Caffeine 01/22 - 02/04 (Scott)

EDIT: I can't get my picture to show this week (help anyone?). But it's here:
http://www.scottrowley.com/images/photoclub/steam.jpg
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Scott here. I'll get things rolling this week with some caffeine for you. A little known fact is that my senior thesis in college was studying the effects of caffeine had on bone density in rats. The study theorized that in exceess, caffeine would prohibit bone growth (resulting in a loss of bone density), but when combined with other hormones in small doses, it could stimulate growth and be used for elderly / cronic bone loss individuals.

Back to photography - Being from Seattle, when I heard the theme of caffeine, I immediately thought of Starbucks Coffee. And then thought about one of the first pictures I ever took when I got my Nikon - it was a later summer day, and the weather was a little cooler. This was back when we lived in DC and had a balcony, and Chrystelle was on the balcony reading a book and drinking a hot cup of tea. The tea was steaming out of the cup and i was able to capture the ebb and flow of the swirling air currents in a picture (which i can't seem to find now).

So from caffeine to coffee to tea to the common byproduct - steam, I setout to capture it once more. Unfortunately I wasn't very successful this time. I took this original into photoshop, and converted it into black and white, adjusting the strength of the color channels until I could sort-of see the steam I actually saw (swirling mainly inside the cup, then rising on the right half of the cup). Behind the cup is a tea box - placed for added caffeine appeal, but I think this only hindered the display of the steam.

Perhaps I should have gone with my backup idea - a picture of a group taking Jaeger Bombs in vegas.





Good luck to the rest of you.