Wine Cellar

[Mike Buckley]

Not at all a great photo intended for critique. Instead...

Over the years that I've been displaying photos of wine, a few people have suggested that I make a photo of my wine cellar. In this case, the term, cellar, indicates a type of appliance, not a room, designed to control its interior temperature and humidity for optimum storage of wine. Considering that this one is located in my small, exterior storage room/makeshift studio, which is cluttered around the walls and ceiling with all sorts of items, the lighting options are severely limited. So, I've never been in the mood to make the photo until today when, for some reason I don't understand, that finally happened.

The smallest appliances hold about 6 bottles and the largest ones hold about 600. This one holds 75 but three of the bottles are so difficult to get to that its practical storage maximum is only 72 bottles. To put that in perspective, it's not at all unusual that a custom-built, walk-in, residential wine cellar will hold several thousand bottles.

The photo displays the appliance holding 70 bottles and it has never been that full except to make the photo. That's because I have designated each shelf for storing a particular kind of wine. The shelves are numbered and a corresponding chart hanging on the nearby wall indicates where the various kinds of wine are located in the cellar. Doing so limits the number of bottles that are stored at any one time but makes it much easier to find whatever I want without having to constantly update the chart. Now that I have made the photo, I will return some of the bottles to their temporary holding area that stores wine before it is stored in the cellar.

This wine cellar is used to store my less expensive daily drinking wines with prices ranging from about $8 to $25 per bottle. Bottles are usually stored there for anywhere from several days to a few months but occasionally up to about one year.

We have another wine cellar located inside the house that holds 50 bottles. We use that one to store more expensive wine reserved for special occasions. Some wine is stored in it for years before we get around to drinking it. Our plan is to store one particular bottle another 16 years before enjoying it on our 50th wedding anniversary.

Setup
Black fabric is held in place behind the opened glass door to prevent seeing the objects in the room on the other side of it. A medium continuous-light lamp is slightly above the camera.

[Wavelength]

Nice, colorful

[Shadowman]

Nice shot, perhaps a bit too much or too little in the frame. You could do without the door frame at bottom and upper surface or perhaps get more of the bottles in frame and perhaps block out the unnecessary elements. At the top it looks either a light fixture or temperature gauge, doesn't really fit within the composition.

[Mike Buckley]

Thank you to Nandakumar and John!

John: I included the digital controls and the reflection of them in the top area because a few people had asked to see the appliance. It didn't make sense to me not to display those controls, which are an important part of the device. Even so, those controls aren't important to me, so I'm just as happy for different reasons to use the composition shown below. Comparing the two photos is perhaps a good example of comparing two different stories being told.

[Shadowman]

Mike,

I think another story could be told with the digital readout and just one bottle.

[Mike Buckley]

Any photos, John, with just one or a few bottles will have to wait until wintertime when I can take the time to set everything up properly. That will require leaving the door open for extended periods of time and I fear that doing so during the current high outdoor temperatures will put too much stress on the compressor.

[Rainforest]

And likely another story can be told after consuming a couple of those special bottles of wine ;-) . I like the simple repetition in that second crop.

[John 2]

Clearly spoilt for choice Mike. Must be hell deciding what to have next.

[Mike Buckley]

Thank you Susan and John!

Must be hell deciding what to have next.

Decades ago I would always choose the wine that goes best with the food I want to eat. Now, about half the time I choose the food that goes best with the wine I want to drink.

[Wavelength]

I liked this image very much for its array of colors

[Mike Buckley]

I liked this image very much for its array of colors

Thanks, Nandakumar!

A lot of the official product photography made to market wine cellars displays the bottoms, not the necks, of the bottles facing outward. Doing so results in a uniform, featureless look to the bottles that understandably allows the eye to focus on the appliance. Those photos invariably display an outside panel of the appliance so the prospective buyer gets a good look at the color and style of the cabinet's finish.

Including an outside panel in the photo was not possible for me because the top and sides of my unit are completely covered by other stuff being stored in my makeshift studio. So, I chose to photograph my unit exactly as I use it: with the necks facing outward. That decision added the interest of color that you mentioned.

Ironically, I'm sure users store the bottles with their necks facing outward as in my photo whenever possible even when the official product photography displays the bottles otherwise. Any bottle has to be lifted upward at least a little bit to be removed or examined, which is easier done if it can be lifted by the neck. Also, some people hang a tag on the neck of each bottle to identify it without having to remove it. It would make no sense to hang the identification on the neck unless it is facing outward. Even so, maximum storage in some appliances requires storing only alternating bottles with the neck facing outward because of the way some appliances are designed to conserve space.

By the way, I didn't arrange the bottles according to the colors of their foils. Instead, the bottles are arranged exactly as I store them except for the extra bottles that were randomly added with no thought given to color to temporarily fill in the empty spaces.

[bnnrcn]

Hi Mike I find the second image better compositionally .