How my career and passion as a creative food photographer started.

I always had an inclination for anything creative - you see, I was a little artist in school. But I was also discouraged from pursuing art because I had to get a ‘real’ job.

My passion for creative food photography was always there. Even as a little kid I used to love taking all the fruit and nuts from my porridge and create some form of art on the table.

It all started when I purchased an old Nikon D50 very cheaply from a friend. Once I started to play with my new purchase, I knew I wanted to change careers from engineering to photography.

When I got into photography I thought I wanted to shoot fashion and yoga but after a few opportunities to shoot food, I knew the path was clear.

Creative photography is my passion

One of the things I love about shooting food is that there is always some kind of cultural influence involved. You can see the many years of evolution in every dish, it is about history and culture and how this is reflected on traditional cuisines and traditional dishes.

Food photography is art and you need passion to create thought-provoking art. There’s a lot of love involved in what we do as a team - not just me personally. I am passionate about what I do and I love being surrounded by like-minded people.

The process I go through in my daily job, when shooting food at restaurants.

Every job is unique, which is what I love about my work, the versatility and creativity of it. As a professional food photographer, my job is to take my customer’s vision and story of their food and make a visual representation of that.

The first step is to understand what the customer wants to achieve. This is generally done with a mood board or by sending over a few sample images so my food stylist and I have a thorough understanding of what we want to achieve and the message we want to project to the market.

The second step is to understand and gather all the resources we need to accomplish this special vision. Preparation for the shoot is the most important aspect when shooting food or drinks. It not only includes the mood board and a shoot schedule, but understanding the logistics of a particular space outside of the studio, and in most occasions it includes props or specialists such as drinks or food stylists. We also get down to the finer details for shoot preparation as, for example, ice cream needs a freezer and a pie will need an oven. The more in-depth prep is at the beginning, the better the images are at the end.

Once all the prep work is complete we can start to shoot!

Sandwich photography, the ingredients are showing in detail

Shooting for food and drinks is almost always about teamwork too

I almost never work alone on projects. Food photography is teamwork between myself and a food stylist, and occasionally by a photographer assistant who helps me put up the lights and the cameras.

A food stylist is very important in creative food photography shoots. They are in charge of ensuring that props and equipment for the shoot are readily available and correspond to the mood board. They are also the person that styles the food and makes it presentable on the plate.

Then the food photographer enters the picture - no pun intended - and shoots the dish taking into consideration lighting and angles. The messaging is the most important part of shooting and whether we are visually representing it.

Favourite food shoot I’ve worked on

A favourite project that I’ve worked on was shooting a ‘space cake’. It was a very creative and fun shoot as we were taking pictures of this vanilla cake that looked like the moon. The scene was kind of supernatural and alien, perfect for a cake from space!

Shooting a space cake, with a supernatural backdrop.

Toughest thing for a food photographer in the creative industry?

Carrying all the kit. People always think that photographers carry a camera only and just attend shoots and leave but there’s more to this job than you think. People don’t know that food photographers have to carry 50kg to 75kg of equipment for the shoot. I must say though, it keeps me fit!

What can mere mortals do to make their food picture look better?

The best advice I’ve been given - and now I’m passing it on to you, dear reader - is to keep loving what you do and don’t be too critical. Whatever you enjoy, you will get better at. Always take images of the food as fresh as possible and always consider the background.

The best advice I can give to someone starting out is…

You need to hussle! There is this misconception that being a food photographer in the creative industry is all about taking photos, but just like in any other business you need to get yourself out there and meet people, and work hard.

Food photographers in London: Jason Spoor.