I am a professional food photographer, stylist and videographer, based in Estonia, North-Europe. I work remotely all over the world. Want your recipes or food stories to be captured? Just send them over by email. Wish your products and brands to be shot? You may send them - but to be honest, you don't even need to do that if they are available in my country. In that case I can get them myself. If not, just pack them, pick a delivery company and they will take care of the rest.
Previously I have had several food-related projects: two cute small recipe blogs and two sweet tiny bakeries. The photography part of all that became more and more important for me throughout the years and now, being a professional food photographer, I see that as my main focus.
My aim is to capture vibrant, emotional and nature-inspired photos of food, shoot spirited and cheerful cooking videos and cook flavour and love packed meals by interpreting traditional recipes my own way. My heart belongs to comfort food, street food and healthy interpretations of modern fast food, but I'm deeply interested in simply all food.
Previously I have had several food-related projects: two cute small recipe blogs and two sweet tiny bakeries. The photography part of all that became more and more important for me throughout the years and now, being a professional food photographer, I see that as my main focus.
My aim is to capture vibrant, emotional and nature-inspired photos of food, shoot spirited and cheerful cooking videos and cook flavour and love packed meals by interpreting traditional recipes my own way. My heart belongs to comfort food, street food and healthy interpretations of modern fast food, but I'm deeply interested in simply all food.
Feel free to go back to my portfolio page if you think the previous intruduction is enough to get to know me. But if you feel like diving deeper into my background, please continue reading after the photo.
I love food.
I'm actually pretty obsessed with it and all my creative ideas around it. Like many of us, foodies, I don't have culinary education (except for small trainings and workshops) and my professional life has been evolving in other areas most of the time. However, the last 10 years (starting with the birth of my sweet baby in 2014) have convinced me that there's no way back and my future will be about food and lifestyle digital creation. To get a better idea of some of the milestones that I have had on my food journey, you're welcome to read the following story.
In childhood my grandma was my biggest influencer and role model in the kitchen. It's a story we hear a lot, right? Grandmothers are usually responsible for waking up the foodie spirit. I guess I started cooking with her, when I was around 6 years old, and my favorite dish was her hearty and buttery thick mushroom soup.
Later I cooked for years for my family, friends and boyfriends and it was more for fun and for a never-ending wish to treat my beloved people and make them happy and satisfied. I still have that for sure, but after becoming a mom, I realized that it's not enough. And starting a blog next to a little baby is a common thing too, right? The push was actually a local cooking competition show on TV that I took part in. One of our best known local bloggers happened to be a judge there, I chatted with her a bit, needless to say I also admired her and the decision was made. I started my first food blog on 5th of October 2015.
The blog was local, in my native Estonian language and it was called "Chocolate land and coffee sky". That's the direct translation. LOL. But I still kind of love that name even today, especially because of its weirdness. I ran that quite successfully from the very start (in local meaning), made some great connections and friends and quite soon after launching the blog I learned and practiced a bit and then opened a home bakery. It was first mainly focused on beautiful celebration cakes, but later also some catering and savory party food. It was called "Helena's Bakery".
These were beautiful and fulfilling times, but didn' last too long, because unfortunately I didn't pull it through financially with the bakery and the blog was not even meant for making money that time (at least I was not aware that it could). I had to close both down and go back to "normal" work. I had been an entrepreneur also before, but my earlier business had already gathered enough momentum over the years, so that I was able to make a living with it. Therefore after about 1,5 year of lovely gourmet time, I had to shift back to my previous career in real estate.
And once again - of course I cooked and baked daily and dreamed and watched cooking shows and read cookbooks, but I didn't create recipes myself other than only in my head. I didn't use my freshly learned photography skills anymore and got all rusty about it. In fact my DSLR camera was locked in a closet for more than 5 years.
But I started again in 2022. I just missed it so much and as I had unexpectedly some more spare time in my hands after a long busy period, it was the most logical next step. I began by shooting food photos with my iPhone, whenever I had time. It was summer, the light was perfect and I remember this so vividly doing it on my balcony, getting to my happy place again and feeling so alive because of all that. Then idea after another started to pour in. I rented a small studio, learned to make bonbons, macarons, truffles and mini cakes and another business was born. It was called "Truffle". First I wanted to call it "Trifle and Truffle", because I had an idea to make and sell a kind of jar cakes, which resembled trifles. But I changed my mind and concentrated more on small-size sweet treats, especially macarons.
By the new year's eve 2022 / 23 it was clear to me that I was still missing the most important part for me in my food journey and that was recipe development, proper styled photography, and digital content creation. And there I was back at the spot from where I had started in the first place. I needed to express myself through food writing and visuals. This time I decided to do it bigger, meaning for an international audience and therefore in English. Also I turned all my social channels bios and content to English.
I bought a domain and started a blog called "Healthy comfort food blog". Well... I know, it's cheesy. Or maybe it's just not completely me. But I was in a hurry to figure out a name that would best describe my cooking style and favorite foods and could not find better. I created a few recipes and started making videos, which was equally exciting and terrifying at the same time. I learned a lot, listened to countless podcasts, watched videos and practiced as much as I could. I learned online marketing, food photography, food blogging and everything related. And oh yeah - I pulled my DSLR out again. I created a new company, called "Tasty Dimensions" with an aim to actually start making a living with creative work.
