Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook are an active part of the consumers lifestyle. Cameras are everywhere and documenting everything. Each guest is now their own food photographer and blogger. This can result in great publicity if each plate is perfect but if a guest feels their food is taking to long or lacking their favorite flavor you can guarantee it will be on twitter.
This photo movement has created higher standards for simpler more consistent plate presentations as well as trendy casual fast fine dining atmospheres. It has allowed consumers to be readily educated on unique ingredients but, it has also take control over brand identity away from the restaurant. Photographs of half eaten plates, or off shadowing set ups with empty water glasses plague the internet often misbranding the image a restaurant has worked to create.
Many feel that constant photography takes away from the eating experience; so much so that it has been advised and banned from certain establishments in LA or NYC. Coined to be large food towns it is an ongoing debate of food photography vs food instagraming. In turn some of the restaurants have begun to provide show plates available for photos in the waiting area, but most establishments have just created their own accounts on the popular sites so that they can link their pictures with proper flavor profile notes, welcoming their guests to cross link or repost their pictures instead of taking their own.
The complex relation between consumer photographer and establishment is not going away, the hope is that by improving standards of and establishment they can work to influence and educate the consumer into posting a positive picture and caption.
