Food for thought

The lessons that University of Saskatchewan (USask) graduate Bob Deutscher (BComm’10) learned as a student at USask’s Edwards School of Business have proven to be valuable to him as an entrepreneur with a growing company.

Deutscher is the owner and operator of Bob Deutscher Media Inc., a Saskatoon-based food photography business. After earning his Bachelor of Commerce degree at USask in 2010, he became a self-employed photographer with a focus on providing commercial food photography services for large companies. Along with his wife, Shannon, Deutscher recently built a new 2,100-square-foot studio and is now in the early stages of rebranding his company to reflect the changes that have been made to it over the years.

“I have been doing photography full-time since 2013 and my wife joined me in 2020, so with the new studio, and the business representing both of us now, it’s time to find a name that better represents that,” he said.

Whether he’s been building, expanding, marketing, or rebranding his business, Deutscher’s USask education has been as asset along the way.

“I have a degree in finance, so having a great base understanding of that has certainly been helpful with running a business, as well as all the other business classes I took during my time at USask, like marketing,” Deutscher said.

“One of the unexpected benefits of attending university was also just the network of people I met through my time there,” he added. “It’s been great to have classmates who go on to work in marketing roles in other businesses reach out to hire me for food photography.”

The Green&White recently asked Deutscher about why he chose to pursue a Bachelor of Commerce degree and what it’s like to run a food photography business, as well as his advice for other USask alumni who may want to start their own businesses.

You studied at USask’s Edwards School of Business. Why did you decide to pursue a Bachelor of Commerce (BComm) degree?

I decided to pursue a BComm because I liked the flexibility of a business degree. The fact that it is really versatile, and you can work in so many different industries, was very appealing to me at the time. You can utilize a business degree in more traditional industries, like oil and gas, or mining, or maybe you love movies, cooking, or music. You could end up looking for a career working for a restaurant group, or at a record label in a marketing or finance role, or, in my case, starting my own business.

What drew you to food photography?

I’ve always admired photography, but never seriously got into it while growing up. I definitely enjoyed experimenting with my dad’s first digital camera, taking photos and videos of my friends and I skateboarding and playing basketball. It wasn’t until I started a food blog in 2010 with my sister—called BS’ in the Kitchen—that I finally seriously got into photography. After starting the blog, we both bought DSLR cameras shortly after—and that began my journey into food and photography.

What is the focus of your business?

We work with a few restaurants, but I would say our main focus is working with larger organizations, doing what would be classified as commercial food photography. We do a lot of work with Federated Co-operatives Limited and their Co-op grocery stores, whether that’s shooting photos for use on packaging, creating all the imagery for their Table magazine, or doing more straightforward work, like flyer photography. Then we also work for organizations like Saskatchewan Pulse Growers, photographing their wonderful recipes for their website lentils.org. We recently shot some photography for the packaging of Three Farmers Foods’ new Ranch Chickpeas snacks, which was a special flavour being tested at Costco in the U.S. It’s always very rewarding to see our photos end up on packaging, especially when we’re at the grocery store and see people checking out their groceries with pictures we’ve taken on them.

What does a typical day look like for you at work?

A typical day depends on what kind of projects we’re working on, but when we are getting into a new photoshoot, typically we’ll pick up groceries in the morning or the day before, start prepping all the food, and cooking everything—depending on what we’re shooting. Then, as things are cooking, we start building out the photo setup, setting up our lighting, figuring out what backdrops and props we’ll be using, and then getting the food ready for its closeup. After shoot days, it’s usually filled with tidying everything up and editing and sending out all the photos we shot.  My wife, Shannon, and I do everything ourselves—so the cooking, food styling, prop styling, photography, editing, etcetera—so there is definitely plenty of variety day to day.

What are some of the behind-the-scenes aspects and considerations to running a food photography business?

Lots of grocery shopping and cleaning—whether that’s doing the dishes or just putting all of the props away after a shoot—and making sure to keep things organized. (There’s) lots of pre-production and planning as well—making sure we have the right things to meet the clients’ desired look. And, if we don’t have it, we either go out looking for it, or sometimes make things ourselves. (Then), of course, (there’s) all the back-end stuff, like keeping our books up to date, backing up data, etcetera. There is plenty of variety, and we feel very lucky to have such a fun career!

What has it been like to run your own business?

Very busy! I was a one-man operation for the majority of the first seven years of my career, so juggling the roles of food stylist, prop stylist, photographer, videographer, editor—as well as all the actual “running the business” stuff, like making sure I sent out invoices and got paid—was a lot of work. But it has been so much fun! I am so grateful to have the career that I do—particularly in Saskatoon, where there really is no industry for food photography. Having two young kids now, and being able to work with my wife, has been such a wonderful experience as well. All the years of hard work paid off, and I’ve been fortunate to build a business that really supports a work-life balance that is very important to our family.

What is your advice for other USask alumni who may be interested in starting their own business?

Do it! Be prepared to work for it, though. Getting a new business off the ground takes a lot of dedication and consistency. If you show up every day and keep working on your craft, your chances of succeeding will be much higher. Also, don’t be afraid to reach out to others for advice. One thing I wish had more of starting out was mentorship; unfortunately, I didn’t know anybody doing food photography when I was starting out, so I kind of just forged ahead alone. 

What are your future goals?

We accomplished a major goal of building a dedicated food photography studio; we started working out of the building in November 2023. With our studio build being finished, and things finally settling down a bit with that, we are starting to do some more client outreach, seeing what kind of exciting new opportunities are out there. A dream project would definitely be shooting a cookbook. 

Is there anything else that you would like to add?

I just want to encourage anybody who is thinking of doing something outside of the box to just go for it if it’s something they are passionate about. I love hearing about all the amazing people and projects that have started out here in Saskatoon and at USask. If you have a dream job, don’t settle. We are in a time that is equal parts terrifying and exciting when it comes to advancements in technology, with things like AI. While there will definitely be some major adjustments, I think there will be some great opportunities for so many new and exciting things.