Food Blogger Camp at the all-inclusive Club Med Ixtapa Pacific

Michael & Donna Ruhlman
Making Your Blog More Valuable to More People

Discuss different approaches to writing for blogs, everything from reporting and other forms of information gathering, to creating a consistent compelling voice, restaurant reviewing, blogging ethics and effective recipe writing. Lots of Q&A, good dialogue and participation.

Donna Ruhlman who shoots the photography will also be on hand to discuss photography, her techniques on shooting and lighting, and food photojournalism generally.

Matt Armendariz
Food Photography

Focus on using real-world professional photography techniques tailored for the blogger and for shooting at home. Using what you have on hand, you'll learn how to create stunning photos using objects you have on hand and natural light with an emphasis on keeping it real and -- most importantly -- edible.

Adam Pearson
Food Styling

In this class, professional food stylist Adam Pearson will show you tips and tricks for plating and styling for the camera. Using everyday kitchen tools and stylists techniques Adam will show you how to take your real dinner and style it so that you get a great photos every time and you can still eat it!

Jaden Hair & David Lebovitz
From blog to book

Candid conversation of how both writers decided it was time to take their work to book form - from proposal, working with agent, working without an agent, the process of writing/photographing, managing recipe testing, editing and book tour/publicity. They'll talk about what publishers are looking for and hand out a book proposal worksheet. Discussion will also cover how much money first time writers should expect and benefits and downsides of working with a publisher, or self-publishing.

Elise Bauer
Food Blogging Best Practices

How to build traffic while building the food blog of your dreams.
Successful food bloggers didn't get where they are by accident. Learn what approaches, ideas, and practices work the best for creating a blog that gets recognition, builds a sustaining readership, and makes you proud.

Diane Cu and Todd Porter
Building a Better Blog with Multimedia

Learn how to make your blog more interactive and visually enticing by integrating various forms of Multimedia. With applications such as video, graphics, text, and podcasts, readers will be fully immersed in your content through the virtual multimedia experience. Technologies, softwares and applications will be discussed to give a basic understanding of different options to create all the sensory experiences on your blog. Basic tutorials on creating a video and podcasts will be demonstrated, as well as discussion on basic applications of other multimedia forms. Topics on editing and creating an editing workflow with PC and Mac will also be covered. We'll do a quick demo of video and audio during the sit-down conference and immediately throw them on the editing bay. Participants will get a quick, but informative idea on how to create a workflow for video and podcast.

Todd and Diane are photojournalists and cooking instructors by day and by night, they share it all on their blog, White On Rice Couple.

Dianne Jacob
Food Writing with Your Senses

Food writing is not just about how food tastes. It engages all the senses: touch, smell, sound, appearance, and taste, so readers are right there at the table, enjoying the experience with you. It's easy to get carried away with adjectives, but too many will weaken your story. Learn how to use action verbs, metaphor and simile to make writing elegant and sensuous. With Dianne, you'll read examples of sensuous writing and talk about the techniques famous writers use to capture all the senses, plus you'll have a chance to practice your writing and get pointers from a seasoned editor and professional writing coach.

Dianne Jacob is the author of Will Write for Food: The Complete Guide to Writing Cookbooks, Restaurant Reviews, Articles, Memoir, Fiction, and More; and co-author of Grilled Pizzas and Piadinas, with chef Craig Priebe. She is a regular judge for the Beard and IACP national book awards, and the Bert Green Food Journalism awards. For more information, see www.diannej.com.