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The Making of the Beer Issue

Behind the scenes of the cover shoot.

Northern Virginia Magazine Beer Issue
Photo by Jonathan Timmes.
Northern Virginia Magazine Beer Issue
Photo by Stefanie Gans

Behind the scenes of the cover shoot. –Stefanie Gans

It started as a sketch. A pint glass filled with cloud-like orbs representing hops and odd-shaped circles to signify malts, grains and anything else I couldn’t properly draw. I wrote one question next to the drawing: “Get weird beer?”

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Northern Virginia Magazine Beer Issue
Illustration by Mike Ramm

From there, we decided to deconstruct. What would a beer’s otherwise-homely looking brown and green ingredients look like when artfully arranged and beautifully lit?

To show the creativity of the beer scene—and add pops of color—we decided to feature Lost Rhino Brewing Company’s Mango Habanero Face Plant, a beer the Ashburn brewery makes for Buffalo Wing Factory and sells in its own taproom (available this month).

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At the all-day shoot with art director Mike Ramm (above is Mike’s much better sketch) and freelance photographer Jonathan Timmes, we set up multiple lighting scenarios (blue is a weird background for food), multiple arrangements of ingredients (with only one instance of rubbing my eyes after chopping habaneros—the sting!) and one backup shot, a simple beer-in-mug scene. Overflowing, of course.

 

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(May 2015)

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