My love story with food photography began in 2019.
I remember cooking dinner in our tiny flat in Brighton, daydreaming about this creative life where photography wasn't just something I loved on the side but an actual career I could be proud of.
I didn't have a brand or any knowledge of running a creative business - just the instinct that I was meant to be building one. A bit like I'd one with Her Edit.
At the time, I worked at 9-5, desperate to get out of the corporate world. And food photography was my hobby back in those days, but I always knew there was something in it. Even when business was hard, I always knew this is what I'm supposed to be doing.
I'd passion, stubbornness, and a willingness to say yes to everything in the beginning. And sometimes that's enough to land your first client, even a small one. I made £100 from my first shoot, and it felt like winning the lottery!!
I shot recipes at home. Said yes to every small cafe job. Learned something from every single one of them, mostly about resilience, and that giving up wasn't an option.
I'm also that person who gets genuinely emotional about food. The last time it happened was in Bologna, eating an 11-layer lasagne, the kind of meal you'd travel back for without hesitation. If you're a foodie, you know what I mean.
In 2022, something clicked.
I'd been taking beautiful pictures for years. Booking decent jobs, building a portfolio I was proud of. But I could feel a ceiling, and I knew shooting harder wasn't going to get me those bigger jobs. I had to stop thinking like the person behind the camera and start thinking like the one calling the shots.
So I started building personal projects. Not just for portfolio content, but built intentionally around specific brands I genuinely wanted to work with. I stopped creating individual images and started building entire worlds: sets, palettes, a visual language with a beginning, middle and end. With a feeling. And something shifted.
Larger production companies started to take notice. Better briefs started to land. The work began doing the talking, and I didn't have to pitch anymore.
One of my first collaboration projects got me my first agent.
Seven years in, I'd built a business that felt both successful and sustainable. Working with incredible clients, getting paid well, and crucially choosing which sets I said yes to.
One of the best things about this industry is the people. All the foodies (love you!) When you find your creative crew and other photographers working alongside you, that's when it starts to feel really good.
Last year, a few of them reached out to me asking for help.
The photographers were brilliant. Technically skilled, creatively talented, but something was missing from their work. And so many of them were working with clients they didn't love, saying yes to briefs that drained them, wondering why the career they'd built didn't feel exciting anymore.
Great photography, but nobody was sitting in the director's chair.
These creatives were seriously talented! But they'd caps in their business and sales strategy, and their personal projects that were attracting the wrong crowd.
Her Studio is where we build projects together - where you stop being an extra in your own career and start directing it.
Come say hi! I'd love to hear from you.
