Not quite a pro

Currently: ergh

It looks like my food photography skills leave, shall we say, much room for improvement. This picture:

was supposed to showcase my new risotto-making skills and glorify the vibrant color and the perfectly gooey, creamy texture that I achieved through actual-arm-pain-inducing stirring. My new dish pattern (which I don't actually like) does well to offset the deep orange lent by the squash, and the blue (duh) place mat does well to frame the picture, so composition-wise it's OK (or would be if I'd cut off the top), but the risotto itself just looks like a blobby mess. I tried about a dozen other shots, both closer in and further away, but, believe it or not, this is the best of the lot. Was it the lighting? Angle? Frame? Distance? Now, perhaps risotto is not the easiest subject to begin with, but I don't really want to whip out my camera for some restaurant obnoxiousness unless it's going to pay off with some really nice pictures. Unfortunately, most of the food I make at home is mixy (read: ugly) or gloppy or both.

Sigh. Hopefully, practice will make perfect, or at least bring me closer to good.