Heritage Fish & Chips: Rethink Toronto

I had the privilege of shooting a creative piece for Rethink last summer, and they had this great concept of shooting the owner of Heritage Fish & Chips fishing in the fry vat. It was a lot of fun setting up reel fast (pun) and tearing down before opening. It finally got put up this month - my first ever bus shelter ad! You can see it at the intersection of Queen & Hansen in Brampton. That’s right folks - Limited Edition, only one of them! Here’s the shot below.

Special thanks to my buddy Derek O’Donnell for assisting on this.

Yuletide Beer (and Liquor) - A very risky Christmas promo!

On Dec 2 & 3 - I decided to promote my photography in a new way. I drove around, visiting 7 different advertising agencies in Toronto, ON, who represent 7 different alcohol brands. With no appointment or any notice, my assistant (Mark Butterworth) and I went in, said hello, and asked to set up a compact studio using only Christmas lights, to take a photo of their product as a Christmas gift. All were very receptive and very excited to see what this was all about. All products were bought on the shelf at the LCBO, and all lighting was bought at Dollarama. Total cost to build the set was $50. All products were lit with nothing but Christmas lights. We set up, retouched, printed and tore down within 30 minutes per location. On the way out, I left behind a printed photo in a frame (shown below), a DVD with a digital copy, and a handful of business cards wrapped in twine. It was a great time meeting new people and seeing familiar faces. Special thanks to John St, Grip Limited, Anomaly, Grey, The Hive, Rethink, and DentsuBos - Happy Holidays! Check out the video below!

The leave behind (Agency: John St. / Client: Wiser’s)

The set (Agency: Anomaly / Client: Budweiser)

Kruger EnviroCare Beauty Shots

Stumbled on this Facebook ad today with my product shots.

Rogue Voodoo Doughnut

iStout

Harp Lager Motion

Harp Lager Motion by John Butler from John Butler on Vimeo.

Guinness Motion

Guinness Motion by John Butler from John Butler on Vimeo.

BTS :: Labatt US Bear

Here are a handful of Behind the Scenes photos from the Labatt US Bear shoot. We had a ton of fun on set, and I had to share some of these. We had a huge list of poses and scenarios the bear had to be in, so in between we grabbed some extras. A huge thanks to the team for making this happen.

Photographer: John Butler
Client: Labatt Blue USA
Agency: Publicis Modem / Publicis
Copywriter: Stephen Sinisi
Account Supervisor: Lukasz Dolowy
Bear Model: Cole Bennet
Assistant: James Vanderwoerd
Art Director: Derek Knight

Peroni Test Shot

This shot was taken while I was setting up. It is window lit, with one reflector, and the shot was handheld. I haven't altered the image at all, this is a screen capture of the raw file. This kind of shot really makes me think of all the commercial images I could do without my strobe set up. When the right light is available, why not take advantage of it?

The final shot did use strobe, and it wasn't until I was in post that I saw this image (I was shooting for angles and lighting the set later). I've always been unsure of the day lit studio when it comes to table top, but I'm going to experiment a bit with it and get some broader results. Below is the final image.

BTS - Ruffino Wine

 

 Last week I photographed a bottle of Ruffino Wine with the intention of creating a bit of story behind the image.  I wanted for the set to look like a well loved kitchen, and for the final shot to be styled as if dinner was ready. I had some help from a friend - Karlie Bennett - who is an amazing stylist and has a knack for coordinating props and food.

This was a fairly time consuming shoot, from sourcing fresh food and props, to building the set. The back splash was made by folding duct tape triangles and sticking the tiles onto a piece of scrap wood (thanks Home Depot!). It definitely gave the final image that bright kitchen look we were going for.

After a few hours of styling and finessing, and a few more hours in photoshop, here is the final image!

HUGE portfolio update.

Recently I have been working really hard on a TON of personal projects. Today I have updated my web portfolio and ordered a nice new printed book to show off my work to clients, AD's, CD's, and AB's in leather wrapped style. It has been an exhausting process, but well worth it!

Click here to see my new work!

I hope that you enjoy all of the new imagery! Feel free to leave comments on this post and let me know what you think. What would you like to see more of??

Stay tuned for some behind the scenes posts from some of the new shoots.

welcome.

Hi everyone, welcome to the official blog of johnbutlerphoto!

Here I will be making posts about upcoming projects, behind the scenes on shoots, final images and tear sheets. Formalities over.

In the last couple of weeks, I've been working on my drinks portfolio. Some of you may no me as a beer photographer, while others may know me as a portrait and lifestyle photographer. Well I have found my focus (for now), and will be working my tail off to expand this part of my business.

the[focus]:
My focus as a photographer is beer, alcohol, wine.. bottle and table top photography. Some people have responded with, "Duhh!" - but it takes time to truly find out the difference between what is passion and what is fleeting. I gave the beer thing a couple of years to test the ground and truly see if I could do beer photography for the rest of my life. The answer is yes. I love photographing metal and glass. Tall boys and bottles. I also love the idea of getting artistic with it, and not staying within the confines of the commercial market. For this summer I have several concepts planned out, and I can't wait to get started on them!

I of course do much more than bottle and table top photography - and I will post on here some of my other work too - but I am maintaining my focus and showing people through johnbutlerphoto.com what I love to do.

Some of my clients to date: Labatt, Alexander Keith's, Tequila Tromba, Muskoka Brewery, Flying Monkeys Brewery