True OriGINs | Martin Kennedy Photography

Aberdeenshire based brothers Guy & Mungo Finlayson’s mission is to bring you only the best of Scottish Gin.

As a friend of the brothers, I was thrilled when they contacted me about taking some photos to compliment a recent promotional shoot in London. The eye-catching shots of the kilts in the big city created some excitement about things to come – all that was left was to set the scene from beautiful Scotland….

Close to home

We decided that Clachnaben would offer the chance of heather strewn hills with the iconic large granite top to the hill that’s visible from most of lower Deeside. With only a short 30 minute drive to the location, Guy threw on his kilt, packed some bottles in his rucksack and encouraged his new mascot, Izzy, into the car for what turned out to be a great morning in the hills.

Izzy certainly wasn’t camera shy and already very fond of her owner, she continually wanted to be in every shot – who could complain!?

The Scottish Spirit

True OriGINs take pride in hand selecting every gin and ensuring that each is distilled/rectified and bottled in Scotland. These are the basic principles of the festival which allow the promotion of exclusively Scottish gins.

Without going overboard on the stereotypes, the Finlayson’s introduced the concept of the ‘anonymous’ kilted model holding the gin – which clearly shows the focus of the festival and hopefully a glimpse of the beautiful countryside from which the gins originate.

Trying to match this concept felt challenging at first, especially having just finished my portrait photography college classes! Once we started shooting however, it became a little clearer how to frame the torso and the background for a more balanced image.

Royal Deeside

After finishing up on the hills we descended to capture the essence of Scotland – water! Thankfully no rain, but instead the fresh flowing water of the River Dee.

Guy and Mungo had a quiet location in mind with easy access for the car to save carrying the bottles for any distance. Although the water looked inviting, we soon realised that wading to any depth would be far too cold for any length of time.

After placing a few bottles for some long exposures on the rocks, the kilted brothers marched into the water to strike a pose or two. As we headed back to the car, we passed a group enjoying some booze in the sun with the fishing done for the day – jealousy must have kicked in as we explained the purpose of the photo shoot…

Festival Ready

After screening through photos from the day I started to batch edit with presets to determine which look suited the images best – and which would work well for online and printed material.

Scotland screams ‘moody’ – especially with the rough granite, lingering rain clouds and kilted Scotsmen (these two aren’t so scary though!). Highlights were pulled back to retain the detail in the clouds, with a matte effect created from tone curve adjustment for that popular magazine style.

The selected location worked perfectly for the time of day with the sun breaking gently through the clouds to catch the colourful bottles and tartan. Finally, some clarity and grain was added to provide some texture and ruggedness to the images for print.

Credit: True OriGINs

Cheers!

True OriGINs have now successfully run festivals in London and Banchory with more dates lined up for Edinburgh, Inverurie and Glasgow. Their online platform has expanded giving you the opportunity to purchase a wide range of truly Scottish gins from all over the country.

So why not treat yourself and indulge in a few bottles or experience the upcoming festivals for the ultimate gin drinking experience!

Visit True OriGINs

I thoroughly enjoyed this project and it has been fantastic to see some of my images printed on large banners, leaflets and of course being shared around social media… Cheers!

Martin