Nia and Kyle

My name is Niveditha Ravichandran but you can call me Nia. I am merely a scientist who picked up the camera and fell in love with photography. I am originally from India, but moved to the Netherlands in 2016, initially to go to university, but one thing led to another... and I started But First Salt.

Together with my boyfriend Kyle van Bavel, I work as a food photographer, recipe developer and stylist for the food and beverage industry. As inherently creative people, we love to experiment with different ways to best bring out the vibrant colours and intricate textures of food while telling a story.

My love of photography started when I was young. I watched my father fiddle with the film camera and fell in love with the world a lens sees. I loved watching the camera freeze frames and couldn’t wait to get the rolls printed. For me, it was like magic... and I just wanted to incorporate a little of that magic into my pictures.

When we photograph food, we let our imagination run wild and pride ourselves on thinking outside the plate. We love to add a little magic to all kinds of foods and beverages - whether it's a delicately perched glass of wine with elegance and grace or a spicy warm soup on a cold winter day.

We love to capture the visual stories behind everything I photograph while ensuring that it stays in the limelight. We also love letting people in our of magical secrets and take you behind the scenes to show the effort that went into them.