It was a lot. Sometimes overwhelmingly a lot, because I still worked full time and also tried to grow my following on social media, contributed to various recipe sharing sites etc, let alone everything else. For example pitching to brands and creating a proper business plan in a beautiful presentation and so much more.
Things can take time. I hope this bio is an encouragement to all of you, lovely readers, that might regret not moving towards their dream as quickly as they would have expected themselves to. Time does not exist, but momentum does. Every single happy moment is already a sign that you have reached there. It does not matter how many of them you're able to experience in your life. But you can't enjoy even one of them, if you keep feeling sorry for the "wasted" times. Been there, done that.
Here is my mantra: do what you love and eat what makes you happy.
In childhood my grandma was my biggest influencer and role model in the kitchen. It's a story we hear a lot, right? Grandmothers are usually responsible for waking up the foodie spirit. I guess I started cooking with her, when I was around 6 years old, and my favorite dish was her hearty and buttery thick mushroom soup.
Later I cooked for years for my family, friends and boyfriends and it was more for fun and for a never-ending wish to treat my beloved people and make them happy and satisfied. I still have that for sure, but after becoming a mom, I realized that it's not enough. And starting a blog next to a little baby is a common thing too, right? The push was actually a local cooking competition show on TV that I took part in. One of our best known local bloggers happened to be a judge there, I chatted with her a bit, needless to say I also admired her and the decision was made. I started my first food blog on 5th of October 2015.
The blog was local, in my native Estonian language and it was called "Chocolate land and coffee sky". That's the direct translation. LOL. But I still kind of love that name even today, especially because of its weirdness. I ran that quite successfully from the very start (in local meaning), made some great connections and friends and quite soon after launching the blog I learned and practiced a bit and then opened a home bakery. It was first mainly focused on beautiful celebration cakes, but later also some catering and savory party food. It was called "Helena's Bakery".
These were beautiful and fulfilling times, but didn' last too long, because unfortunately I didn't pull it through financially with the bakery and the blog was not even meant for making money that time (at least I was not aware that it could). I had to close both down and go back to "normal" work. I had been an entrepreneur also before, but my earlier business had already gathered enough momentum over the years, so that I was able to make a living with it. Therefore after about 1,5 year of lovely gourmet time, I had to shift back to my previous career in real estate.
And once again - of course I cooked and baked daily and dreamed and watched cooking shows and read cookbooks, but I didn't create recipes myself other than only in my head. I didn't use my freshly learned photography skills anymore and got all rusty about it. In fact my DSLR camera was locked in a closet for more than 5 years.
But I started again in 2022. I just missed it so much and as I had unexpectedly some more spare time in my hands after a long busy period, it was the most logical next step. I began by shooting food photos with my iPhone, whenever I had time. It was summer, the light was perfect and I remember this so vividly doing it on my balcony, getting to my happy place again and feeling so alive because of all that. Then idea after another started to pour in. I rented a small studio, learned to make bonbons, macarons, truffles and mini cakes and another business was born. It was called "Truffle". First I wanted to call it "Trifle and Truffle", because I had an idea to make and sell a kind of jar cakes, which resembled trifles. But I changed my mind and concentrated more on small-size sweet treats, especially macarons.
By the new year's eve 2022 / 23 it was clear to me that I was still missing the most important part for me in my food journey and that was recipe development, proper styled photography, and digital content creation. And there I was back at the spot from where I had started in the first place. I needed to express myself through food writing and visuals. This time I decided to do it bigger, meaning for an international audience and therefore in English. Also I turned all my social channels bios and content to English.
I bought a domain and started a blog called "Healthy comfort food blog". Well... I know, it's cheesy. Or maybe it's just not completely me. But I was in a hurry to figure out a name that would best describe my cooking style and favorite foods and could not find better. I created a few recipes and started making videos, which was equally exciting and terrifying at the same time. I learned a lot, listened to countless podcasts, watched videos and practiced as much as I could. I learned online marketing, food photography, food blogging and everything related. And oh yeah - I pulled my DSLR out again. I created a new company, called "Tasty Dimensions" with an aim to actually start making a living with creative work.
It was a lot. Sometimes overwhelmingly a lot, because I still worked full time and also tried to grow my following on social media, contributed to various recipe sharing sites etc, let alone everything else. For example pitching to brands and creating a proper business plan in a beautiful presentation and so much more.
Things can take time. I hope this bio is an encouragement to all of you, lovely readers, that might regret not moving towards their dream as quickly as they would have expected themselves to. Time does not exist, but momentum does. Every single happy moment is already a sign that you have reached there. It does not matter how many of them you're able to experience in your life. But you can't enjoy even one of them, if you keep feeling sorry for the "wasted" times. Been there, done that.
Here is my mantra: do what you love and eat what makes you happy.
Feel free to reach out and ask for collaboration options, discuss some exciting projects or just share a feedback to my work!