Meet your Mentor: Fanette Rickert

Our mentor for this week’s Nourish challenge is food and product photographer and educator Fanette Rickert from @frenchlyphotography Fanette is the perfect community member to lead this theme as she brings a love of health-giving food and learning to the table, feeding our bodies and our minds.  Read on to learn how Fanette became a food photographer, how she improves and stays inspired.

 

 

Hi Fanette, thanks for being our expert mentor for Nourish week in our January month of Wellbeing. You’re a food and product photographer who shares a beautiful array of food photos on your feed that all look inviting and delicious.  What does nourish mean to you? 

 

Food has always been an important part of my life, but the way I see it and consume it has drastically changed over the years. When I was a young professional in Paris, I was mostly eating out, or grabbing ready meals to be eaten. I loved food, but I couldn’t cook to save my life. I was also not very concerned with what ingredients were used to make my food. If it tasted good, that was good for me.

 

I’ve since traveled extensively and work with organizations and companies that taught me a lot about where food comes from. I became aware of the shortcomings of the modern food industry and started paying more attention to what I was ingesting. In 2011, my husband and I worked on an organic farm in France for a year. I learned to cook, to grow my food, to care for the animals, and it changed everything. I turned to a mostly vegetarian diet and I am now shopping mostly organic and/or local produce. I go to local farms and participate in CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) programs. I feel like I was feeding myself before and I am now nourishing my body. When I think of nourish, I have this image of healthy, abundant, fresh food, mostly fruits and vegetables, carefully grown and harvested.

 

I also believe self-care is a big part of nourishing yourself. I like to exercise, read and constantly learn new things to keep my brain engaged and interested.

 

Can you tell us how you came to be a food and product photographer, how you gained your skills, and how you set your photography apart from others? Is there any one thing you wish you had known at the start? 

 

I was born in France and lived in Paris until I was 27. I had an unfulfilling job that was bringing me a lot of money so after 7 years, I decided to cash out and travel the world for a year. I ended up in Thailand where I started working as a scuba diving instructor. I met my husband and we lived there for 7 years before moving to the US. When we got back, I had no idea what I wanted to do but I knew I didn’t want to be an assistant (and I couldn’t be a diver), so I started working for a friend of ours, who was running a small business, selling cosmetic bags.

 

At first, I was helping with e-commerce and marketing. At some point, he asked me if I would be interested in shooting pictures of their products. I bought a camera when I left on my trip and never put it down, and came back with 10s of thousands of {pretty bad} pictures, so it sounded like a good fit. For the following 2 weeks, I watched a number of videos and read tutorials and articles about product photography. I shot the pictures and they were…okay. That was my first dip into the commercial photography waters.

 

I offered product photography as a side hustle for a while and went full time about three years ago. Since I started shooting product pictures for my friend seven years ago, I have been on a mission to learn as much as I possibly could. I am constantly taking online classes and trying to learn new things from other photographers and mentors.

 

 

I am constantly working to better my skills, but I also strongly believe that to set yourself apart from other photographers, you need to develop an exceptional client experience. I like to think that my clients come back to me because they are getting great images but also because they feel supported and taken care of when they work with me.

 

The one thing I wish I knew at the start is that by setting your prices too low, you attract the wrong type of clients. When I started, I didn’t believe in myself, so I was competing on price. I later learned that by setting the prices so low, I was actually telling the serious clients that I wasn’t a serious photographer. It took me a long time to understand it, and a lot of coaching to get me through the lack of confidence that was the underlying issue, but I feel like it has taught me a lot about the job and about myself.

 

How do you grow as a photographer? Challenges? Books? Teaching? Goals? Do you have any kind of photography development plan? 

 

All of the above! I do take a lot of online courses to learn new skills and techniques and I make a point to work on personal projects and challenges regularly. I also love listening to audiobooks and podcasts. I recently started to coach some other photographers, which has been an amazing opportunity for me to learn and grow as well. But I think what has helped me the most has been to work with coaches and mentors.

