Unintended Coolness

Old Town Sacramento, CA

Over the last two years of taking pictures of various drinks around the world, I have come to realize that the pictures that I enjoy the most either are from a special/unique location, or have an unintended subject in the background.  The photo above was taken during the spring of 2011 in a small comedy club/bar in Old Town Sacramento.  It's hard to tell from the picture but the room was actually brightly lit by a setting sun blazing through the big front windows of the establishment.  The camera on my phone apparently couldn't handle all the light and filtered out what it didn't like.  The product of this lighting was, in my opinion, pretty cool.  The funny thing about this picture though is that even after transferring it to my laptop and viewing it a few times, I didn't realize that my reflection in the large mirror behind the bar was visible.  For whatever reason I found this unintentional photo of myself to be a great shot.  Probably because it was just that, unintentional.  I'm pretty sure that it was at this point that I realized that these photos I've been taking aren't about the actual drink in the photo but more about what might be in the periphery.  I've tried to be more cognizant of the surroundings since that time and I think the shots have improved because of that.


I've also posted another shot from the same evening below that I also really like.  The frost on the glass created some cool shadows.


Cheers!