248/365 - Two Fingers of the Water of Life by Dennis Wilkinson Via Flickr: Happy Tipsy Tuesday! OK, so I had nothing shot at 10:30pm. Since it was Tuesday, I figured I'd leverage the liquor cabinet. This is "two fingers" of a Mortlach 15 year Scotch whisky (the Gordon & MacPhail bottling), with a bit of the bottle in the background, served straight up in a piece of Edinburgh crystal my wife and I brought back from our first trip to Scotland, about fifteen years ago. Mortlach isn't the easiest thing to find in the US–I bought my first bottle (a 16 year Flora & Fauna bottling) in Edinburgh on that same trip, after seeking out single malts not typically exported (most of the output goes into Johnny Walker's blends, apparently.) It's my favorite Speyside, although my tastes in single malts run to the more smokey and peaty whiskies from Islay like Ardbeg, Laphroig, and Lagavulin. I wanted a dark-ish, contrasty light on the scene, and it just happens that the color of my dining room table echoes the colors in the whisky, so this was set up on the table and lit with a single strobe from the left rear. I positioned a few white cards to control the light a bit, one to the right rear to get a little light through the bottle, and another just off camera left behind the glass to light the bit of exposed label and the cork. (Between being off camping over the weekend and busy tonight I'm way behind on looking at everyone's photos; I hope to start catching up tomorrow.) Nikon D7000 w/Nikkor 18-200mm @ 200mm, 1/250s @ ƒ11, ISO100. One SB-700 at 120mm zoom, 1/10 power, left and behind the scene, with bounce cards as described above. Boosted vibrance and contrast a hair, and cleaned up a dust mote or two on the crystal, but otherwise right off the camera.
