The eye is the window to temptation. I have never been a visually oriented person; this, therefore, is hard for me to understand. Yet most things come down to what someone sees rather than what someone feels, touches, senses or any other consideration. Nothing works this way for me, as, in fact, so few things work for me the way they work for other people. I am used to it because these "other" ways are the only ways in which I have really experienced the world.
Perhaps in the case of baked goods (and perhaps in many cases), visual stimuli are not the only factor. Many foods and baked items are actually pretty ugly. Then we are guided by other things… a sense of adventure and experiencing the unknown? The powerful olfactory sense? Familiarity? (For example, apple crisp is a fairly mushy looking and unattractive pile of apples and cinnamon — but having experienced its delights before, one might be inclined to have it again – and again – regardless of how it looks.)
Not being visual, I am not a photographer and have never seen any point to taking photos. However, people kept pestering me about posting photos of the cookies I bake. I started, bowing to the desires of others. I have yet to master it so nothing comes out particularly beautifully. Nevertheless, the visual aspect, beautiful or not, seems to tantalize. The people who are within reach of the baked goods are indeed much more likely to visit and take cookies once they have been taunted by the lure of piles of various kinds of cookies.
And photographs illustrate the level to which I take this baking hobby to an extreme. It makes me reflect on my nature, existing at extremes. I am either a bundle of unbridled energy and productivity or a total slug who sleeps 16 hours a day. I am either with the most driven, ambitious person on the planet, whose greatest desire is to be protective of me, and bound from that into something that is completely the opposite. I am either completely off baking or I am a factory. As I wrote in an entry the other day, I am all or nothing.
Regardless of what some say, the beauty of photography is not of what is set up, but of what the person taking the photos sees. Much like the baked goods, the art is the product, the beauty is the taste.