Photographing My Work

Blue Glass with Copper Wind Chime
available at Coast Chimes - inspired by nature

I am thinking of investing in an extra-large bottle of Advil. Photographing my work has never been easy for me. Back in our old house, after years I sort of figured it out. I took pictures in our solarium, which I could only do in the late afternoon for the best light. This made for a challenging time in the fall and winter, as we get a lot of rain and even more cloudy days during this period. Sometimes it would seem the sun would never shine again, as my fresh creations piled up, waiting for a little light for me to photograph them. At least when the sun did shine, I could (sometimes) get some pretty decent shots.

Then we sold the house and moved to a rental where it proved next to impossible to get any decent pictures. The light was always wrong. Also, the backdrop was not ideal. Fortunately, that only lasted for seven months.

Getting into our new place, for a while I happily, and naively, thought all my problems were solved, since I created a photo studio and invested in some quasi-professional lights. As is so often the case with my photographs, those early pictures that delighted me became turned out to be less than optimal, as my eyes began to see many issues. The backdrop sheets were drab. The light was not bright enough to really show off the glass. Those I put new backgrounds in, like the ocean, looked phoney. Sigh.

So I started taking pictures outside, where at least there would be bright sunlight to show the true beauty of my glass. Alas, my wife decided to get an early start on digging up the small yard, in anticipation of the amazing garden beds she would make in the spring. My picture taking space shrank, and shrank. Now I have one little corner-- happily, it turns out to be the best corner!

I found many of my images were not in focus. Time to read the camera instruction booklet, and check on photoblogs. (Ha, probably should have done that first thing-- but I'm not like that.) I learned some tricks, and wish I had read this stuff years ago! Live and learn.

Now I just have to learn a bunch more, wait for decent light, hope the constant breeze we get from being so close to the ocean dies down a little-- and then, maybe, just maybe, I will get a few decent pictures. That will certainly be when my wife builds the fence-- further diminishing the quality of my limited background opportunities! Oh well. I do the best I can.