A decade as a drinks photographer: how a chance meeting led to a lasting collaboration.

It’s been ten years since I photographed Tamara, Tarquin’s second-hand copper still on Constantine Beach in Cornwall.

I first encountered Tarquin Leadbetter in 2014 at a trade show at the Royal Cornwall Show Ground where he was manning his small stand behind a desk laden with bottles with the distinctive blue wax tops. I was intrigued to discover that someone was distilling gin and pastis in Cornwall and stopped to have a chat. I found out that it was very much a small family business in those days with Tarquin and his sister Athene doing most of the work. Their mum also lent a hand. I snapped a quick shot with my phone, uploaded it to Twitter and tagged Tarquin in the post.

I didn’t think too much about it until a few weeks later, when Tarquin called me out of the blue and asked if I was free the next day for a shoot at Constantine Bay on the North Cornwall coast.“We’ve just had a used Portuguese copper still delivered and we want some photos of it on the beach, are you free?” Luckily I was, and leapt at the chance to get involved.

It was a perfect June morning and the light was amazing, a clear blue sky and the sea a deep azure. Tarquin, his sister and mother assembled the still right on the sand and I clicked away. These images have since adorned bottle tags, the website, trade show posters and bar drip mats, becoming instantly recognisable and iconic representations of Tarquin's Gin.

Shortly after that I was invited to the distillery near Padstow to shoot some images of the process as Tarquin and his small family team distilled, filled, waxed, stamped and signed the labels by hand. Over the following years I supplied studio bottle shots as Tarquin’s blossomed and new flavours were launched.

Seven years ago I started shooting the company’s lifestyle imagery for social media. Tarquin’s vision for the brand’s photography has been consistent from day one, so true to the original Constantine Bay shoot, the brief demanded sun-kissed Cornish beaches and breathtaking clifftops with the sea as a backdrop.

So over the last few years I’ve found myself perched on windy Cornish clifftops mixing cocktails (and on several occasions having it blown in my face as I tried to pour), lying in puddles on the beach trying to capture that perfect angle and all sorts of other stunning seaside locations in Cornwall. And although the images look undeniably summery many of them have been shot in the depths of winter.

In 2023 Tarquin's Gin celebrated its tenth anniversary, and what memorable journey we have shared. From our chance encounter at a trade show to capturing iconic imagery and witnessing the brand's global expansion and diversification into rum, vodka and whisky it's been an honour to contribute to the visual storytelling of this Cornish success story. Here's to the next ten years of Tarquin's Gin—yeghes da!

Here’s selection of some of my favourite Tarquins images from over the years. If you want to find out more about Tarquin’s amazing story head over here Check out some more of my drinks images here.