Wine from Washington state

[Mike Buckley]

The Cadence winery in Washington state specializes in producing high-end red wine made in the style of Bordeaux blends. This one is 77% Cabernet Franc, 15% Merlot and 8% Petit Verdot. It is very highly rated by several widely recognized wine critics, so I have set it aside for a special meal or gathering yet to be determined.

This winery likes to include references to music in its branding. The name of the winery, Cadence, is a term generally used to describe the melodic and harmonic style of the ending of a musical phrase. Bel Canto is a style of singing classical music solos (often opera arias) and is the style of music that fits that style of singing. The name of the vineyard the grapes were grown in is Cara Mia, which is the name of a popular song in the middle of the 20th century. The literal translation, my beloved, is also appropriate when referring to wine.

Usually when photographing shiny metal, the metal is displayed in a very bright tone. That's done by positioning the light source within the family of angles, allowing the metal surface to act like a mirror that reflects the light source. However, in this case, the shiny part of the cork screw was a distraction when it was displayed brightly. So, I positioned it to display the metal in black tones. That was done by positioning the metal at an angle that rendered the light source outside the family of angles.

The photography challenge was to bring out the texture and color variation of the embossed label. If you are not using a calibrated monitor and a browser that manages color well, you may not be able to detect the subtle difference between the two shades of off-white tones in the label.

Please click the image to display it at a large size to appreciate the details of the label.

Setup
The tabletop is a blanket. A medium continuous-light lamp is near the left side of the bottle. A reflector near the top right area of the bottle brightened the shadow areas on that side and added the reflection to the shoulder and neck of the bottle. That reflection resembles the shape of each section of the embossed area of the label.

[Shadowman]

Nicely composed.

[TonyW]

A perfect cadence.

[Mike Buckley]

Thank you to John and Tony!

A perfect cadence.

Ahhhhhhhhh. Another musician in the crowd!

[Manfred M]

Your wine bottle looks quite comfortable and warm, snuggled up in that sweater (?). I'm sure that corkscrew is up to no good. Another imaginative image,Mike. Well thought out and photographed.

[Rob Ekins]

Mike,
The corkscrew on its own is a lesson in lighting

I love the choice of BG texture and colour it works very well.

[Mike Buckley]

Your wine bottle looks quite comfortable and warm, snuggled up in that sweater (?).

It's a blanket and it's great that you mentioned that imagery. I intentionally didn't explain that that was part of my concept, so it's great to see that the photo conveys it for you.

Another admittedly far more esoteric concept has to do with the term, cadence. Considering that a cadence in music is when a phrase, section or piece of music comes to a temporary or permanent state of rest, I felt it was appropriate to display the bottle at rest (lying down) and in or on something that we viewers can relate to as being a source of comfort. Fortunately, the texture and color of the blanket so nicely complement this particular label.

If that seems like a stretch that few people will recognize on their own or even accept after it is explained, I definitely agree. As an example, Arnold Newman made this famous photograph of composer Igor Stravinsky. Though I have read that it intentionally displays a printed music note or a treble clef, I have never detected either pattern myself.

The corkscrew on its own is a lesson in lighting

The method of displaying shiny metal in either very bright or very dark tones is a revelation in the manipulation of light that impresses me more than any other. It's amazing that I came upon it only after about 30 years of making photos and I doubt that I would have ever learned about it if I hadn't begun doing studio photography. Interestingly, the second most important revelation for me about manipulating light is the use of a polarizer, which I fortunately came upon in my first year or so of making photos.

[NorthernFocus]

Nice touch with the blanket and cork screw. Carefully thought out and arranged to produce a very casual feeling end result. Like you're on a picnic

[Mike Buckley]

Thanks, Dan!

Like you're on a picnic

I hadn't thought of that context but you're right that it works perfectly. In fact, I am going to add reference to a picnic in the caption at my website. Thanks very much!

[Donald]

Been running after myself trying to catch up over the last few days, hence my absence up until now.

As has already been stated, well conceived, arranged and executed image. And i suspect the contents of the bottle will be rather nice as well.

[Wavelength]

Excellent presentation

[bnnrcn]

That blanket certainly adds to the image, beautiful !