My journey to starting this website and blog has been a long and winding road! I started out as a neuroscientist/product manager/sales manager and arrived here as a full-time digital nomad and food photographer!
Sounds pretty unusual, right? Here’s my story!
Rewind…
In 2016 my life changed pretty dramatically… I had been working in Cambridge, UK, for five years at a small science and technology company after finishing my studies in psychology and neuroscience.
I was dabbling in my first ever baking blog called Linda Hermans Bakes (how original), which had about ten readers because I knew absolutely nothing about food photography and even less about marketing! I was simply doing what what most people my age were doing: working 9-5 on weekdays, playing at the weekends, and too often scrolling through social media envious of all these people who somehow managed to spend their lives travelling the world and having a wonderful time.
In April 2016 I went on an organised tour to Vietnam. I’ve always loved travelling; as a child my parents would take my sister and me on holiday every summer, whether it was a big trip to Canada, visiting family in Belgium and the Netherlands, or a stay-cation in the U.K. Even after I left home to go to university I’d save money and make time to visit a new country every year, curious about different foods, languages and landscapes.
During that trip to Vietnam I met some amazing people who had been travelling for 6 or 8 months and my passion for travel was bursting out of me. I came back not thinking “I wish I could do that,” but “I want to do that!”
At first, I applied for a programme that would enable me to live and work in a different city around the world every month for a year. I just had to convince my current employers to let me go. I pitched a full business plan for them, which my manager supported, but the CEO of the company rejected it. In that moment I wanted to cry, and that was the tipping point that changed my life.
“I quit!”
I decided at that moment that I wanted to quit. I handed in my resignation and three months later I packed up all my belongings, rented out my apartment in Cambridge and booked a one-way ticket to Bangkok, Thailand for January 9th 2017.
I originally thought I would travel for six months to “get it out of my system”, and then go back to my previous 9-5 life working for a different company… how wrong I was! Once I started exploring all these new places and cultures (and food), I quickly realised that I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life behind a desk. That’s not what I was made for and the idea of it didn’t excite me in the slightest.
I wanted to wake up every morning excited to start the day, in love with my life and go to work with energy and passion! I wasn’t sure yet what that work would be, but I knew it wouldn’t involve sitting behind a desk in someone else’s office.
The light bulb moment
It wasn’t until three months into my trip and I was sitting in a tree-house in Malaysia that something clicked. It was like a light switched on in my brain and suddenly I knew I had it.
I realised that I’ve always loved photography (thank you, dad!), and I’ve always loved cooking and baking (thank you, mum!), but it had never occurred to me that food photography was a thing – and a thing that I could turn into a career!
I got so excited about this little epiphany and started taking more food pictures with my phone to upload to my personal Instagram at the time – at this point I also realised how much of my feed was already taken up by pictures of food!
I asked my boyfriend to teach me everything he knew about shooting with a DSLR camera in manual mode. I played with his lenses and and with light. A whole new world was opening before my eyes and I was eager to get back to Europe to spend a few months in the kitchen and photographing my creations!
I took a food photography and styling course at Leith’s School of Food & Wine in London and practised as much as I could – in fact I still practice as much as I can – our learning is never finished. Now, having built a portfolio and worked with some fantastic restaurants in London, France, the Netherlands and Peru I’m excited to continue pursuing this dream that has become my reality!
A healthy lifestyle is key
I’ve always considered myself to be a healthy person. I’ve been very active all my life and I’m grateful to my parents that they taught me the importance of a balanced diet. When I started travelling full-time and meeting people from all over the world, I realised two things.
The first was that taking notice of what you put into your body, making sure you’re getting all the nutrients you need and staying active isn’t second nature to everyone. Sometimes that’s because of lack of education, sometimes it’s due to the living circumstances and sometimes it’s simply down to individual laziness and bad habits.
The second was that everyone is unique. What works for me might not work for you; there is no one-size-fits all! But the food choices we make have an impact on our body, our mind and our life. Eating is something that we do every single day, so we should be doing it well!
I feel like we live in a world of convenience and quick-fixes. We’re constantly looking for life hacks and ways to streamline every activity we do, including cooking. We cut corners and sacrifice our health because of it. Moreover, there’s so much misinformation and advertising in our faces every minute it’s overwhelming and we often don’t know what the “right” choice is anymore. Add to that the fact that in many places we have access to anything we want whenever we want it, it’s just downright confusing!
That’s why you’ll find an archive of healthy, plant-based recipes on my blog. I initially started sharing vegetarian and vegan recipes, as well as my tips to help people understand food better and inspire them to cook balanced meals at home.
Food and drinks photography
Nowadays my focus is on teaching food photography to fellow creatives and working with clients to create visual content that makes their products shine.
In May 2021 I realised that developing recipes wasn’t bringing me as much joy as the process of photographing the food and editing the images.
So, I made the decision to shift the focus of my business away from recipes to food and drinks photography. I changed the name from Linda’s Healthy Life to Linda Hermans Photography and started sharing tips to help fellow creatives improve their food photography skills.
I now get to spend far more time crafting my own skills, evolving my style and trying out new ideas – all whilst sharing my journey and helping others along the way! I love the community I’m building through my free newsletters and social media content, and it’s such a joy to see others’ progress.
The progress I’m making in my photography work means that I get to work with more clients, which is something I also adore. I choose to work with sustainable brands, restaurants, hotels and chefs and love the relationship we build through carefully mood-boarding their projects and seeing them come to life.
Why sustainability?
The sustainability aspect of the blog (and my lifestyle) is something I feel passionately about, especially since travelling full-time. I love nature and wildlife and it breaks my heart to see so much destruction as a result of human actions. There’s trash in all corners of the world, from the bottom of the oceans to the desolate, sandy deserts. More places are experiencing devastating weather disasters and animal species are becoming extinct by the day.
I understand that in order for the big global changes to happen, it’s the politicians, governments and industry giants that have to take drastic action. But I strongly believe that we as individuals and consumers also have the power to make change happen!
In the past few years I’ve made a lot of changes to my own lifestyle to be more eco-friendly both at home and on the road, and I truly believe that small and consistent actions have a positive impact on the planet, on others and on myself. I want to live in a world where there are waterfalls, mountains, oceans and forests, where wild animals roam and plants grow freely. I have to be the change that I want to see in the world and I hope that others will follow my lead.
The posts about sustainability on my blog are a way for me to share my thoughts on various topics related to sustainability as well as reviews, tips and advice on products that I use and actions that I take to minimise my footprint. If I can inspire others along the way to think about their own actions and maybe even make some changes, then that’s awesome! I’d love to hear from you if you’re one of those people!
P.S. David Attenborough is probably one of my favourite people EVER.
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