Sometimes you don’t get it right the first time. That’s what happened with the first pass at this photograph. There was another element in the frame that was not really needed and not really working. After spending a couple of days with it, and some comments from a friend, it was back to the studio to fix it. Cheers!
Beer Pour
For the past three months I’ve been a part of Andrew Scrivani’s Photography Fellowship on the Speakeasy platform. It’s been a deep dive mentoring program where we’ve covered everything from photography, gear, business and how to grow. It’s something he is going to do a couple of times a year going forward and if you are serious about your photography, I cannot recommend it enough. It has been a great experience that has taught me a great deal. The latest assignment was to take one of his images and create something that feels like it. In advertising this is called “pull scrap'“. For this image, I chose the cover image of his book “That Photo Makes Me Hungry”. His image was of chocolate dripping off a spoon. I replaced the spoon with a bottle and the chocolate with a chocolate stout.
Gunpowder Irish Gin
With this photograph I wanted to do two things. First, I wanted to lean in to the harsh light that is very popular in beverage photography today. You’ll see bright, powerful light from behind bottles and drinks today, with the reflection across the surface in the front of the subject. I wanted to get closer and above the bottle, so I had to be careful to control the light so as not to really blow out the frame with lens flares. The second point I wanted to hit was to make sure that every part of the bottle was tack sharp in focus. This was achieved by focus stacking eight images together. You start at the top and focus on each element of the photo, making an image at each point and working your way down to the bottle of the bottle. Afterwards in Photoshop these are stitched together to create one photograph. Cheers!
Food Idiom - Drink Like a Fish
I’ve been lucky enough to be participating in Andrew Scrivani’s Photography Fellowship on the Speakeasy Platform. It’s been a great place to learn more about not only photography, but business and challenge your work with the aim to improve it. Once of his most recent assignments was to create a photo with the goal of illustrating a food based idiom. One of the first one’s that has popped in to my head was “drink like a fish”. I thought putting a beer in a fish tank was a good way to do so.
Never be satisfied
If you look at my last post and believe the photography to be lacking, you are not alone, I think so too. I believe the goal of a photographic journey should be to improve. Make the best photo you can that day, but dont be satisfied. Keep working, keep learning, keep trying. If you stop, then you’re done. When you keep at it, you keep growing.
It's friggin' hot
Looking at the weather across the US right now, it’s friggin’ hot. There’s nothing more I’d like to do than jump right in to this glass to cool off and take the ride around in that little beer cyclone right now.
The Sazerac. Perhaps the first cocktail created but definitely created in New Orleans. Sugar cube crushed with Peychaud’s Bitters, rye and absinthe. Drink one with us in New Orleans this October.
The Sazerac
Get an Abita Amber
If you’ve never been to New Orleans, you’ll know that certain brands are ambiguous in the City. Abita Amber Lager is one of them. It is everywhere and it is real good. When I decided on making this photograph, it had to include a shot of the French Quarter as a background. There was no way the photo could exist without being placed in NOLA.
At the End of the Day
When your day is done, before you sit in your favorite spot, you pour yourself something to enjoy, then reflect on your day. Cheers!