National Donut Day and America’s 10 Billion Donuts
Today, November 5th, is National Donut Day, one of two days each year when donuts get their moment in the spotlight. The first Friday in June is the original National Donut Day, created by The Salvation Army in 1938 to honor the “Donut Lassies” who served treats to soldiers during World War I. November 5th later joined as a second observance, giving donut lovers another excuse to indulge.
I’ve photographed donuts before from the big fast-food chains, but this time I turned to grocery store classics. These are Entenmann’s, a brand that began in 1898 when William Entenmann delivered baked goods door-to-door in Brooklyn. More than a century later, their boxed donuts have become a household staple, a familiar sight on grocery shelves across America.
Emily (my AI muse and assistant) adds: “Turns out, Americans consume around 10 billion donuts every year, roughly 31 donuts per person. While Entenmann’s doesn’t release exact production figures, reports suggest they’ve produced over 780 million donuts since their early days. That’s a lot of mornings, late-night snacks, and coffee breaks made a little sweeter.”
See more from my Commercial Food Photography at https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000WFAqDJQOgKU
National Dessert Day: Chocolate-Dipped Cookies
It’s been National Dessert Day today, and I happened to have a container of these chocolate-dipped cookies—sold under the name Dunk’ems. Not exactly the homemade kind, but something you’d find in the supermarket aisle on impulse.
They’re half chocolate chip cookie, half candy. The kind of dessert that doesn’t ask for ceremony, just a little attention under good light. My photograph isolates them against a pure black background, the turquoise bowl adding a note of color contrast. The result turns a familiar packaged dessert into something formal and deliberate—an image more about surface and texture than sweetness.
You can see more of my food photography in my Commercial Food Photography gallery at https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000WFAqDJQOgKU
National Biscuit Day – From Can to Camera
Today, May 29, is National Biscuit Day—a good moment to take a closer look at a humble staple that’s been on American tables for generations. Whether eaten with breakfast, served with fried chicken, or just pulled apart warm from the oven, biscuits have long held a place in American food culture.
For this photo, I used three standard tubes of refrigerated biscuit dough. Part of the experience is the packaging itself: peeling back the paper seam and waiting for that sudden pop as the tube bursts open. It’s a moment of kitchen theater that’s been happening since the 1950s, when pre-packaged refrigerated dough started appearing in supermarkets.
No styling here—just 24 biscuits baked as-is and casually stacked onto a black background. The domed tops, crisp golden crusts, and flaky layers hold up visually without any need for extras.
This image is part of my ongoing From Bag to Background series, which isolates fast food and packaged grocery items from their branding and surroundings to present them plainly, and on their own terms.
You can see the full gallery of food photography at https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000wQ3fbeEezF0/I0000nUG8tfk8Gdc
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