Weekly Photo Challenge: Reward

Our theme for the Weekly Photo Challenge this week is:  Reward.
Our instructions:  What does reward mean to you?

Reward.  Hmmmm.

I write a wine blog, so you probably don’t have to do any mental gymnastics to figure out what reward means to me.  A glass of wine — that’s the pot of gold at the end of my rainbow!

A glass of wine makes for a pretty boring photograph, though (unless you photograph it on top of Mt. Everest, then you have a badass photo).  But from the inside of my Virginia house?
Y-A-W-N.  So, I decided to break out my macro lens and take a few shots of wine corks, something I have in gross abundance here at Casa Armchair Sommelier (I never throw away a wine cork — unless it’s a synthetic cork, those belong in the trash).  While sifting through some of my corks, I found this one with some wine diamonds still attached, and I thought it might make an interesting photo.

What the heck are wine diamonds?

Wine diamonds are actually tartrate crystals, it’s just easier (unless you’re a chemistry teacher) to remember wine diamonds.  They’re totally harmless, don’t affect taste, and (bonus!) they’re really pretty.  Wine diamonds occur when potassium and tartaric acid (both found naturally in grapes) bind together.  If you want to know how and why they bind together, you’ll have to find a chemistry teacher (chemistry and I parted ways a loooong time ago).

Fun Fact:  The scientific name for tartrate crystals is potassium bitartrate, aka, cream of tartar (yep, the secret ingredient in snickerdoodles).

Nikon D800
ISO 500 | 105mm | f/5.6 | 1/60 sec

I hope everyone has a rewarding Friday!

Salud!