When I'm taking photos of food and cocktails for my side gig, I generally have a shot setup in my head prior to food arriving at the table. I'll choose places w

When I'm taking photos of food and cocktails for my side gig, I generally have a shot setup in my head prior to food arriving at the table. I'll choose places with natural light, near large windows to diffuse, or some interesting backgrounds and pretty lights. But once the food arrives, it's very much shoot as much as possible from various angles. Even a single angle, I shoot at high fps. That guarantees you at least once of the shots is the sharpest, and even slight variations of positions will work better than the other. Trying to be perfect just leads to missing shots. Some dishes deteriorate quickly as they cool off. Shoot lots, and choose what works best with your style. Often times, you'll get something unexpected that you didn't see with your eyes initially.