I recently shot a series of images for the award-winning brewery, Mountain Culture Beer Company, based in the Blue Mountains. One of the owners of Mountain Culture, Harriet McCready, approached me because she wanted a lifestyle shoot for the brewery which captured the essence of outdoor lifestyle imagery of the 1970s and early 1980s. Part of the focus of the imagery was a stylistic choice based on the colour palettes and large film grain of the magazine advertisements of the time. What Mountain Culture really wanted to capture though was the easy-going approach to outdoor life that those old ads reminded us of- the simplicity of camping and hiking that used to be about throwing on some minimal gear and heading out into the bush. Mountain Culture wanted to have a nostalgic taste of the mountain lifestyle unadorned by the new gear and high tech fabrics that make up the modern outdoor experience.
Mountain Culture Brewery's First Ad
I was asked by Mountain Culture Brewery to do a photo shoot for them- they needed an image for their first ever two-page spread ad in a major magazine. If you’re not familiar with them, Mountain Culture Brewery opened up in Katoomba a few years ago and immediately won “Best Brewery of the Year” in Australia, has produced the number one beer in Australia called Status Quo, and is now considered one of the best breweries in Oz and they make seriously good beers and have a lot of fun doing it. They didn’t really know what to do but being as gifted in marketing as they are in beer making, the brief from the owners was “We’re thinking something along the lines of a 1980s Burt Reynolds centerfold.” Owner and head brewer D.J. McCready turned out to be a male model natural.
It’s probably the hardest I’ve ever laughed on a shoot and I made sure in post production to give it some sweet 80s glamour soft-focus highlight bling.
