Challenge of Photographing Glass

Double Freestanding Wind Chime
Beach Stone Base
at Coast Chimes

Taking pictures of my work is a constant and frustrating challenge. Often I think I have an okay picture, post it to my website and Etsy, and then weeks or months later revisit and can not believe how bad the picture is! I take an awful lot of pictures, and retake even more.

The issues are that my works are quite thin, so it is a challenge to get the focus right. Even more so because my background is not all that attractive, or at least it is a bit chaotic, and so I wish to use a very narrow focal plane, which makes getting the target in focus even tougher. Then there is the light. My glass changes appearance greatly depending on the light conditions. I wish to capture it looking really good, but the light seldom cooperates.

Enough complaining, right? I make beautiful works, and even if I seldom achieve great pictures, maybe it is better to let people be pleasantly surprised that what they receive is much nicer than the pictures (I get a lot of comments about that).

Anyway, these past days have been devoted to packing and shipping, making copper chimes, and re-taking pictures that are really not good enough. Always plenty to do around here!

Kaleidoscope Sea Glass Suncatcher by Coast Chimes

Kaleidoscope Suncatcher
$95 with Free Shipping at Coast Chimes

The snow finally melted enough for me to start taking pictures of my works again; high time! I was totally out of stock online of several of my most popular designs, such as the suncatcher hanging pictured above.

There are now several of these in on my website, and in my Etsy store. Also refreshed are my stock of freestanding suncatchers, and diamond shaped large kaleidoscope wind chimes, as well as small diamond shaped wind chimes. So visit and see all the great new works!

I'll be working on pictures and posting new stock through the next week or so. And then back to making more great works for your garden and home.

Snow Time! Sunshine Coast, BC, Canada

Snow Time!

Actually, I was hoping for at least a little taste of winter here on the Sunshine Coast. It's February, and not a single snow flake! Until now. Temperatures have finally dropped below freezing, and snow has fallen. It looks like it is going to be hanging around for a bit, too.

The best is that I got all caught up on my picture taking for work just the day before. I can't take my work pictures below freezing with snow on the ground, as those don't look great a bit later in the year when people are shopping for their spring / summer yards.

The picture below is one of those I took just hours before the picture above. You can see what I mean!

Now I can work on the pictures, and on some new works in my cozy, warm studio. Oh! And also get out for a refreshing snow walk!

Taken Just Before the Snow
Freestanding Chime at Coast Chimes

Photographing with Smokey Skies, Coast Chimes

Artist-made Sea Glass and Copper Outdoor Wind Chime

  This is a season of preparing for the very popular Sunshine Coast Art Crawl (October 19-21, 1018), and the quickly following Christmas shopping rush. I need a lot of stock to cover these two events, so my summer is spent busily creating.

Aside from making many great wind chimes and suncatchers, I need to photograph all that stock. That's typically just fine, as the garden looks good as a backdrop, and the sun in the early morning is quite nice for taking pictures. But this year half the province of British Columbia is burning, and although we don't have any major fires nearby, we do have a lot of smoke which blocks much of what would otherwise be blue skies and pure sunshine. Oh, oh!

Well, it turns out that this bright summer sun filtered through smokes is actually kind of nice light for taking pictures of my work! I was fearing a great backlog of works to photograph but, happily, I am snapping away with better results than expected. The light is not harsh (like noon sunshine), nor dim like too early in the morning, and the background is not too brightly illuminated, either, meaning I do not have to deal with underexposed foregrounds, overexposed backgrounds.

So there are a lot of brilliant new works on my website-- why not check it our? Visit Coast Chimes and see them, and some half decent pictures.

Picture of My Creations

Kaleidoscope Glass and Copper Handcrafted Wind Chime

Ever since we moved to our new house, I have struggled— really struggled —with taking decent pictures of my works. Now, after more than a year, I discovered that morning light coming through the semi-transparent metal fence, with the ocean far down below, makes for a very interesting background. How could this possibly take me over a year to discover? I don't know-- I am just happy to have found it.

As soon as I realized how much better the pictures could look, I spent a week retaking almost all my art work. Thats over one hundred items! You can see the updated images on my website, at Coast Chimes.com.  I'm very proud of my designs, and now I am a little proud of my pictures.

Picture (almost) Perfect

Cobalt Blue Glass with Copper Handcrafted Wind ChimeView at
Coast Chimes

The picture taking struggle continues — the never ending story! However, I am happier these recent days than I have been in a long time, regarding taking pictures. We finally have our new fence, and a very fine fence it is! It is my own design, and features perforated metal and cedar. This creates an unusual effect, as the fence is slightly transparent! That makes an excellent backdrop for my pictures.

It should look even better as the garden starts to grow and green. In the mean time, I am busy making thing, taking pictures, re-taking old pictures that now look crummy compared to the new ones, and tweaking my website (Coast Chimes) and other sites (Etsy).

Natural Light for Picture Taking

Glass and Copper Kaleidoscope Wind Chime
available at Coast Chimes

Taking good pictures of my work is definitely one of the biggest, if not the biggest, challenge. But it is so important, I know I need to keep trying.

After determining that my indoor photo studio lights were not doing justice to my works with glass (okay for beach stones, driftwood), I moved back outside to take advantage of natural sunlight. Side-by-side, it was immediately clear that natural light was far superior. So I retook all the pictures. I was somewhat happier with the resulting images-- not thrilled, but less unhappy. I thought early morning, blue sky, indirect sunlight, was the best.

But there was one last kaleidoscope wind chime that I forgot to take pictures of. So although yesterday was quite overcast, I decided to get it done. Well, it turned out that the overcast sky was better than blue sky!

Now I think thin white high clouds are the very best. Today is more thick, grey clouds, so I don't believe that would be any good. But you can be sure that the next bright cloudy day, I will be back out there, trying to capture the perfect image.

Top Section, Detail Image, Kaleidoscope Wind Chime

Photographing my Work

Glass and Copper Kaleidoscope Wind Chime

Coast Chimes

Since moving from our old house, picture taking has been a major headache. It was always a challenge, but lately it has been a real problem. I moved inside to a photo studio, but the lighting was not nearly as nice as sunlight, especially for my glass pieces. Then outside again, which was okay, but I had to learn about the light on the new property. Then my wife started digging in the garden, which is very small, and I had to move again, and learn about the light, again.

I have a little corner with no dirt piles, an okay background, and on certain days, at certain times, decent light. However, we live on a hill with the ocean just below, and this, it turns out, creates interesting air currents (wind), and so it is a fun time trying to get a shot without the windsails flying around, the chimes twisting, the whole subject turning!

I have a ways to go, in my photo struggle. Right now, I am going out to struggle some more.