The Dairy part 1: On the road again

Chef Robin Gill, The Dairy street view

The Dairy. Early doors and southbound for London

It’s been a fantastic summer this year and mine was made that much better by being invited down to Clapham, London, to create some beautiful commercial images for Head Chef, Robin Gill, at his amazing restaurant, The Dairy. They will be using these new images for a re-developed website which will be coming soon, images that captured the vibe and essence of their unique restaurant. My wife worked with Robin whilst she ran Chef Skills at Taste of London this year, she said his food was incredible, I was very keen to see and taste for myself.

The Friday night before the shoot I’d prepped my gear, packed it in my trusty  Think Tank Streetwalker Hard-drive, plus a few other bits of Lastolite kit, ready for an early start. My opportunity clock went off at 3am, which felt like 5mins after I’d fallen asleep, I had an hour to get on the road.

Early start- The Dairy Commercial food photography

There were a couple of stops to make along the road south, the inevitable caffeine stops and to stop by my buddy, Brian Worley‘s place. He was very kindly lending me his 17-40L for the day, it turns out it was most useful.

A couple of hundred miles and several coffee’s later, I arrived in Clapham, a little early but that’s how I like to work. The Dairy is located right next to Clapham Common, at 15 The Pavement. Parking restrictions were not an issue, neither were congestion charges, it was the weekend, result!

 

Robin Gill's The Dairy, street view

 

The restaurant wasn’t open when I arrived of course, but the chefs were all very busy prepping for the days service. I introduced myself to owner and Head Chef, Robin Gill, he introduced me to his team and showed me around, including their amazing rooftop garden. This restaurant has such a wonderful atmosphere, earthy textures and delicious foodie smells, it was going to be a really great shoot.

Robin and I discussed how we were going to approach the day as I know how important it is to be as un-intrusive as possible and still return stunning results. I was pretty much given free range to shoot and go where I wanted. Since my wife is a professional chef I know some of the biggest do’s and don’ts, after all, you want to be remembered for being great to work with not a pain in the neck.

Setup’n’shoot

Although I’d brought a small lighting kit I decided to use the light coming through the front doors of the restaurant at first.  There are many lovely textured tables, chairs and even the floor slabs were a great surface to shoot on. The light coming through the doors was nice, soft and consistent. I metered it, punched in the settings, grabbed a bit of cutlery and took a couple of test shots to warm up, ready for the first dish. This is a good opportunity to get some interior shots before the restaurant fills with customers.

Interiors of The Dairy, food photography

This was also good timing for me and Robin to head for the roof garden to grab a few shots of him, gathering fresh herbs for the kitchen. The roof garden has been and continues to evolve as a significant part of The Dairy.  The beehives in the garden are one of the biggest surprises which I’d heard about before this day and I was excited to see how it worked in harmony, whilst being in the middle of the city. It’s a very cool part of the business and many of the customers are keen to see the gardens when they are visiting.

 

Chef Robin Gill, roof garden at The Dairy

 

Once the dishes started to flow from the kitchen I needed to keep a good pace. I had my different lens choices at hand for quick changes, my 85 1.2L with the macro extension tubes and a 50mm 1.8. You need to decide, very quickly, how many and which approach you are going to use when shooting a dish that’s put in front of you, also keep in mind what your client will want to use these images for, cover all the different angles and crops.

 

Plated dishes, food photography shoot at The Dairy

 

Behind the scenes, commercial food photography shoot with Cheshire photographer, Jonathan Thompson at The Dairy

 

Tune in for The Dairy part 2 as more incredible dishes pass by the front of my lens and we move in towards lunch service, coming soon……

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