You won’t see success until your 100^th post. I can’t remember where I read it, but the article suggested that blogs don’t tend to gain traction until the 100^th post. With this in mind,  I thought I’d celebrate this milestone with a personal article. 

I started blogging as a hobby. I enjoy writing recipes and sharing my passion for cooking. However, creating a blog wasn’t as easy as posting a recipe and hoping for the best. I obsessed over every little detail at first. I needed the articles to read perfectly,  while the pictures needed to look stunning. Still,  I struggled. In fact, I would have reached my 100^th post sooner had I just jumped at it without obsessing over perfection. 

My biggest obstacle was photography, where I lacked expertise or natural affinity. I’ve never even enjoyed taking pictures on days out,  always choosing to live in the moment and soak in the memories. Fortunately, I have a good friend who specialises in taking photographs,  albeit of wild animals and not food. My friend William Steel recommended some tips, helped me choose a cheap ring light,  and advised me on making a picture appear more attractive. And here I am now,  having finally started. 

I’d been preparing food and recipes for 6 months, always saying I’d post it one day. Yet,  I wasn’t ready to jump, nor did I find my recipes informative or my photography engaging. However,  after my conversation with my best friend, I found myself in a position to finally make the leap. My new photos had better lighting than my previous attempts. Earlier pictures had shadows from the overhead lights in my kitchen. However, the ring light allowed me to turn that light off and started me on this incredible journey.

At the start, my images were taken with a tea towel as a background. I did this because my work surface was shiny and reflected light. It wasn’t a perfect solution, but it would work for now. I was done looking at everything that wasn’t right and decided to go with it.   And here we are,  my 100th post and counting. 

My first post was a beef stroganoff, which was not meaningful to me other than being one of the first recipes I remembered cooking. Recently,  I remade this dish, intending to update one of those old pictures using a tea towel as a background. However, using the new version here only makes sense as it shows my growth. I may not have the traction that other bloggers have seen after sharing their 100^th posts,  but I’ve seen my own growth and have built a platform, be it small,  to make a greater jump. And I’ll do it all with a pinch of salt,  to taste,  of course.