Recently, while enjoying a gin and tonic with friends at a fine restaurant,
said friend, who happens to be a sommelier, asked if I had tried Uncle Val’s Botanical Gin. I had not, so I checked it out at my local wine & liquor retailer. I found the bottle styling to be as unique as the gin itself and decided to explore doing a portfolio shot with it. After looking at the web site for Uncle Val’s Gins, http://www.unclevalsgin.com , I determined that it would be interesting to do a series for the three flavors that they offer; Botanical, Restorative, and Peppered. As Uncle Val’s uses a bit of vintage style sketches of plant ingredients on their labels it was a natural jump for me to try to create something similar to “old school” botanical prints but with a photographic approach.
Sourcing the plant materials was accomplished with the help of our in-studio food stylist. I collaborated with two of the awesome digital artists we have at the studio to give the images a look that is somewhere between photography and illustration. The choice of ingredients for each formula came from Uncle Val’s promotional material that hi-lighted the key elements of each flavor. For the photographs of the bottles, which are shaped like old medicine bottles, I wanted to stay pretty straight forward with the approach. I figured they should look as they would if they appeared in an advertisement from long ago.
I enjoyed working on building these shots and I hope you find them interesting to look at as well. After the finished pieces, check out some BTS images from the shoot.
Thanks for taking the time to explore.
To see more of my work, please visit our website.
