First and foremost I have always been a photographer, starting at the age of 8 with a Kodak Brownie Box camera and by the age of 14 a French made double lens reflex the Sem Orec Semflex which allowed me to compose pictures on a 6 by 6 cm screen. Since then I have been a Nikon and Leica fan currently owning a Nikon D800 and two Leica’s, a M6 for film and its digital brother the M9. I still find the Leica lenses the best of all, comprising precision, a stunning way of capturing the subtlety of light and Bokeh, the way out of focus elements are presented.
My other passion starting in my university days and continuing to this day are endulging in the joys of a good whisky, wether straight, with a drop or two of water and sacrilegiously to a Scotsman, even with ice!!
I am lucky to know Paul Flatts whose business Whisky Drams finds and acquires for whisky connoisseurs fine and rare bottles of whisky. He holds a range of Whisky tasting events in selected pubs in Chelsea and Mayfair in London where he pairs whiskies from all over the world with a variety of foods whilst enlightening those present with the both the history of the whiskies offered and the subtleties of how they can best be appreciated through all the senses, on their own, with water etc. and how different combinations produce different results – and I go along to photograph it all, whilst participating too! Joy!
I show below a selection of photos taken at the famous Punch Bowl pub in Mayfair a week before one such dinner whilst preparing for it with the chef and staff and then on the night itself, celebrating an Alternative Burns Night, all with the Leica M9 and Elmarit M 21mm F2.8 lens and the fabulous Noctilux 50mm F1.0, lenses.
If you would like to participate in a Whisky Drams tasting please contact Paul Flatts directly on paul.f@whiskydrams.co.uk
