Photo|| VIDEO || Drone
Whitstable Oyster Fishery Company
From tidal farm to plate
VISUAL STORYTELLING FOR A CENTURIES-OLD COASTAL BUSINESS
Oysters have been part of Whitstable’s story for centuries. Whitstable Oyster Fishery Company is at the heart of that story, established in 1793, the company continues to farm oysters off the Whitstable coast, with generations of knowledge, experience and connection to the sea woven through the way they work. I spent a brand photography day with the Whistable Oyster Fishery team capturing the journey from farm to plate through photo, video and drone, following the process out on the water and back on shore, alongside the people who make it happen.
Three generations of the founding family gathered: grandfather, son and grandson. Knowledge passed down through years spent working together, observing, learning and doing.
A story about how oysters connect people, place, heritage and the knowledge carried between generations.
The Approach
The aim was to create a rich brand library of photography and visual assets. Showing the whole process of Whitstable Oyster Fishery Company. As well as seeing how each part of the process connects to the next.
We followed the working day as it naturally unfolded. Capturing the oyster farming, harvesting, processing, purifying and serving, through stills and video. While drone imagery pulled back to reveal the wider relationship between the farm, the coastline and Whitstable itself.
Details mattered too: hands at work, equipment, textures, conversations and the small moments between people that give a much stronger sense of what it actually feels like to be there.
Working across photo, video and drone meant we could move between the scale of the landscape and the intimacy of the people within it. Creating a collection of brand assets that all belong to the same story.
Three generations
Some stories reveal themselves once you spend time with the people behind a business.
During the brand shoot, I photographed three generations of the same family working together. Grandfather, son and grandson. Each connected to the oyster farm and to knowledge that has been passed from one generation to the next.
There was something incredibly special about seeing that continuity in front of me.
The resulting images capture this moment and go on to hold something of its history too. The experience that has been handed down, the relationships behind the work and the people carrying the story forward.
The people behind the story
Alongside documenting the working day, we created a set of relaxed portraits of the wider team. Rather than separating these into a formal portrait session, we captured them as part of our time together.
By that point I’d already been alongside everyone while they worked. Chatting with them and photographing them naturally throughout the day. Creating individual and team portraits became another part of the brand story. Rather than a completely different experience in front of the camera.
It meant Whitstable Oyster Fishery Company came away with strong, natural brand photography of the people behind the business as part of the same visual library.
Bringing the story to life
SHORT-FORM VIDEO · NATURAL AUDIO · STORYTELLING
Movement can add so much connection and is a powerful way of sharing a visual story.
When individual clips are brought together into a short storytelling film, we get to share the story in another way which deepens connection the people, process and place behind the oysters.
One shoot, a whole visual asset library
The finished collection brought together brand photography, short-form video and aerial imagery covering the people, process, product and place behind Whitstable Oyster Fishery Company.
The shoot gave the team a broad visual library they can draw from across their website, social media, marketing, editorial, PR and future storytelling.
And because everything was captured together, the assets feel like part of the same world wherever they appear, revitalising social media with a bank of assets ready to post.
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in their words
“Working with Rebecca was absolutely amazing and I can’t recommend her more! From the initial conversation we had about what we were looking for her to capture, to the shoot day, to the edit and all things post-production, I felt like she really understood and got our company.
She made everything seem so easy and possible and the images and the videos that she captured are bloody brilliant!!!
We now have an epic content library and I can’t thank her enough.”
WHITSTABLE OYSTER FISHERY COMPANY
Project gallery
PHOTO · VIDEO · DRONE
Reflections
Seeing three generations of a family business together was really special, hearing their stories and experience of the farm and visions for the future was deeply inspiring.
There is history in the oyster beds at Whitstable, but there is also history carried by the people, in the things they know instinctively because somebody once showed them, and the things they are now passing on to somebody else.
Spending time with the family and the wider team meant I could photograph more than the process of farming oysters. I could capture something of the relationships, knowledge and sense of place that sit behind it.
That is the part of visual storytelling I love most.
What story is waiting inside your business?
You might know what you do every day so intimately that it no longer feels remarkable.
But to somebody encountering your world for the first time, the people, processes, knowledge, landscape and little details you barely notice can be the very things that make your story worth remembering.
I create brand photography, video and drone storytelling for businesses with something real to share, building visual libraries that show not only what you do, but the world that exists around it.