While I was in Oaxaca de Juarez, I fell in love. I fell in love with Mezcal!

In all my years bartending, Mezcal was never really a favorite of mine. The journey to the Land of Seven Mole introduced me to Anejo Mezcal, a nicely aged tequila in an oak barrel that’s silky smooth.

Back in the States I could not find the exact Mezcal I enjoyed in Oaxaca de Juarez, but found something similar in Ilegal Mezcal.

While researching Ilegal Mezcal, I really enjoyed their website and wanted to create a mixture of people and product imagery for my website.

Working with a prop stylist we created a a bar scene, invited friends over, drank Mezcal, had some laughs, and took some pictures.

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All portraits were shot with a Phase One camera with IQ140 digital back and Schneider 120MM lens. They were lit with a Profoto Acute B2 600Ws with a Profoto RFi 3′ Octa Softbox with Softgrid.

I used a Butterfly lighting set-up on the people and gobos on the background to recreate a moody bar scene.

The still life images were captured with a Sinar 4×5 with Imacon digital back and lit with Western daylight.

I used the 4×5 to play with selective focus for the product shots. The late afternoon sunlight gave me nice specular highlights and long shadows.

In post production I used Film Convert to add a film emulsion stock, to make the images feel a little grittier.