Drinks

There have been some very high-quality product shots in this competition, but this one came out as my favourite. The photographer has put a lot of thought in to the composition and execution, which is excellent and very original. I love the way the glass, the focal point of the image, was placed behind the bottle allowing the highlighted curves from both to complement each other. The photographer’s choice of shooting red on black, with just a flash of gold, in conjunction with the soft moody lighting has made for an elegant and very sexy product shot. Reading the info, the photographer gave on how they shot this piece, shows just how much time, effort, thought and perseverance info went into creating this image and the use of an air blower to get the wine to bubble up, is just genius! A well-deserved winner.

This is probably one of the more abstract images in the competition, so I believe it deserved a review.

When I first looked at this image I thought, what is this and does it really fit the brief of alcoholic drinks in colour, as at first there are no drinks visible? Then as your eye is drawn in, you start to pick out vague, ghostly silhouetted bottle shapes, in beautiful vibrant colours. Then you notice other shapes that could be glasses turned upside down and then you see what are obviously crates leaning against a frosted window and you realise this can only be a bar.

The absence of any people in the shot only makes the image more mysterious to me and I love the way the colour drifts from cold deep blues and magenta's seamlessly into warm and inviting reds and oranges.

I must confess, I have seen this image before in previous competitions and I have always admired it!

I have never been a fan of the classical still life in photography, as I have always found them to be mainly boring and old hat, but this particular retake on a classic really, really works for me.
I love the lighting and the composition is elegant, put together with the photographer’s enlightened choice of a soft green base, which really compliments the golden liquid contained within the bottle and which also allows the beautifully lit grapes to really pop in the frame and to become the focal point of the image. The photographer’s choice of post-production filters definitely gives the image an overall feel of an oil painting by one of the old masters, but personally, I would have preferred this to be a little less and have the image retain some of its photographic qualities. Even so, it’s still a well-deserved position in my top ten.