English Oatmeal Stout by BevShots
Have you ever wondered what your favourite libation looks like under a microscope? Picture a scientist, drunk off White Russians; staring into his glass and thinking — I bet this would look really cool if I magnified it! To the Lab-Mobile! A few years and a few sloshy nights later, BevShots was born. A company that sells beautiful magnified prints of your favourite alcoholic drinks. Below is a small collection of the prints being offered along with the photography technique used, enjoy responsibly 🙂
Whiskey Magnified
Gin Closeup
HOW ARE THE IMAGES CAPTURED?
The images are made by first crystallizing the drink of choice on a lab slide. Using a standard light microscope with a camera attached, the light source is polarized and passed through the crystal. This creates the magnificent colors we see in our favorite drinks.
Each image is created by using a pipette of each particular drink and squeezing a drop onto a slide. Then the droplets are allowed to dry out and the slide is placed under the microscope and a picture is taken. It can take up to four weeks for the alcohol to dry out completely in an airtight container, and the whole process can take up to three months.
White Russian
Tequila!
Pina Colada
Cocktails can have fruit and soft drinks in them which contain citric acids and complex sugars which dry out well and look great photographed. The incredible shapes and colours of the boozy artwork are highlighted by shining natural light on top and through the bottom of the slide.
American Amber Ale
Scotch Scotch Scotch. I Love Scotch
Vodka Tonic
Some drinks such as vodka do not have as many impurities in them as cocktails such as a pina colada. So when they break down into their constituent parts they can fall apart and not dry out properly. This means that photographing something like vodka can take up to 200 attempts to get it right.
Japanese Rice Lager
English Pure Brewed Lager
THE HISTORY OF ALCOHOLIC ART
– In 1992, a research scientist named Michael Davidson stumbled upon a genius idea right under his nose – literally. In his 25 year career through the many facets of microscopy, he had taken photographs under the microscope of a collection of items – DNA, biochemicals and vitamins
– Looking for novel ways to fund his Florida State University lab, Davidson decided to take his microphotographs to businesses for possible commercial opportunities. While presenting his pictures to established retail companies, one necktie manufacturer changed his creative direction with just one word – cocktails
– With this new direction, Davidson took his microphotography a step further. Along with mixed drinks, he picked out a few favorite brews and wines too, took some shots of the beverages under his microscope and the Molecular Expressions Cocktail Collection was born. The drink-donned neckties were top shelf from 1995 to 2002, and now his images are available as framed prints with BevShots
– BevShots are licensed from Florida State University and Michael Davison, but the man who keeps the party going is Lester Hutt, president of BevShots MicroArt, LLC. While working on his graduate degree in chemistry from UC Berkeley, Hutt worked on NASA’s Mars probes. Apple, Inc. then called on him to be a part of history as they released their revolutionary new product, the iPod
Japanese Dry Lager
And we’ll all drink Champagne til it’s a damn shame – Jay-Z
ALL IMAGES AND INFORMATION COURTESY OF BEVSHOTS.COM
If you enjoyed this article, the Sifter highly recommends: THE X-RAY VISION OF NICK VEASEY
