Wine: Keermont Cork

[Mike Buckley]

Keermont is a high-end winery located in Stellenbosch, South Africa. I tried this Bordeaux-style red wine with friends yesterday and was extremely pleased with it.

The wine's cork and bottle are made in styles that are a perfect fit for a type of photo I have had on my wish list: a close-up of an interesting cork (this one has a lot more information on it than most corks) and a bottle that has no labels in the lower half of the main body (allowing for a clean reflection of the cork).

Coincidentally, this is the first photo made with my Tamron 90mm macro lens, though I think of this photo as a close-up rather than a macro image.

Setup
The tabletop is highly textured wood veneer that also has lots of tonal variation. The pieces of veneer are held together by a mesh backing. A small continuous-light lamp fitted with a diffusion sock is at about the level of the tabletop behind and slightly to the right of the tripod. A white reflector is on the left side lifting the tones on that side of the tabletop.

[Shadowman]

Nice textures and reflection, I was looking for the bottle and reread your setup.

[Manfred M]

Nice one Mike - I suspect we will be seeing quite a few more closeup images over the upcoming weeks...

[NorthernFocus]

Nicely done, Mike. Looking forward to see what you do with the new macro lens.

[Rita]

Really like this one. The reflection in the bottle turned out really well.

[mugge]

Mike, love it as per usual.
Cheers Ole

[madcrow]

Beautifully done. Santa was very good this Christmas. Good shooting with new lens.

[Mike Buckley]

Thank you, everyone! It was both fun and strange using a lens that seemed so foreign to me.

[bje07]

Nice picture.
I tried to increase clarity and decrease a tad highlights and works better for me (cork structure is improved). (it's certainly not a critic, just my opinion)

[bnnrcn]

Nice image Mike I wouldn't say that there is a bottle in the shot without reading your explanation .

[Mike Buckley]

Thank you to Binnur and Jean!

I wouldn't say that there is a bottle in the shot without reading your explanation .

My wife said the same thing and I think that's what John meant. In the color version, the bottle is more obvious because of the different colors of the tabletop and wine bottle. Even so, it's not important to me that anyone recognizes that the cork is being reflected in a wine bottle, only that the cork and its reflection are obvious to the viewer regardless of what is causing the reflection to occur.