New tearsheets

In September I shot an amazing story on drinking and drinks in Hawaii for Imbibe Magazine, a drink magazine the reports on “liquid culture” across the globe.

Now this culture is just down my alley. As you can imagine, I was assigned to shoot cocktails and bars around Honolulu and on the Big Island. What fun as I not only shot, but tasted just about all that jumped in front of my lens.
I went from really high end resorts with pricey drinks on Waikiki to dive bars near the airport and even to a coffee farm on Kona. And you know what, Kona coffee is good. Really good.

The most fun was hanging out with Joey at the Mai Tai Bar inside the Royal Hawaiian hotel. Joey, in my opinion, reinvented the gourmet Mai Tai. His special touches of spices and whatnot lead to some really magical sips. They surely are not the mai tais served up spring break style to sunburned tourists. These cocktails have flavor that special touch. Joey is truly a mixologist.

Fresh lime, ginger and other bits and pieces made this drink stand out above any others I had while shooting. The above ingredients are the stuff of magic in one of Joey’s magical mai tai.

I was disappointed that the above shot was not featured in the magazine as I was very surprised how well this image came out. I shot it with a standard 50mm lens at like f1.4 or 1.8. Now there is some major bokeh in this shot and it amazed me how a fairly inexpensive lens could produce such a wonderful shot. Maybe I shouldn’t admire my own work so much…maybe its that my mouth is watering as I look at this shot. I just got thirsty.

The atmosphere at the Mai Tai bar is nice. Not the best as I have my favorites and to hang out at the Royal Hawaiian is a treat as drinks are not cheap. However, whenever I have a hankering for a bit of a gourmet drink, Joey is the man I will always stumble home from.

Below are the tears from the rest of the story.