Gourmet Editor at Profile Magazine, Nicole Fuge, appreciates the beauty in food and enjoys eating and baking sweet things.

My skinny piccolo latte with honey lands on the table and my natural instinct is to pick up my phone and take a photo, swiftfully adding a filter here, cropping there and posting it to the @profile.gourmet Instagram page.

It’s a ritual I have become accustomed to and one that I thought had been widely adopted by others with the growing nature of social media. But it appears I am wrong.

You see, recently while I was taking photos of my poached egg breakfast and iced tea cocktail, I could hear the couple at the neighbouring table having a little giggle and making sneering remarks about me photographing my food.

Yes I’m one of those people, but it’s not about getting more followers, upping the likes, or becoming social media-famous, it’s part of my job to capture and document dishes and eateries across the Sunshine Coast and share it with our audience.

I also appreciate the beauty that goes into preparing a meal, whether it’s the drizzle of honey and scattering of toasted coconut flakes around my fruit toast, or a deconstructed lemon meringue tart, in which pieces of pastry have been meticulously placed on the plate using tweezers (just like George Calombaris does on MasterChef).

I remember reading an international study about Instagram, in which people aged 18 to 34 were asked about how they share and connect digitally and visually.

Of Instagrammers who posted daily, one-in-four believe Instagram changed the way they see the world, 28 per cent say Instagram has empowered them to do and see more in life and 18 per cent say it has “opened up new possibilities” in their lives.

This rings true for me – since documenting my food journey I have made a conscious effort to try new and different eateries, rather than eating at the same few places every weekend; and also be more adventurous in what I order (no longer do I have a meltdown when there’s no avocado on toast on the menu, or the oven has broken and there’s no banana bread this morning).

Whether it’s stopping to admire the candy-coloured sunset as you leave the office, the sunbeams peeking through the leaves on your morning walk, or the latte art in your coffee – beauty is all around, it’s just a matter of whether you choose to capture the memory or let it pass you by.

Top tips for the perfect Instagram foodie photo:

• When deciding where to sit, consider the look you want to achieve, some places have dark/wooden (for a vintage look) or white/concrete (a perfect fresh canvas) tables.
• When positioning the items, look at what is in camera view and move any unnecessary or messy items (eg: salt and pepper shakers, menus and cutlery). If you leave any items in, make sure they have a visual purpose.
• It’s important to make sure you capture a range of angles; I always take at least an aerial/above angle, side view, and forty-five degree angle.
• Also move the camera around to versify the framing; I always get the coffee/food in the centre, then move to the side, so there is whitespace to the left or right.
• Identify any focal points you can zoom in on or highlight; this could be a flower on your cake, the edges of sliced apple in your acai bowl, or a cluster of chocolate flakes on your mocha.
• When editing the images, try all filters to see which best achieves the desired look of your photo. My three favourites are Clarendon to enhance bright colours, Gingham for overall softening, and Sierra for a vintage look. These three filters are ideal for food as they retain the true colour of the food – no one wants a grey latte.
• When posting your photo it’s important to use relevant hashtags to ensure maximum exposure – don’t forget to include #profilegourmet.