408: How a Diagnosis with a Chronic Illness Transformed Helena Murphy’s Career in Food Photography

Investing in education, self-publishing a cookbook, and shaping a career in food photography following a diagnosis with a chronic illness with Helena Murphy.

-----

Welcome to episode 408 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Helena Murphy from Helena Rose Photography.

Food Photography, Self-Publishing, and Chronic Illness Advocacy

One of the best parts of working as a food creator is that you have the ability to determine exactly what your career looks like. By prioritizing your interests and diversifying your income streams, you can shape what your day-to-day work consists of to meet your needs!

And that’s exactly what Bjork is chatting about with Helena Murphy in today’s podcast episode. Helena shares her journey from corporate marketing to freelance product and food photography, and how her diagnosis with Crohn’s disease influenced both her personal, and professional life.

Helena is an incredible photographer and has self-published both a magazine and a cookbook. She has a really inspiring story, and we’re excited to share this interview with you!

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• All about Helena’s career journey, and how she left her corporate job to start a freelance career.
• How she invested in education to improve her photography and editing skills.
• What advice she has for people looking to take the leap into photography as a career.
• How she determined what she wanted her business to look like and diversified her income streams.
• More about the process of self-publishing her cookbook.
• Her diagnosis with Crohn’s disease, and how it led her to create a cookbook to help others with the same diagnosis.
• How her chronic illness has impacted how she views and operates her business.
• Why she chose to use a print-on-demand service for her cookbook, and what the process looked like.
• How she uses photography and aesthetics to convey a message and mood to her readers.

Resources:

• Helena Rose Photography
• Adobe Photoshop Lightroom
• Capture One
• This American Life
• Lightroom Magic Course
• Beth Kirby
• ChatGPT
• The Multi-Hyphen Life: Work Less, Create More, and Design a Life That Works for You by Emma Gannon
• Ctrl Alt Delete
• The Plant-Based Crohn’s and Colitis Cookbook
• Cowspiracy
• Omnom Magazine
• So you want to publish a magazine?
• Kindle Direct Publishing
• Asana
• Trello
• Airtable
• Follow Helena on Instagram
• Join the Food Blogger Pro Podcast Facebook Group

-----

This episode is sponsored by Clariti. Learn how you can organize your blog content for maximum growth by going to clariti.com/food.

If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to [e-mail].

Learn more about joining the Food Blogger Pro community at foodbloggerpro.com/membership