I recently had the opportunity to work with Patrick, owner of Winestone, a compact but well appointed wine store off Route 9 in Chestnut Hill, MA, and his staff.
The client is in the process of updating their website and wanted to showcase the store's unique wines display system, weekly tastings and confident, friendly and engaging staff.
I began by reviewing the existing website, picking out specific terms that told their "story" and then shared ideas to illustrate them. We set an initial two hour limit for set up and photography, since the store opened at 10 a.m. and became busy with customers around 12 p.m. In the event the session ran over by a full hour, however, we did take headshots of five staff, action images pouring and sampling wine, customer engagement and of course general display of food and wine at the tasting.
Flexibility in set ups became key, since staff arrived at different times during the photo session, which called for fast light rigging using Elinchrom Quadra Ranger portable lights fitted with a 39" Deep Rotalux Octabox light modifier in between more general store shots. Cheetah light stands, unique in their automatic small footprint when moving them, helped in navigating through wines displays.
Throughout the session the knowledge, enthusiasm and pride in the work of Patrick and his staff shone through and I look forward to seeing the custom images replace stock photos on Winestone website and marketing materials.
Winestone owner Patrick sets up a fine wine tasting at his store.