In Early 2021 I had to privilege to work on two small projects with the local business Thornby Moor Dairy. I was brought in to document the processes used when making their award winning Allerdale cheese from start to finish. They also asked me to reshoot a selection of product photos which I did as part of a separate studio project. When photographing their process I took two small and quite professional digital camera and my trusty circa 1974 Nikon F2 film camera, I took a series of photos both digital and analogue at each stage of the process which spanned out over 10 Hours.
About Thornby Moor Dairy
Thornby Moor Dairy is a small independent artisanal cheesemakers established by Carolyn Fairbairn in 1979 who has spent the last the last 50 years perfecting her craft and using classical hands on techniques and a range of original recipes to produce high quality cheese.
Some Challenged Faced During The Shoot
One problem that faced me from the start of this project was that I would be walking between two buildings at different stages in the process and these two building had extremely differing temperatures and humidity levels, this meant that whenever I took the camera from one building into the next, the lens and view finder would immediately steam up making the camera unusable.
The solution I arrived at was that I would turn up an hour earlier than planned and leave a camera in each building to acclimatise to the temperature and humidity before I started shooting. That way I could walk between buildings and alternate cameras between the different stages of making the cheese.
Since the companies Establishment in 1979 the team at Thornby Moor Dairy have worked hard to establish a reputation and develop recipes and techniques whereby they can produce their cheese for businesses and restaurants across the UK, it was my pleasure to work with the excellent team they have on these two projects and I hope to work with them again in the future.
Take a look at the Thornby Moor Dairy’s Website and Instagram for more