Fyto Hydroponics

I was recently approached by a local start-up company in Hoult’s Yard, called Fyto Hydroponics. Now with the background in science that I have, obviously I’m aware of hydroponics and the potential world-changing technology that is around the subject and where developments are currently being made. It’s certainly one to go and Google yourselves to really get to the details of it but with the changes since Brexit, even in the UK, this industry has taken a massive step forward in helping local communities and local people to grow food in a totally different way. 

 So this photo shoot was a mixture of things where it allowed us to capture the large units which are designed for industry, so for pubs and restaurants who want to grow their own herbs and green leafy veg, it’s a real target market in the North East for them to feed into. And then smaller under counter units for home use, so instead of having a large greenhouse in your back garden, you can have a small under counter LED-lit rig that allows you to grow products in three weeks versus three months or three weeks versus six weeks in the case of lettuce and that sort of stuff. Which is just a fantastic turnaround and can really have a massive impact on grow your own and the mindset of being a bit more self-sufficient. So from a photography perspective, it was a challenging shoot. These units are between sort of a metre and a metre and a half tall, metal, a lot of reflective surfaces, they include LED lights and the detail that we needed to get in there to show some of the fantastic 3D printed bespoke nature of the product and bespoke nature of the fixings, mean that we had to capture all of that without losing the essence of them being a lighting system. 

I was discussing the easiest way to do this was to be onsite with the client, as opposed to taking them to a studio to get a perfect colour background. This was very much one that was easier to do on location so that we could make sure that all the product is correct and then we could swap out different plants to show the type of things that could be grown in the system. I arrived at Hoult’s Yard with all of my full studio rig, a big white background, all ready to capture these fantastic units. As you can see from the photographs, these are going on the front page of the website. They are also going to be used in social media and a load of scientific papers to push the technology behind it. 

As ever with all of these type of shoots, I always do two sets of pictures, one being very functional, being the size and the essence of the actual product itself for that front page. But also, the social media images that tell the story a little bit more and allow a little bit more of a story to be told and words to go with them in the likes of blog posts or written articles. We’ve got a mix of large metal frames, along with details of the LEDs, the plants growing, germination of the seeds and just really making that difference. I’m really looking forward to seeing these images all over both the internet and in scientific papers. 

As I said, as a scientist it’s always great to see your work represented in front of peers in a sector so I’d be really interested to see where Aiden and the team get this technology out to and where it eventually gets some use. I think the plan, I’m going to chat with them next, is getting on location into one of the clients of theirs. I want to find those clients and showcase them what fantastic products and end results could be made out of these. Can you imagine a local restaurant having one of these in the back kitchen and showing exactly what is grown to people, so literally going from seed to plate within the restaurant. That’s a fantastic thought process and a fantastic selling bit for so many restaurants in the local area. If you’re interested in the product itself, get in touch with Aiden and the team at Phyto by clicking on the link below. But also, if you are a manufacturer or a creator then get in touch and we can have a chat about how we can get both your functional images as well as your social media images to really promote your product and step it up in the coming year.