Journal: Covid-19 - Shooting During Lockdown

We can all agree to what a strange and interesting times we’re all going through at the moment, from both a social and working angle. Now being five-months along the line into the UK’s lockdown, we are all seeing an ease of the measures and consumer confidence rising across the board; resulting in more people feeling comfortable in expanding their social bubble; going into work once a week for team-wide catch-ups, and going back out to eat, drink and for more experiential-led shopping.

As a working food photographer, it has been interesting to speak with colleagues and clients about how they’re getting on, and more importantly - if they’ve exhausted their passion for bread-making now that the cost of flour has dropped below that of gold again.

Projects:

Having been in the fortunate position of being booked out until the last day before lockdown, it came as a surprise to suddenly be confined to my home in Hackney with a lot of spare time, and a list of over-spilled tasks from my working life that were longer than my arm.

I first used my time to get my tax returns out of the way (boring I know), and on a more creative angle - to create a whole new range of photographic backgrounds and surfaces to shoot on; inspired by ones that I’ve used from prop houses and some of the amazing locations that I’ve shot at in the past. I made a total of 18 of them, ranging from concrete to tin-type textures and rough plastered backgrounds that are lovely for catching that evening streaky light.

Anyone who knows me or has worked with me will know I have a lot of props that range from serve-ware to cutlery and tools, so I’ve spent some time to sort these out and to selectively collate a whole new range of plates, platters, bowls, glassware and cutlery for future shoots. It’s the little things!

Having temporarily moved to Sussex with my partner whilst we find a lovely new place in North London, we’ve carried out a load of food focussed test shoots in-between my bookings. We captured a series of on-location and storytelling food lifestyle shots in addition to a collection of stand-alone food heroes. As well as having eaten incredibly well over the past three months. we’re super pleased with the results of our once-a-week food shoots. Check some of them out below!

PPE, Guidelines & Moving Forward:

Now that consumer confidence is rising, I’m seeing more food photography shoots start to come in again - which has been lovely to sink my teeth back into; including some larger shoots at big-scale studios again (can’t currently talk about them but it’s exciting!).

Having carried a selection of these out in the last three-months and recent weeks, I am now taking back on bookings for remote working from my home daylight studio, and working safely on location.

To stick to the current government guidelines whilst working in studio and on-location, both myself and any other team members I have on location will do the following: adhere to social distancing when out of in our around the studio, wear a face mask, protective gloves, carry antibacterial gel and as always report any signs or symptoms surrounding a shoot. For larger productions, lateral flow tests are taken the morning of the shoot.

It’s been great to start to work with many of you again, both clients old and new; I’m looking forward to making the remainder of the year safe for us all, whilst still capturing the best content possible for you and your brand. Please feel free to get in touch if the wheels are turning for you again and you’d like to chat through some ideas.