I came across this wine bottle lying in the sands of Wineglass Bay, Freycinet Peninsula, Tasmania. The contrast, namesake, and the subject itself were too much to pass up.
Besides, a bottle on a beach always gives rise to imaginings of castaways and messages scrolled up behind cork bungs- very appropriate for the sparse sands of the exquisite Wineglass beach.
The gorgeous palette of blues that arose in the water behind made me want to capture this image, and in this shot I chose to underexpose, then post-process for high blacks, vignetting, and a high-contrast curve. The effect is a lomo-esque image, with a shallow depth of field focused on the waves, throwing the bottle out of sharpness somewhat.
The bottle itself I found lying at the tide mark. I stuck it myself into the sand for visual effect. In such a pristine environment as Wineglass Bay I certainly don’t condone littering (it’s quite possible the bottle washed up onto shore, but judging by the intact label I’d guess it was abandoned there, sadly)- but in this case the refuse proved to make for an interesting photographic subject. Other than the bottle, the beach was almost unblemished, and absolutely breathtaking.
