Since starting this blog, I heave paid much more attention to the food photos on other people's blogs. It never occured to me how difficult taking a good photo would prove to be. The lighting, the contrasts, attempting to adjust the focus and the exposure so the food doesn't appear to have been made by a nearly blind person with hooks for hands, except worse. I'm sure that a nearly blind person with hooks for hands could make tasty and presentable food, but I think you will see what I'm trying to say.
I'm trying to improve the quality of my photos. This has led to many discoveries.
(1) Flashes are generally bad.
(3) Close-ups are generally good.
(2) Loaves are difficult to photograph well, as are oatmeal cookies.
(3) Picassa is very useful.

The loaf here is a Cranberry Orange Bread and it is a particularly beautiful loaf. But since loaves tend to look like unpleasantly like wet, clay bricks, I tried to capture the interior. I'm not entirely satisfied with this picture, so I'll hope for a better one next time. This bread is so good, I don't need any coaxing to make it again.
The secret to a good orange bread is to use freshly squeezed oranges for the juice. An even better secret is to use blood oranges, which I did. This resulted in the batter looking bright purple. Fortunately this color baked out and the loaf was light tan with a slightly pinkish-orange hue. The other secret is to add some dried cranberries, which add sweetness to the bread and a different texture from the fresh cranberries.

Orange Cranberry Bread