Corona Tropical Product Photography

Self-initiated Project Spying a quiet few weeks ahead over the summer of ’23, I turned my attention to some self-initiated projects after promising myself at the start of the year that I’d make more time for them. Now, nothing beats a commissioned project for a product/brand I can get all nerdy about, BUT there certainly are benefits to shooting without the need for a brief, client input, or deadlines. I put together a mood board exploring some summer-y set-ups that were complex enough to challenge me as a photographer and intrigue my audience, but not require a huge budget that I’d need to fund internally. Cue my go-to Prop Stylist extraordinaire Georgina Isaac, with whom I collaborated on this project. Partially to create a seasonally-relevant case study we can both use immediately to advertise our services, and partially to have some fun with the kind of brief we often wished we get. Personally I’ve been hunting for a canned drinks client for a while now, and still they elude me! So think of this as ‘manifesting’ if you’re Gen Z, or ‘hustling’ if you’re a millennial. Seeing boxes of Corona Tropical in Aldi, I did some research on this sub-brand of the iconic Corona Extra and found they had a newly minted UK-based instagram account solely for Corona Tropical, with seemingly very little content to work with. I’ll be honest with you, hoping a huge company like AB InBev (the umbrella company that owns the likes of Corona Extra, Camden Town Brewery, Budweiser, etc) would purchase usage rights for content from a photoshoot they never briefed or had any input in is not a realistic goal to aim for, but it did help spark a little excitement. SPOILER ALERT – Corona are not currently interested in using this content. BUT, I did connect with a few members of the Brand team at AB InBev, one being Alexander Haldane who gave positive feedback: “The content is brilliant, I love how it captures lightness/refreshment/real fruit.” I’ll take that as a win. I kept this photoshoot as cost-effective as possible, utilising props and equipment we collectively owned already, like the Yeti Cooler, fish tank and acrylic tray for the water shots, fake ice, and more. After that, it was just a trip to Aldi to grab a few boxes of Corona Tropical, some fresh produce, and a big bag of sand. Without the need to factor in client input or presence, I shot this project at a leisurely pace over two days, and we had a blast doing so.