As part of my final project for my photography degree through the University of Hertfordshire I have chosen to create and publish a cookbook of family favourites from my Nana Una's cooking. Over the last few months I have been carrying out this new experience of producing a book, from conceptualisation to final printing and publication.

Nana Una is very well known and loved for her cooking ability and the delicious meals and treats that family and friends enjoy when they are at her place. For this very reason I felt that it would be a nice idea to produce a food photography based cookbook of favourite recipes that is well known and loved.

Some of the props I bought at IKEA to use in the food photography.

For this project I have really enjoyed carrying out some food photography as this is not a genre that I have had much experience in. I went to some antique shops to find some unique props as well as IKEA. Using a variety of props really helped to keep the different recipes to look and feel different.

The Woden planks used as the majority of my surfaces for the cookbook food photography.

In the process of capturing photographs for the final production I have captured over 1,500 various food photography compositions in relation to the food that was cooked for the cookbook.

For the production and publication of 'A Dash of Love' I used the services of Blurb. They offered an extensive range of services that enable me to distribute and sell the book through a variety of vendors and both printed and eBook formats.

The process of creating the cookbook was very streamlined with the use of Blurb's book authoring application 'Bookwrite'. The uploading and final publishing and printing of the book was a breeze with shipping to virtually anywhere in the world.

One thing I have learnt from this experience is how expensive producing a book is and how little to no profit an author can make. As is the case with this cookbook the initial cost is already quiet high and as is the case it is sold with no profit, in order to make it as accessible as possible for most people.

I received my final printed and published book and I must say that I am very happy with the quality and detail that Blurb has shown and also the incredible service that it has shown. I highly recommend them to anyone that is looking at producing a book or printed portfolio.