LONDON CALLING
WHEN DONNA FIRST BECAME INTERESTED
IN FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY SHE MET A WELL-
KNOWN FOOD PHOTOGRAPHER IN LONDON.
FORTUNATELY, HIS ADVICE DID NOT PUT
HER OFF OF THE DREAM...I had an hour-long, one-to-one session with him and
I walked away feeling absolutely gutted because he
basically said to me, ‘Well, if you’re not based in London
and you don’t have access to a studio in London, then
it’s very difficult to get work. Food photography is
done in a studio and that’s where the clients are based.’
So, I walked away thinking, ‘I’m not going to be a food
photographer then. I’ll just carry on with my blogging
and taking my pictures because I enjoy taking pictures
for my website’. It was such a turning point because it
took the pressure off me thinking I had to turn this into
a full-time career. It gave me an opportunity to develop
a skill and a style without being blinded by clients on
what they wanted. I was able to focus on honing my
skills and what I really wanted to do in terms of my
particular style of photography.Have you seen him since?
No, I haven’t. I emailed him once or twice about working
with him for some workshops and I unfortunately never
heard back from him!I work with fixed lenses. I have a
50mm, 85mm and a 105mm, and I
recently got the 24-70mm VR lens,
mainly for travelling. I mostly use the
105mm macro – that’s my go-to lens.
I love the way it compresses the
picture and pulls everything in, but I
do need quite a bit of space because
I shoot from quite far. It’s not really
macro photography, but using a
macro lens from a further distance.
It’s virtually distortion free,
which I guess is important too?
Yes, it is. Sometimes my sets are not
massively big and I have to get the
whole picture in on the lens. The
50mm I use more for the overhead
shots and the 85mm if I’m doing
more of a pull-back, straight-on
image. I use the 105mm if I want
to get that compression with the
particular dish being the main
focal point of the photograph.
Which cameras do you use?
I have a D850 and a D750. The D850
is new, I got it in March and just
started playing around with it. I’m
very impressed, it’s a beautiful
camera. The D750 I’ve used for
about a year and a half and before
that I was using the D7000 – It was
a big change from the D7000 to the
D750. I’m not a technical
photographer, I’m more creative.
For me, the camera is important but
the lenses are very important. I’m
obsessive about my lenses, they get
cleaned and tidied up all the time.
How do you shoot? Do you tend
to use a tripod a lot of the time?
I don’t shoot tethered, I shoot
natural. I like to work as
disconnected as possible, because
I like to have movement while I’m
photographing. I do a lot of handheld,
that is my first choice. I only really
use a tripod in overcast weather,
particularly for recipe books.
What about the overhead shots?
Yeah, that’s definitely tripod.
Although now that I’ve been fiddling
around with the 24-70mm VR,
because it’s got that stabilization I do
prefer overhead with handheld, then
adjusting the monitor screen so that
I can get my position correct. That’s
been great because the image
quality is beautiful, so that lens might
end up being my preferred way of
shooting overheads in future. The tilt
screen makes a big difference as I’m
not exactly the tallest person, so
when I need the height I must be
able to see the screen properly!Do you have a kick stool then?
I do! I have a set of ladders and some
stools. When I’m faffing around a set
I don’t look for technical things,
I might end up using a cat scratcher
to hold a backboard up!But surely that’s the beauty of
being able to have everything
self-contained at home...
Exactly. And that’s what I try to
teach in my workshops, because
everybody I’m teaching works from
home. Nobody has access to a studio
in London, very few people do. The
people coming onto my workshops
are wanting to learn how to
photograph from home. So, what I
try to teach is to just use what you
can. Use a stack of books to prop
up something, or use your bread tin- anything that’s going to help you.
People feel that if they’re a
photographer they’ve got to have all
the bells and whistles – like all the
proper lighting stands and other
stuff they go to huge expense to
purchase. But at the end of the day
you, as a viewer, don’t know that my
backboard has been propped up
precariously with a cat scratcher.
It’s about the picture, it’s not about
what’s gone into it to create it.How much time do you spend
editing in Lightroom?
I try not to spend too much time.
I don’t do any manipulation. For me,
it’s just about enhancements. I try to
get my original image as close to the
final picture as possible because to
be sitting and taking out dots of
crumbs on 20 or 30 images is time
consuming... Ideally, what I like to do
is get my final picture and then copy
the settings and paste them across
to the different pictures within that
shoot, so it creates a similar style in
terms of the look. It saves me a huge
amount of time on the editing side.
It also means that I’m not individually
editing each picture.You do a lot of workshops, what is
the one best piece of advice that
you would hand down to everyone?
The first one is to practise. That’s
obvious, but shoot every single day.
For me, one of the things that has
been a big game changer for my
photography is that I’m a member of
a local camera club. I think it’s really
important to become a member of
one of these clubs, because we have
monthly competitions where we have
external judges who come in and
judge our work. If I show my work to
family and friends they’re all going to
tell me it’s fantastic, but when I’ve
got an unbiased opinion and they’re
giving me good quality critique,
that’s something I can take away
and learn from. To be able to take
criticism of your pictures is very
important; you need to be able to
accept criticism and use it wisely
while not taking it personally. The
skill in our camera club is
phenomenal. We just learn from
each other. I say that to everyone in
photography, and it doesn’t matter
if you’re shooting with an iPhone or
shooting with grandpa’s old camera- go and join a photography club
because you need to immerse
yourself in proper photography
where you are receiving criticism.
Next Month
Sophie Harris-
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