MONIN UK FINALS PHOTOGRAPHY AT LAB BAR LONDON

The brief was to document the event with photos of the twelve contestants making their two drinks, one a cocktail and the other a mocktail (a non alcoholic drink), both drinks would be incorporating the Monin products so capturing the finished drink and branding was very important. Their were a range of bright and colourful drinks with one of the bartenders using a fire extinguisher to produce a sorbet based mocktail! I mentioned in my previous blog that the new 50mm 1.2 would be put to the test this week, and the lower bar downstairs at LAB was going to be a challenge. Apparently not, with apertures around 1.4-1.6 at ISO 800 I was getting shutter speeds of 1/125 plus, absolutely perfect for capturing the fast pace of the competitors as they only had eight minutes to produce their two creations, plus the faster shutter speeds brought down the ambient background light to create some more atmospheric images. Their was the need to underexpose as the ceiling lighting was too bright, with the competition lasting four hours it was an exhausting shoot, the pictures from the day did sum up the energy and creativity of the twelve finalists though. Congratulations to the overall winner Mate Csaltos from the Dorchester hotel.