Contrary to my recent social media appearance I have been keeping very busy!

Last Month I was off to Amsterdam with the lovely folks at Orchid as Alex - their assistant manager - sadly, could not make it as he was at the Diageo World Class mixing up a storm. 

We got up to quite a lot of stuff on our short stay, first stop was the House Of Bols in the Museum Square in the center of Amsterdam. We had a great tour with the UK Bols brand ambassador John Clay, it was a super interactive experience which included a lot of smelling, visual delights and a choice of a whole load of great drinks in a 360 degrees mirrored bar. 

House Of Bols

Bols Genever Bottles

Master Distiller / Blender:Piet van Leijenhorst

Mirrored Bar

After learning all about Bols and Dutch Genever we went to the Lucas Bols distillery to learn more about the taste of Bols from the Master Distiller / Blender, Piet van Leijenhorst - who is shown above expertly demonstrating the Genever slurping technique which we later got to try out ourselves.

Lucas Bols Distillery

Piet van Leijenhorst

The second day we went to the Heineken Experience and of course at the end enjoyed a few beers!

We visited a load of amazing places and bars and it was an altogether amazing experience - It wasn’t my first time in the city but it is always a pleasure. Here is a few photos from us wandering around the city, It was beautiful weather and Amsterdam was being as photogenic as ever - there’s even a cheeky snap of me in there!

It was a great trip and cant wait to see the new Orchid Bar in full operation tomorrow!

See you there.

Before I was off to France with RGU I had helped out 99 Bar & Kitchen and Orchid Aberdeen with their new cocktail menus. So after chatting to both we decided on trying to do something a little more creative with the photos to make them more involved with the drink and engaging / enticing to the viewer which sounded great to me.

I’ll start off with the photos for 99 Bar - Their menu had a literature theme so we took that and ran with it - I had a few shots in mind one of which was to get photo through the window at the front facade of 99. For this and a few others I needed a model to sit in so big thanks to the lovely Rebecca Gallacher for helping me out.

The Old CuriosityWestbourne Strength Gin, Apple Brandy, Dry Vermouth, House made Grenadine and Absinth

Beatrix TippleWhisky, Orange Cognac, Citrus, House Made Carrot Cake Syrup, egg white and nutmeg.

Beatrix TippleWhisky, Orange Cognac, Citrus, House Made Carrot Cake Syrup, egg white and nutmeg.

Peanut’s AdventureBourbon, Vanilla Liquor, House made Vanilla gomme, Chocolate, Peanut Butter and a whole egg

For the most part the books linked to the books and I particularly like the ‘Old Curiosity’ window photo and ‘Peanuts Adventure’. Added shots are Sean making the Beatrix Tipple and Rebecca enjoying some Charles Dickens by the window.

Orchids menu didn’t have a theme but we wanted to make the photos a little more unique and distinct than usual and here are the results - Most of which are not the ones Orchid posted which is interesting!

The Milk Man’s Punch - Havana ClubAmer picon Dr Adam Elmegirab’s Bitters Orinoco & AphroditeVanilla SyrupMilk & CreamToasted Marshmallow to top.

Ode To Be Old Fashioned - Rittenhouse Rye, Dr Adam Elmegirab’s Bitters Spanish and our house bitters, honey and finished off with orange blossom perfume.

Martin Farmer pouring ‘The Micra’

Raisin and Saltana Sour - twisted up the classic Whisky Sour by infusing raisins intoMonkey Shoulder and creating a smokey orgeat syrup using Laphroaig, finished off with citrus, egg white and small batch Orchid bitters.

Pepino - Lapsang souchong infused el Jimador Tequila, pink peppercorn infused Cocchi Americano and The Balvenie Doublewood.

Harvey Smash - fresh ginger, Creme de Peche, citrus and a healthy dose of Evan Williams Bourbon

Cafe Au Lait - espresso distillate, vanilla essence, distilled almond milk.

Super happy with all of these and was a great couple of days shooting these amazing drinks looking forward to seeing what creative, delicious beverages I’ll have to photograph next.

You may have noticed I’ve been a bit quiet on the social media front over the last week. I’ve been off in France with RGU snow documenting some of their amazing 280 strong, drunken banter filled trip to the Alps… and had no free wifi.

Sadly the weather wasnt great (video wise) on the hill, with only one half day of clear sunlight with the rest of the week being low visibility which made it tricky / impossible to get a lot of the skiing and scenic shots that I wanted.

Never the less I had really good fun shooting at Apres I was totally in my comfort zone. It felt just like shooting a club but with some epic scenery.

These shots where taken at 360 Bar Val Thorens.

Happy I managed to snap a few shots on the hill while the weather was on our side the sun was even out.

One night of clear skies allowed for my first real taste of astro photography.

These is just a little portion of the photos I took on the trip and look forward to RGU Snow posting the rest so keep an eye on their page :)