#brewgooder

Gordon Millar introduced the evening by relating his own story which involves the Dalai Lama, social media, the World Peace Tartan and celebrity photographer Bill Cunningham. This gave him the impetus to start Scot Street Style which aims ‘to reinvigorate the perception of Scotland’. Fresh from the Edinburgh Homecoming held on Saturday night in Leith, this was a relaxed evening at the gorgeous Cairngorm where the light floods the whole room.

Tom Cairns told his own story in a very frank and engaging way, laced with self-effacing humour. He explained that he had had a successful corporate career after starting out with the usual four year engineering apprenticeship.  He then decided it was time to change the way he lived so that he could enjoy life more, and he set out on his photography journey.

Photography was in the family. His father was a part time photographer for the local paper, and Tommy was well used to seeing him with a camera in his hand.

Cairns said : “I used to do a lot of drawing and painting, but it was the norm to leave school at 16. I hated school so I left and got an apprenticeship with an engineering company, and then came up to the big city of Glasgow to work with Rolls-Royce. One night I was doing night shift looking out over the M8 and wondered what on earth I was doing there.”

“I looked at a job advert in the Glasgow Herald for a systems analyst. I had no idea what the job was, but I came through to The Balmoral for the interview. Everybody else was straight out of uni, and I got on the shortlist along with a guy from the Post Office. I ended up getting the job which was selling IT to the franchise motor trade.

“I had several jobs over the years. Then about twenty years ago my dad died. He was just six months into retirement when he passed away. I thought ‘When I get the chance I am just going to grab my life, whatever that means’.

“The driver was I just wanted to get out of the day to day working to pay bills. I didn’t want to do just that.”

Cairns explained that he learned about the business side of photography, and then being able to take a decent photo began to pay off for him a little. But it was social media and a hashtag which really took his photography career into the stratosphere.

But the main thing is that he wanted to enjoy what he did. He said : “I wanted to look at my work and feel pleased with it.”

And he must be pleased by now. He has taken photos all over the world and has become one of the preferred wedding photographers for Trump Turnberry. He said he has bookings for almost two years ahead, so that dream of one day retiring may be a long time coming!

Brewgooder is the Scottish craft beer brand unveiled last year on World Water Day (22 March), with the purpose of providing clean drinking water to millions of people in developing countries.

The world’s first craft beer label to donate 100% of its profits to clean water projects, is the brainchild of Alan Mahon and Josh Littlejohn, the friends and social entrepreneurs behind the popular Social Bite sandwich shop chain that attracted global attention after a visit from George Clooney and Leonardo Di Caprio.

The pair hatched the idea whilst having a beer in their local pub and discussing how they could make a difference in the world. They set out to give 1 million people clean water.

Brewgooder’s ‘Clean Water Lager’ was launched with a campaign to fund the production of the first 200,000 cans on crowd funding platform Indiegogo on World Water Day (22 March), and is available on tap in BrewDog’s UK bars.

This was the first in a series of lock-ins at Cairngorm Coffee Company on Melville Street. Tomorrow night it is the turn of Barney’s Beer to relate the history of Scottish brewing. Entry to all these events is free. More details of them here.