Talk about your micro-brewery

Searching for photojournalism sites can be depressing. Here are some of the titles I've recently perused: Angry Planet, photographs from conflict areas all around the world; Born to be Forgotten, photos of Romanian orphanages; Chicago Murder sites; Vietnam Death Trip. There are whole categories of sites for Bosnia and Herzegovina and Homelessness.

I wanted a drink. At least a virtual one. So I stumbled upon a site that Norm, of "Cheers," would love. It's called Beershots, microscopic views of beers from around the world. I could handle that.

Beershots contains full color photomicrographs (photographs taken through a microscope) that can only be described as psychedelic.

I tripped through quickly, viewing thumbnails: Budweiser -- pretty common but satisfying, sort of the velvet painting of beer photomicrography. Heineken -- it looks like thousands of tiny tiles fitted to resemble that scene from the movie where Indiana Jones takes a leap of faith across the abyss. Bud Ice has a Chagall quality. The blues, yellows and magentas are vibrant. And there's a floating figure of indeterminate nature rising gently.

One of my personal favorite beers, Pilsner Urquell from the Czech Republic, looks like a big colorful moth. Franziskaner Hefe-Weissbier is a cubist painting of a beer micrograph, with a head on it -- an unmistakable head of an infant staring intently to the left.

Research scientist Michael Davidson of Florida State University is responsible for this site. He's the photomicrographer, and his work has been exhibited, published and awarded all over the world. This guy is having some fun with his work. And it beats the hell out of Vietnam Death Trip.

Reviewed Nov. 3, 1996, by Free Press photo director Mike Smith.