Whisky DNA
Dec, 2015Views
74
Likes
Awards
Winner in God's Gift of Whisky Photo Challenge
Superb Composition
Top Choice
Outstanding Creativity
Peer Award
Categories
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken at the Glenlivet distillery in Scotland. This spiral was the main display in the small Whisky museum within the main building, where the shop and restaurant were located on the 2nd floor while the museum was on the 1st floor. The spiral combined the two floors nicely.Time
It was around midday, we had just finished the tour and the whisky tasting and were getting ready to eat something in the restaurant when I noticed this helix of whisky bottles.Lighting
It was inside and I had to lean over a railing a bit to get the shot from directly below, it was a very difficult shot to take, especially since I wanted to make it a bracketed shot for HDR. Due to the relative darkness inside (eventhough it was midday) I had to make sure the longest of the bracketed exposures was still fast enough to not get any movement.Equipment
I shot this with my Sony NEX3 and my wide-angle 10-18mm lens.Inspiration
Having just finished the tour around the whisky distillery in Glenlivet, I noticed this helix and it immediately made me think of DNA. It truly symbolizes the Scottish DNA to me.Editing
It was a difficult shot to process, as I wanted to make it into an HDR. Especially the light coming through the window in the right bottom drove me crazy as I wanted to edit it out. All of my attempts came up negative though. At the time I was just starting with photography and didn't have a clue as to what I was doing.In my camera bag
When going out to shoot I usually pack all of my limited gear: tripod, my sony NEX3 and my 3 lenses (10-18mm f4.0, 16-50mm f3.5 kitlens and 55-200mm f4.5). When taking this photo though I didn't have the zoomlens yet so I could only pack my kitlens and my wide-angle lens.Feedback
Try looking for different angles. Before I took this shot I tried out several other angles to see if that could convey the unusual whisky helix well. The winning shot ended up being a difficult to reach angle which I would never have found if I had given up on finding the right angle.
