Dallas Editorial Photographer: Hi byejoe

Bye Joe. While that is certainly a phrase, I’m not wishing anyone farewell today. Honestly, I can’t think of any friends of mine who are named Joe. Of course now that I say that, I’m sure I’ll get a tear-soaked email from someone asking why our friendship is so meaningless due to the fact that I didn’t remember their name. That is certainly not the intention of this Dallas editorial photographer. So let’s get on with this blog before more feelings get hurt.

So Bye Joe. Or perhaps you know it better as baijiu. Neither sound familiar to you, person from America? Maybe that is because it is Chinese liquor, and is just starting to make headway over here in the states. That may not sound remarkable, but then again, you probably didn’t realize this is the world’s most consumed liquor.

There are a handful more people in China, and they really love this stuff. Like drank 11 billion liters of it 2012 love it. I had my first experience with it on assignment for a magazine in Houston. I’m always up for trying new spirits and cuisine, and generally approach the work that I do as a Dallas editorial photographer with a spirit of curiosity. I always love it when I can learn a new factoid or interesting bit of information: after all, you never know when you might need to know it later.

This Dallas editorial photographer stayed on the move for this entire shoot, as we did photography in three locations across Houston. We started at a really cool Asian Fusion restaurant, Straits, before moving to the completely different style restaurant Up, which was equally cool, and then finished our shoot day at a liquor store to get a sense of the product on the shelves. The brand is byejoe, which is the Western way to say baijiu. The founder of byejoe is Matt Trusch, who is originally from Houston.

Throughout the entire shoot, I tried to go for very strong and dramatic light, which really fits my shooting style as a Dallas editorial photographer, and honestly my personality as well. My favorite shot had to be the cover shot we did. It was a two-page foldout cover, and we had bartender Andrew Nguyen from Straits on one side with the classic byejoe, and the byejoe Dragon Fire on the other side. Again, dramatic light was key, and I spent quite a bit of time tuning the light to get it just right. Spotlighting the byejoe Dragon Fire was probably the most time-consuming portion, as I wanted the bottle and shadows to be just right. There were also the chili peppers that we put all around too, and I had to have all of those styled perfectly. Andrew was a great sport, and the final shot ended up having a great pop to it.

As you can see, the bottle design is very strong, with a very tall and slender look. My favorite part though has to be the packaging the bottles come in. If you look closely in the store display shot you can see what I’m talking about. Their packaging, which won Double Gold at the 2013 San Francisco World Spirits competition, looks exactly like a Chinese takeout box! That is something this Dallas editorial photographer has not seen before, and I appreciate the unique presentation.

All in all, it was a very fun shoot, and I got to see byejoe in a variety of cocktails, and even had a bit of a tasting. It is definitely different from any spirit I’ve tasted before, and I think that the byejoe Dragon Fire was probably my favorite. It had a great mix of fruity and spicy from the lychee and chili peppers, and made for a very satisfying sampling. As always, enjoy the images!