Creator Feature: Leah Ososkalo & Nature-Inspired Food Photography

One of our most-loved photos in Meadow is a very purple, very flower-y photo by Leah Ososkalo. It features bunches of lilacs and a matching cake, and it’s not hard to see why so many of you love it.

It’s been wonderful to get to know Leah a little bit through featuring her work in our magazine. And I got to know her a little bit better through an interview we did recently. So without further ado, enjoy learning about the photographer behind page 22 of Meadow and seeing a little bit more of her beautiful photography.

Leah Ososkalo

Located: Sackets Harbor, New York || Creator Type: Food Photographer

Megan: Let’s get this started. Could you introduce yourself in about a paragraph or so?

Leah: I’m from a small town in New York. I grew up on a farm and was homeschooled for most of my life. I really enjoy nature and it’s a huge part of my inspiration for photography. I get so much inspiration from flowers, as you can tell from my work. I also love winter and snow—that’s a big part of me. I can’t ski or snowboard, but I love snow. I’ve been baking since I was about 12 years old. I would sell cakes, cupcakes, macarons, and so on as a job. I stopped doing that and now work full-time at a bakery and coffee shop. I love food photography, but I actually didn’t know it was a thing until about three years ago.

M: So “food photography” is your specific category of creative work. Could you tell us a little bit more about that and give us a description of what exactly you do?

L: The photo part of food photography is something I love. I really enjoy capturing moments that tell a story. I would love for people to see my photo and have a story told to them, or see my photo and think, “I want to be a part of that, I want to be baking in that scene.” I really want to inspire other people to just get in the kitchen and bake.

M: Baking is sort of an art as well—what would you say your main creative project is?

L: I’m kind of torn—I would love to start my own bakery but that’s kind of a big task to take on. So I kind of want to make food photography my main job in the future. I still haven’t gotten to the point of being comfortable pitching to brands and asking to work together, but I hope to get to that point and do food photography for a living. And if that doesn’t work out then hey, I’ll start my own bakery!

M: Is there anything specific that made you realize you wanted to start doing food photography?

L: When I had my home bakery, I wanted to promote what I was baking for my clients in the area. I went on Pinterest and was looking for inspiration and just went down this rabbit hole of food photos and started realizing I could do this! I was thinking of how I could make my own backdrops, use flowers from our garden, and make this work. I started out using 79¢ paint from Michaels, painting cardboard, and just doing simple things to make my photos pop. At first it wasn’t great, but I had started somewhere.

M: That’s great! I love hearing about the process behind creative work. So where do you draw inspiration from for your photos?

L: I love this question. I get most of my inspiration from nature. I love being in nature and whenever I’m outside my mind is churning and I’m thinking, “Can I use this tree in a photo?” or “Can I use these little flowers for something?” It might not necessarily be a scene that I want to create, but something I want to take and include in a photo.

With the lilac photo, lilacs are my favorite flower. I was thinking about how I needed to implement my favorite flower into my photography. So I made up this design in my head and created it. I didn’t expect it to blow up as much as it did, but now it’s like my favorite photo I’ve ever taken.

M: What’s your motto or focus that you keep in mind when you’re creating things?

L: I would say just inspiring people to bake. So many people tell me that my photos make them want to get in the kitchen—that they make them want to bake. And that’s probably my biggest thing—I love baking and I wish other people would do it more because I feel like it’s sort of a lost art now. People are busy nowadays and don’t really have the time to bake.

M: And my last question is one of my favorite questions to ask: what would you say to someone who says that they have no creative talent?

L: I like this question too. I struggled with this myself and struggled so much with comparison. I took a big break since I was comparing myself to others so much and constantly thinking about how I would never be as big as they were. And that’s just so wrong.

Just remember this: you’re on a different path than other people. It’s going to be different for you if you’re starting on day one compared to someone who has been doing it for a year or two. It’s all a learning process, and if you really have the passion for it, it will come to you and that passion will take you places.

M: Alright, that’s all I’ve got. Thank you for doing this interview with me!

L: Thank you so much for taking the time and thank you for the opportunity!

I hope you enjoyed reading that interview and seeing Leah’s talents both in art and photography.

If you’d like to keep up with Leah’s work, check her out on Instagram: @capturedinthekitchen!