I started to use my phone to take photos of my meals and snacks, much like a food diary, as at the time I was recovering from an eating disorder from the age of 15; the act of taking photos of my food was to create awareness of my eating patterns and facilitate my recovery.

The first photos of my instagram feed, February 2015 - June 2015.

I started sharing a lot of the content around 2017, just before my move to Australia. However the real Food Photography journey started three years ago when I purchased my first camera. It was a small compact mirrorless camera good for happy snaps and travel pics (Canon M10). I chose a mirrorless camera because I wasn’t sure where this was going to take me, but little did I know what the future held in store...

Practising using my new camera in Melbourne. (October 2017)

As it turns out Australia was a lot more exciting in terms of food trends than in New Zealand, and I was in and out of cafes and restaurants whenever I could find the time. What was once a food diary became encouragement from other people about the look of my content. As a result, Kerabeareats was born with an exciting aesthetic, unique style, and few limits of expression. I still didn’t know where this journey was going to take me, but it wasn’t long before I decided to take this to the next level.

Pictured above, some photos using my Canon M10 before going professional.

Pictured below, some of my favourite flatlay photos, most taken on my Canon 6D/5D with a wide lens with a range of 16 - 24mm.

In February 2018 I started an internship with a marketing company specialising in food and restaurants, for the most part I worked as a copywriter and content loader. I figured it was a good way to facilitate my growth as I learnt new skills and understood more about the industry. In June 2018 that same marketing company took me on as their photographer and through hard work, my photography skills blossomed.

Now, with a massive upgrade. I shoot with a Canon 6D and a 5D. (October 2020)

As my confidence and passion grew so did my dreams of making this my career grew too. I noticed that most brands I respected had a website, so why shouldn’t I? I understood that being able to reach people on multiple platforms was essential or going to be essential in the future for my business, and thus the Squarespace website www.kerabeareats.com was created, named after the Instagram handle. After all, why restrict myself to being only on one platform?

Pictured below, more photos at the beginning of my photography career.

Why my first website design was not perfect, why I changed my website several times to fit the business, and how Squarespace allowed me the freedom to do so…

Like with most projects we undertake, it’s a rare occurrence that the first time we do things we get it perfect; it goes the same with a website. Over the three years of www.Kerabeareats.com the website has naturally changed and developed along with my professional and personal growth. From what began as writing food reviews (back in 2017-2018), to a personal blog (2018-2019), a catalogued photography portfolio (2019-2020), and with plans to expand to workshops and becoming an education forum, www.Kerabeareats.com has had some overhaul in terms of format and design. What I found the most comforting about Squarespace was how easy it was to use, change, or even start again from scratch; by having a vision of what I want, I can simply pick a template from their site styles and go from there. So even if it doesn’t end up being perfect the second, third, or even fourth time, Squarespace takes the stress out of starting over, and the best part is, I don’t have to learn how to code!

Pictured above: early BTS stills of me working. (July 2018 - July 2019)

How Squarespace helped me launch my business properly when I started taking it seriously

I admit that I did not understand the point of SEO when I first launched the website, and I also admit that for the longest time I was a little embarrassed that I hadn’t jumped on the bandwagon all that time ago. However in hindsight the saying, “Rome wasn’t built in a day” couldn’t be more true, at least for the business side of things, and it was probably for the best as I didn’t fully understand what my brand or business was capable of when I started. Thankfully Squarespace does have impressive functionality, in particular its SEO where it enables the website to be more likely to land in search engines amongst others. While food reviews, portfolio work, and personal blogs were all great content, what was the point of all of it if I wasn’t using the website efficiently to reach new customers? And so, finally being able to understand how to use SEO optimisation, being able to use it was easy.

Best decision ever, investing in my passions.

On Instagram I have more visitors than on my website, but why it’s so important to have both platforms

Though I have more visitors on my Instagram platform, my website enables visitors from anywhere (not just Instagram) to comprehensively view my work, story, and services; I have found that the conversion rate of clients through my website is higher than through Instagram. The other difference is the way audiences absorb content. Instagram content consumers (myself included) view content for usually for a split second, whilst audiences visiting a website are more likely to linger on content. I have pride in all my work, even Instagram, but the website content is what I am the most proud of, and why I believe even though I don’t have a large following on the website, making a lasting impression on the viewers I do get can mean a lot more than the number of followers I have on Instagram.

Pictured above: Me, tutoring and offering workshops to eager and enthusiastic photographers.

Going out on my own, COVID-19, and the beginning of Kera Wong Photography & Workshops

Let’s face it - COVID sucked for a lot of people, myself included. Having (unofficially) launched my business in July 2019 after leaving my former job and going from a stable income to being at the mercy of a the gig economy, I had to work extremely hard and relied on word of mouth to get me through, and at the end of 2019 it seemed like 2020 was going to be a great year. While I was initially frightened at the prospect of losing so much business during COVID-19, I realised that having so much free time to myself was actually a blessing; I thought, “What if I can use this time to finally launch the business properly?”

Pictured above: Me and one of my latest billboard projects.

And I did just that. Over the course of March 2020 til recently the website has undergone a huge transformation. I rid the website of a lot of fluff and focused on the next step of www.Kerabeareats.com. Now, the website has a strong catalogued portfolio section, a short and sweet About Me, and each page has stronger SEO optimisation. I now also offer Workshops, a decision inspired by many content creators wanting to improve their skills whilst being stuck at home. The decision to slowly transition from Kerabeareats to Kera Wong Photography wasn’t an accident, as the text looked extremely attractive on my business cards I realised it looked good on my website as well. And as I mentioned before, none of this was at all difficult at all, and the entire website only took me two days to revamp. Since the revamp, I noticed a considerable difference in the interest and conversion rate of customers. In fact, I’ve never been busier and even looking to hire help in 2021...

Pictured above: Some of my favorite BTS of 2020.

From humble beginnings to career dreams of a lifetime, I am incredibly grateful for having Squarespace along the journey for every moment of my personal and professional growth. Though the first stages of my journey were not perfect, and maybe even today, Squarespace’s straightforward user accessibility made it simple to change things up, start again, whenever I needed to.

So, are you ready to launch your idea yet?

From chairs, to plates on floors, to climbing the ladder. September 2019