Working with Miller and Puzzle, two talented dog stars, was a career highlight. The campaign was for Nature's Menu a home-delivery dog food brand, dog food without the bad stuff. On the day we had two dog handlers and a supply of treats to keep the pups engaged.
Read MoreGood Fortune Club restaurant photography
I learnt from early in my career to never turn up on an empty stomach in case food wasn’t offered, especially as it can be a hard one to navigate needing to photograph mouth watering food, whilst hungry! At Good Fortune Club, the food reminded me of weekends with my family in North London at our local Chinese restaurant, so I was more than pleased to be fed and packed off with bags of takeaway at the end of the day.
Read MoreRecipe Photography and Video for Co-Op website and social channels
I was commissioned by Inspired Thinking Group to shoot food photography recipe stills and food videos for the Co-Op website and social channels. Creative direction came from the team at MullenLowe, shot in the studios at ITG Capture.
From One pot meals, to seasonal dishes and cocktail recipes, my team captured food photography and step by step fast paced Reels and TikTok videos for this campaign. The challenge for me was to be able to deliver content that could be used across the different end uses, with multiple crops required from landscape, square and portrait and working with different overlay considerations, including recipe titles, how long each meal takes to cook and how many each meal should feed.
Hybrid shooting, switching from stills to motion on the same camera has allowed me to shoot similar campaigns with just myself and an assistant, streamlining the team and avoiding the need for a separate video camera. This way of working requires working with constant lighting so we are using the same lights for stills and video, but thankfully ITG is fully loaded with Aputure lights which I’ve been using more and more over the last few years.
Working with the teams at Co-Op, ITG and MullenLowe is always a pleasure and after each shoot we’ve been able to streamline processes to get content signed off. Even when key team members haven’t been able to be on set for the shoot we managed to work through systems for remote sign off. Adaptability and problem solving can be challenging but putting trust in the team to deliver has been key.
For the full gallery of recipes on the Co-Op website see:
https://www.coop.co.uk/recipes
Project Credits:
Jamie Lau - Food Photographer and Director
Luke Archer - Photographic Assistant
Art Direction - MullenLowe
Production - Team ITG
Client - Co-Op