The best thing about photographing food is that sometimes you get to eat it when you’re done. But that is not, in fact, the only good thing.

A lot of what I do is story telling through environment: somewhere in the frame is a person, and all around that person is their world. I may tweak things a little, but I value photographing people’s lives as I find them; I generally don’t see it as my job to create an idealized version of a person. I think it’s much more fun, and more effective, to reflect as much reality as possible. That’s where I feel like I bring the most value as a photographer. But I digress. . .

Food pictures make you look a little more closely at the things in a very small area. Which is fun, because you get to see how much attention, expertise, and care are packed in to a piece of food. And for the food maker, the stuff on the plate is a small bite of their life. That’s what I was thinking about photographing the process of making the delicious little creations cranked out at BT McElrath Chocolatier last week.

Chocolate truffles waiting to be packaged

Chocolate bars in their molds

Artwork getting applied to truffles

Truffles coming off the line

Some of BT McElrath's signature pieces

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