How to Photograph food with Covid restrictions.

Photography did not stop during the Lockdown in the UK in fact there are many great examples of documentary and fine art photography during this challenging time, the way the world had changed provide great opportunities to document a momental time in a world that was experiencing such a massive social and economic change.

However business had to continue and certainly there was a massive shift to remote working and the boom in online commerce, the resulting change has meant that a great deal of new visual communication images were required, to engage with audiences, there is a massive shift toward video and yet the still image is still required. Images that respond to a new way of working and delivering services. Food was a prime example where restaurants and pubs were unable to serve customers but could deliver to provide a take away service, this required a large number of food shoots taking place as well as updating the websites for thousands with new environment images.

As lockdown has become reimposed it is important to establish what can and cannot be done with commercial photography, especially in mixed environments such as Warwickshire, with a great deal of rural locations and many urban hubs such as Coventry, Warwick, Leamington Spa as well as the near neighbour of Birmingham.

The different risk factors with each zone adds to the uncertainty, not least as often staff at many locations are working for most of the week remotely !

I have had to work for many reasons, not least to provide a service to my clients and also, the economic necessity as I was not eligible for the economic support many enjoyed, but that is another matter.

One of the types of photography that was in demand was Food photography as it has has been challenging time as the restaurants and take way's are often busy and do not have a great deal of space, the 2 metre rule is almost impossible to adder to, so PPE and rigs were the way forward.

Keeping the shooting space clear apart from myself and all food was delivered with gloved and sterilised hand, placed on staging place, then placed on set by myself. All the set up, lighting etc had to be done by myself, even moving the the set after a session was a one man job, as the kit was returned to the location car without contact to others.

Sadly, unless I ate it, the photographed food had to be disposed safely, as a number of commissions progressed, I found myself adding a few inches around my waist, a small sacrifice to make, but pre covid, the food would be safe to share around, getting to worthy causes rather than becoming compost, wasting food is one of my pet hates, but in these days, no risk should be taken!