We've all been guilty of a cheeky Instagram snap of a particularly delicious-looking meal.
But how much effort goes into a truly great food photo?
As far as dream jobs go, Nick Tresidder's is up there - he's a professional food photographer.
It helps to know your subject: "I wouldn't be very good at shooting baseball because I have no idea what's going on," he says.
Mr Tresidder's been capturing cuisine for 25 years. His work's appeared in countless cookbooks and in our supermarkets, so he knows what makes a good photo.
"It's pretty obvious when you've done your job, because the client wants to look at the image on screen and go 'oh yum!'"
He says the amateur Instagrammer can make some rookie mistakes.
"If you're getting close to your food it gets all distorted and weird and so they're not the ideal cameras for shooting food. Hot tip: if you want to avoid that, shoot straight down on your food. At least you won't have that horrible wide-angle wonky thing."
The most important thing is light - and anyone can turn it to their advantage, even without a $4000 camera.
"You can do amazing things with a sheet of tracing paper, or a piece of white card, or a piece of black card, or silver. You don't have to have thousands of dollars of gear to do it."
Light helps, but it's about finding the right space too.
"You don't want to be wandering around the cafe with your avocado on toast trying to find that magic spot because you're not going to be popular. But you can do that at home - find that lovely window light, shoot lots and get better."
He says the days of using oil and hair driers to manipulate the shot are over; the modern customer wants authenticity. So when the dishes are ready, it's a race against the clock to get the right shot.
"Something like a salad, the moment it goes down it starts to collapse. So we want to get everything in place and set up perfectly before the actual fresh food comes out."
Mr Tresidder's in Wellington for the Exposure photo show, where people can take part in a food photography workshop.
He showed Newshub the ropes, but let's just say our reporter won't be putting Mr Tresidder out of a job any time soon.
So after spending all day photographing food, do the professional photographers get to sample it?
"We generally don't eat what we've actually photographed because by the time we've finished with it, and it's saved and backed up on the computer it's a bit tired."
Newshub.