 

I first started working with a coach more than two years ago and it helped me so much that I have never stopped. My 2020 goals include being more intentional with the clients I work with so I can work with fewer of them and enjoy the work more. I also plan to have a day per week that would be entirely dedicated to personal growth, whether it would be workshops, taking an online course, or shooting a personal project.

 

Could you share how you usually develop a photo or series from concept to shooting it and editing? 

 

To prepare for a shoot, I usually spend some time researching Pinterest and Instagram for inspiration and recipe ideas. If it’s a client shoot, I will also look at what the other brands in the same space create. I will then put together a mood board (and a shot list if it’s client work). I like to plan my set beforehand in terms of mood, backdrops, props, and I often sketch the shots I want to take. This allows me to know exactly what I will be needing for the shoot so I can go prop and grocery shopping in advance.

 

On the day of the shoot, I will prepare my set, lighting, and camera and once everything is looking good, I will start preparing the food. I will add the food and garnishes to the set and shoot my images according to my shot list. I try to avoid editing the images on the same day that I shoot them, because I like to tackle my editing with a fresh eye. You can read a more detailed description of Fanette’s process on her blog.

 

 

Have you taken a recent photo of which you’re especially proud? Would you mind sharing that and what makes you proud?

 

I started working with Bella from @ful.filled a couple of months ago. She has been pushing me really hard to get me out of my comfort zone and to try new things. One of the things I first told her was that I wasn’t much of a baker. So, of course, she quickly gave me some assignments that included some baking 😉 For the last assignment of the year, I baked and decorated cookies (second time decorating cookies) and shot them in a very monochromatic way. Both the baking/decorating and the styling were challenging, but I love the result!

 

What equipment/software do you usually use for shooting, lighting, and editing? Anything new you’re planning on buying for 2020?

 

I shoot Canon. I just last month upgraded to the 5d Mark iv and I am super happy with it. My go-to lenses are my 50mm f1.8 (the nifty fifty) and a 100mm macro. I am thinking about buying an 85mm macro as well. I use natural light and artificial light. When I shoot artificial light, I use the Godox ad400 pro with a 47” octagonal softbox, and sometimes a strip lightbox with a grid for dark and moody shots. This year I want to buy the Godox SL 60W continuous LED light for the stop motion work I do for my clients.

 

What are your top three tips for staying creatively nourished and avoiding burnout?

 

I love to learn new things. I’m always taking a course or listening to a podcast. But I think it’s important to diversify what you learn about. Of course, I choose a lot of classes and podcasts about photography, but I also love to learn about marketing, design, and sustainable + minimalist living. Learning things outside of your field keeps your mind open and gives you new and interesting ideas.

I also make time to get together with other local photographers and entrepreneurs. Even when I don’t really have time. Being a freelance photographer can be very lonely and meeting with other creatives is for me an endless source of joy and inspiration.

 

Finally, when I don’t feel inspired, I don’t force it. I just stop what I am doing and try to do something else. Whether it’s going outside for a walk, or turning on my favorite song at max volume and dancing in my kitchen like nobody’s watching (except for my cat. But he stopped judging a while ago). Doing something that makes you happy is the best way to get the creative juices flowing again.

 

How do you choose what to share on your Instagram account? 

 

I plan the images I will share using Planoly. Most images are from personal projects and I have been working really hard recently to achieve a grid that is consistent and represents my style. I still have a lot of work to do but I feel like I am getting there. As for the captions, I love to share tips and things I learned over the years that I wish I’d known sooner.

 

What’s your biggest challenge with Instagram right now? How do you handle that?

 

Time. I post six days a week and share stories almost every day. That’s a lot of work. To save time I prepare everything in advance. Every Monday I sit down and I prepare my content for the following week. I block a few hours and just focus on that one thing. I also have an awesome VA that helps me with scheduling and hashtags. That helps a lot!