Sharing my first food photo

One of my creative goals this year is to be a better photographer. I've always been really disappointed in my photographs and get so jealous when I see beautifully captured pieces of time from professional and non-professional photographers! My overall theme for this year is "Intentional" and I realized that I was just hoping a good photograph would just magically happen, because I'm an artist and that should be enough! But of course it's not enough, silly Margot!

Anyway, I've been checking out some good information for and from photography hacks and added that to my arsenal (check out this link and this link for some good food photog. info). I bought a new camera, a Cannon Powershot SX20IS and already I can tell a difference (so the camera actually does count!). I'm taking this blogging e-course from Holly at decor8, and Leslie from A Creative Mint and our homework includes staging sets and taking our own photos. This is my first attempt:

Brioche and Sorbet, my first food shot!

There are many things that please me about this photo, and so much more I could improve upon! This is a dessert that my husband created for a charity event last weekend. It is a little brioche with some blackberry sorbet. Since this is a common breakfast for Italians (I'm not mentioning this to my kids), I thought I would style the shot as if it was breakfast time and the warm sun was coming through the window in a cafe. So I started with the gold mini tray, a wonderful "inheritance" from my super mod grandmother when she downsized her house. I think it may actually be a sushi dish from restaurant take-out but I love it! I thought it would enhance the golden brioche and I think that was successful. I kept the paper wrapper/cupcake thing white as well as the espresso cup, and added a hint of a napkin in the background (also bringing back a touch of purple from the sorbet).

Now, I have wondering and reading ALOT about the whole "how do you get the photo to be partly blurred and partly in focus" and I know it has to do with the f-stops. But I can't get those effing f-stops to make any difference in my photo!! So for the time being, I'm cheating and doing the blurring in Photoshop. I select with a feathered edge the part I want focused, select inverse, and add the "lens blur" filter. I'm not proud, but that's how I did it. I'm not going to cheat forever but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do...

So I'm offering the photo up to you for more comments and suggested improvements. I'm a big girl and can take it because I really want to improve. Share! Share!