behind her lens: working with Laura Ellen Photography

some of the best parts of starting a business happen completely unexpectedly

I met Laura at a local business start up event while I was in the middle of bringing moki35 to life, and what started as a simple conversation quickly turned into something much more

Laura is a young photographer with a huge amount of talent and a really thoughtful approach to her work, primarily shooting weddings but with a natural eye for people, detail and atmosphere

we got talking about moki35 and I mentioned that I needed some product photography for the website before we opened

Laura was keen to help, so we made a plan and somehow managed to get everything organised just one day before moki35 opened

the shoot

the shoot day was one of those days where everything suddenly starts feeling real

the cart was coming together, the website was coming together and now we were creating the imagery that would introduce moki35 to the world

we spent the day photographing the drinks, products, details and little pieces of the brand that I wanted people to see when they first discovered moki35 online

but it quickly became more than simply getting some product shots

as we worked, Laura and I started talking about how moki35 should look and feel visually

what should people see when they come across the brand

what kind of photography feels right for moki35

how can we make the coffee, the location, the people and the story feel connected

we started throwing ideas around and found ourselves coming up with far more possibilities than we could fit into one shoot

finding a visual direction

one of the things I've really enjoyed about working with Laura is how much I've already learnt

I've spent years working with food, coffee and branding, but photography is a completely different skill

Laura has already taught me a lot about how to think about an image rather than simply taking a photo

where to position the subject, how to use light, what details to look for and how a collection of images can start creating a recognisable visual style. we've started developing a direction for moki35 that feels natural to the brand rather than something we've simply copied from somewhere else

that's important to me

moki is about coffee but it is also about Whangārei, the landscape, the people and the stories that are starting to develop around the cart

the imagery needs to capture all of that

more to come

the first shoot has already opened up a lot of ideas for where we can take this

Laura and I have been brainstorming different ways we can collaborate, from photography through to video content and a series of mini stories around us

there are already plenty of ideas on the table

some will be focused on the coffee, some on the people and some on the place we are lucky enough to be operating from

I'm particularly excited about the video work we are planning because I think it will give us another way to tell our story

not just showing the coffee but showing the people behind it and the place around it

the beginning of a collaboration

what started with a conversation at a start up event turned into a product shoot the day before opening and now into an ongoing creative collaboration

that's one of the things I have enjoyed most about starting the project. you put an idea into the world and suddenly you meet people the right people.  Laura has already brought a huge amount of creativity, knowledge and energy to the project 

I'm excited to see where we take it next

Moki35 × Laura Ellen Photography