10 Glass Photo Tips, Learning By Doing

Learning to photograph glass is a trial and error activity. I know there are rules about ISO and aperture settings when you have a nice camera. What if you are shooting with your phone? It's still a valid photo and it gets the point across. As a matter of fact I have seen some awesome phone photos so do what you can with what you've got. We are still learning.
There are some tips that everyone can benefit from.

1. get out the glass cleaner and polish till it sparkles. Dust shows up.

2. Use a tripod. I'm pretty stable but sometimes a sneeze will sneak up on me.

3. Try lighting from different angles. Stained glass has a different look when lit from in front and behind. Both can be pretty dramatic. Even side lighting can look good.

4. Stage your glass in various settings. I have played with black or white backdrops, natural settings and installed windows.

5. Use the reflection to your advantage. I like when the glass reflects the light. It shows up the texture.

6. It's okay to have people in your photos. There is a personal touch when the artist or owner is smiling with pride while holding their masterpiece.

7 Stage on different surfaces. I have shot on a white marble table top that looked great. Out in the grass might be just what shows off your piece.

8. You don't always have to shoot straight on. Sometimes an aerial view, side view or even from underneath can be super fun.

9. Try shooting just a portion of the window for a different effect.

10. The best advice is to use your imagination.

The more you practice, the more you'll learn and the more you'll succeed. And don't be afraid to take many pictures, you can take a dozen bad ones and then get one that's gold and nobody has to know that you took a picture of your finger, or it was blurry...they'll just love the one you show!

A Second Look

Folks keep advising us as artists that we need to tell our message over and over, as many as 7 times to get through. To Jeanne and I, we don't want to run the risk of becoming a boring, repeating record, skipping over and over.

But the advisors do have a point.

I saw The Last Jedi at the theatre with Jeanne and then found that when I viewed it at home, I liked it better. So maybe it's because I gave it a second chance. I found more to the story, I enjoyed the character development more. I watched it with different eyes, a different perspective. I liked it at the theater but I liked it more on the second viewing.

Does this mean that telling the story of how we build stained glass again might peak someone's interest. We showed how we put stained glass together on youtube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oD3Jh5SWKhQ&t=4s  

We like sharing our love for stained glass, with all it's nuances, we enjoy every project, there's always something to find interesting, Sometimes it's the challenges we encounter, sometimes Jeanne combines a different pallet of colors and creates something unique. So, maybe it remains interesting, even though we've said it before...let us know!

Glass On My Mind

Welcome to "Glass On My Mind". Here is the coolest part of the name we chose. The first letter of each word spells our name, GOMM! Yea!

 I have so much to share with you. Glass projects are everywhere in the studio and my enthusiasm is so electric that I wake up in the night thinking about what I want to do next.

Glass is truly on my mind. The project I would love to introduce to you as the first post is a series of four cherry blossoms. We are still working on the third one and then one more to go. The clients are so nice and have an amazing home where these windows will reside. They have seen the cherry blossom festival in Japan and wanted that same feeling in their bathroom. How fun is that?

We met together to talk about colors, the feel of the subject, and of course, price. One of our unique selling points is to invite the client to be a part of the project. She was able to look through our glass and choose the shades of pink that reminded her of the beautiful cherry blossom trees.

 I drew the first two designs with lots of open space As your eye moves to the top of the tree in the third panel, there you are greeted with a cacophony of pink, white and green. You get lost in the flowers. Can you just imagine soaking in the tub, covered in bubbles and looking up at these windows? I know I would be in the water so long my skin would look like a prune. Aah.
The cutting did take a while, then there was foiling the pieces. Soldering and cleaning is the final stage.

The third window has 475 pieces so it is time consuming, but oh the finished product.

Thank you for joining me. I hope we have many conversations about the art of glass and the art of life.