This shoot will remain special for a number of reasons. Firstly this was my very first interior design photography shoot upon returning to the fair shores of this green and pleasant land, secondly this was the first client to take a punt on us and thirdly because this kitchen is a belter.
I recall when we made the decision to pack up our life and head back to the UK that there was a huge unknown as to whether we could translate this architectural & interiors photography business from the states back to the UK. Throw in a global pandemic and you start to question your own decision making quite strongly. Obviously there are interior designers and architects and existing photographers taking great photos in the UK but there was always this worry of jumping in at the deep end of an unknown marketplace. What a relief it was to get that first shoot booked in and then to turn up and see this incredible space.
I never knew that I wanted a fluted kitchen until I photographed this piece of design heaven.
Rachel Usher and her team did an amazing job of remodeling this kitchen into something very very special indeed - I mean they bloody nailed it. To give you a bit of a summary of Rachel and her team, they are an interior design practice founded in 2012 and based in Yorkshire that have a special skill for creating beautiful spaces. I highly recommend you head over to their site and check out some of their incredible work.
Anyway back to the shoot, I am a huge fan of the texture that the fluting brings to the space - that single light source creates this beautiful repeated contrast of light and shadow. Set against the fluting that subtle and simple change in direction offered by the herringbone tiling is a visual pleasure, throw in the subtle colour palette and you have me sold.
Photographing this elegant modern kitchen was quite frankly a delight and in the end I had to be pushed out the front door because every time I looked through the camera there was a new and intriguing composition to capture. Like with most spaces I shoot my immediate reaction is to turn lights off, in this case though I choose to leave the can lights on as their colour temperature was neutral and it was keeping the space nicely balanced meaning I didn’t need to incorporate much flash. For a handful of the shots I pulled in some flash just to accentuate the natural light but in reality I probably didn’t need to do any of that - having that gorgeous single light is always a massive win. Outside of just finding the right camera position I did a little bit of flagging from behind the camera to darken the foreground and lead the viewer through the image - always well worth doing and something that I always look to do if not in camera then in post. Then a few layers flagging reflections in artwork, cookers, throw in some serious retouching hours in Photoshop and you pretty much have it.
This was a dream project to get off the mark and begin the journey of building a professional architectural and interiors photography business back in the motherland. Big thank you to Rachel and the team for taking a punt on us and can’t wait to photograph the next project with you guys.
