A few moths later, Jason approached me with an idea he had for Mental Floss: a weekly trivia /fun facts post all about food called Dietribes. And he asked if I would consider taking the photos for it. Boy oh boy can you imagine my excitement at this.
I like taking pictures of all sorts of things, but the frenzy started with food in 2004 when I read about Tucker Shaw and his plan to release a book containing photos of every single thing he ate for a year. I loved the idea so much, and as I read the book I could pick out patterns, learn about his tendencies, watch the seasons change, etc. What people eat gives such a neat peek into their lives. Anyway, here is my Flickr set of food photos if you're so inclined, but that is not the point here.
Dietribes runs every Wednesday. As you can guess, the food theme is different each week. Today is peanut butter. I get to learn the coolest stuff by being involved in this, like "96% of people put the peanut butter on first" when they make a PBJ sandwich. wow! This is one of my favorite parts of the whole thing, besides having an excuse to eat very specific things each week and play with my camera.
How it works: I get my assignment towards the middle of the week, and have to send photos by the following Tuesday. I usually plan my weekend around eating that particular food and going photo crazy. Something I love is that through doing this, I have gotten to see how a big blog like Mental Floss works. It's so organized!
1. I get an e-mail from Meg containing the food-of-the-week and attached facts /fun trivia.
2. Allison crafts a post putting it all together in a lovely way.
3. My photo gets added.
4. Jason does some editing and makes sure it's ready to go.
5. It goes on the web site.
Like I said, another perk for me is that I love all foods, so the assignment serves as a mini surprise in my Inbox each week, like "What will I get to eat this weekend?" ... helps me keep things interesting (sometimes I can fall into a habit of eating the same 3 things every day for a month).
There you have it, guys. My little side hustle. Pay Dietribes a visit some time. So far I have shot for: peanut butter, cherries, sushi, salt, wine, cupcakes, ramen, tea, watermelon, cookies, eggs, sweet potatoes, coffee, McIntosh apples, macaroni & cheese and strawberries. See how delicious my life has gotten? :9
