Photographing Glass and Flowers in January

Being a professional photographer is a very cool job. I get to meet and photograph some interesting people, shoot unique places and really neat products. The other day I was photographing some beautiful hand blown glass in the studio for Kitras Art Glass. Photographing glass presents some unique challenges. I’ve been fortunate to have shot their whole catalogue and then help keep it up to date when they create new pieces.

The colours and shapes are delightful to observe while lighting and photographing glass. This time I was photographing a series of beautiful vases. I was asked to shoot them empty and with flowers. The thermometer outside read -15 C! With nary a bloom in sight I took off to our local market to purchase some flowers.

I hadn’t bought flowers in quite awhile. I can’t tell you how delightful it was to wander amongst the array of colour and smells in the floral department. I highly recommend it as a distraction from our winter climes – especially if you’re not a lover of the snow as I am. Having already photographed the vases without flowers I had loaded the images onto my phone. This helped me pick a bouquet with the best colour mix to compliment each vase.

Photographing glass is an interesting lighting challenge. You may have noticed when you place a light on glass it reflects the light source which is fine in our family rooms, but those hot spots do not make for beautiful photography. For great glass photos I have to light the glass indirectly. The flowers on the other hand have to be lit more directly to give them texture and life. 2 polar opposites achieved through careful and controlled lighting.

I love to garden during our warmer months so you can imagine how much fun it was to be able to play with flowers in the studio. How fortunate to be able to combine 2 passions into one afternoon. Photographing glass while arranging little gardens in each vase!

Life is pretty fine.