Whisky Glasses, Heather and a 25-Year Legacy: Photography for Urban Bar’s Anniversary Book
When designer Jules Akel commissioned me to shoot whisky glassware for 25 Years of Innovation — Urban Bar’s anniversary book celebrating a quarter century collaborating with the world’s finest spirit brands — the brief was clear. No studio. Authentic light. Scotland had to feel real.
Whisky Lifestyle Photography Scotland: Taking the Brief Outside
Over three days shooting around Dalwhinnie, Jules Akel and I worked across locations that each brought something different to the glass — heathery hillsides, a grass tennis court, warm light from a stained glass window, a rocky beach on the side of a loch. The glasses were photographed alongside their corresponding bottles in settings that carried the spirit of the places they came from.
Glass is Unforgiving. So is Scotland.
Light shifts in seconds. A gust can destroy a carefully composed scene. Midges are ever-present. On one particularly atmospheric evening, we shot by a river after dark with an open fire as the only light source — and that image is my favourite from the set. Whisky lifestyle photography in Scotland means embracing all this, not working around it.
Shooting glassware on location demands a particular flexibility. You’re reading natural light in real time, managing reflections that change as clouds move, working with backgrounds that compete for attention, keeping the glass level and it’s text as the clear focus. The bottles add another layer — labels, shapes and colours that need to complement rather than compete with the glass.
From Hillside to Bookshelf
The resulting images appear throughout 25 Years of Innovation, a beautifully produced book tracing Urban Bar’s creative journey across two and a half decades. Seeing photographs taken on a windswept hillside in Dalwhinnie reproduced in print alongside the brand’s wider story was a satisfying conclusion to three fantastic but demanding days.
If you’re a designer or creative director working on a campaign that needs whisky lifestyle photography with a genuine sense of place — rather than a polished studio aesthetic — I’d be glad to hear about your project.
See more of my Lifestyle photography
