Dear All: Here is a lesson in decanters.First, According to Damon Crane of the Blenko Museum (www.blenkomuseum.org),following is a description of the decanters I have photographed.
Thank you Damon Crane.This man knows his glass and is generous with his knowledge.************************************************************************ ********On left: Blenko design #6944 in Olive green, designed by Joel Myers in 1969 and in production for 13 years.In middle: Blenko design #6617 in Honey, design by Joel Myers in 1966 and in production for 2 years.On right: The blue decanter is a marriage, meaning the stopper does not belong with the body. They are both Blenko in the color Turquoise.
Photos and script provided by West Virginia Janis friend of Heart of Glass Blog.
16 comments:
waaaaaaaaaaaaaaw...great color...nice contrast!!!!
Blue is my fav. color but I like the green and also the orangish color. Nice design too...would these like a vegetable oil bottles or perfume ones???
BEAUTIFUL PHOTO!
Phani and Anonymous:
You made my morning. I wish I had the time to start a blog to encourage me to post more photos. I have always been rather private with my photography. Heart of Glass is the first time I have shared photos. Thanks for the positive feedback
Phani: These decanters don't usually get used. They are very hard to clean and dry. The glass gets ruined if moisture gets trapped inside.
If the decanters were to be used, they are the size for wine and spirits. They are in the 8-10" range without the stoppers so they are too large for oils or perfume.
WV Janis
Dear All:
Oh, and after that last photo I shared of red and orange glass, all looking like flames (fire and brimstone), for this Sunday morning, I hope you like the decanters' peaceful, cooler colors that are, perhaps, more heavenly.
WV Janis
Let me add my vote to the we want more westvirginia janis photos, Hilly seems to be in desperate need of photos and you have great ability. A marriage of talent.
Sol
West Virginia J.
May I paste and enlarge this
lovely photo?
WVJanis,
I'd like to know what kind of settings you used to take this pictures- But first let me guess:
1. ISO 400 (not grainy)
2. No flash
3. assuming you used software to mask the sides
4. Its indoor, so I would imagine the shutter speed could be anywhere between /10-1/100 sec with varying the combination of fstop
Are you a professional photographer?
WVJanis, Wonderful photo! Composition and color are first rate. I would also guess ISO 400, with light from a window? With work like you have been so generous to share with us, you could have a second career in the making.
My holiday Blenko arrived Saturday. A frosted/colbalt snowman, a blue angel and the 3 medallions. Just gorgeous pieces and I'm looking forward to using them in my holiday decorating, along with as many other Blenko pieces as I can.
I ordered, by phone, a Pink Ice small lotus bowl last Christmas. It is a lovely shade of pink, and I'm not really a "pink" person. If you can, add one to your collection. Well worth it.
Car Girl
Phani:
For the photo of 3 decanters, here are the settings from my Nikon D80:
Shutter: 1/50
Aperutre f 5.3
Focal length 66.00 mm
ISO 400
Flash: Off
I use iPhoto to process and manage my digital prints; however, I'm somewhat of a purist and pride myself on minimal digital cropping or altering of images. I do use the vignette/masking feature to soften the edges (white) or to pull the eye into the photo (black).
I am a hobbyist, not a professional photographer, and don't know nearly enough about the technical end of photography.
Fortunately, with digital photography, you can make lots of mistakes and learn so much on your own. I spent about 30 minutes today taking pictures of a Winslow Anderson cornucopia and didn't get one that I felt was worth keeping! Cost me nothing but time (and pride)!!!
How is it that you know so much about photography that you guessed so much about the technical aspect of the photo?
WV Janis
Thank you once again WVJanis for sharing your beautiful glass photos.
We all enjoy viewing and now we are learning more about technique.
As you have noticed when I take the photo the comments are most often negative. Your photos improve the blog.
I finally figured out why I post twice. When I hit the back button to go back and finish reading the blog, I must reactivate the "send comment" from the page I scroll through. Sorry to have posted twice and, Hillary, if you can delete one, please do so.
Still anxious to learn more about the technical side of photography, Phani, or others.
I'm hoping to have access to some different glass to photograph over Thanksgiving. Happy holidays all.
WV Janis
West Virginia Janis
Don't accept the fault, the blogger system has a mind of its own.
I just happen to be on line right now - I will search for duplicates this weekend. The comments are read by me on Sunday only so I am not aware of duplicates.
If it happens and you email I'll try to get it fixed, but I think its also the blogger sometimes it will do the same comment 6 or more times.
Janis,
I am exactly the same way as you are. Learn by experiments and ofcourse I read a lot of material related to digital and slr photography on however many books I could lay hands on.
First step in being professional (I feel) is documenting the picture you take (exactly what you did) and I was surprised when you gave the focal length too..which I wouldnt be able to read from a picture.
I for one like to read pictures. My passion is not just taking pictures but also trying to infer whats on the photographers mind and what the composition is. I believe in every picture, there is a thought behind it and I like to know what it and what in-turn it comes down to technical aspects of how the picture was taken. I hope I made sense.
I started with a P&S and by the time I reached to the stage of Dslr, I had 6 cameras in hand and learnt enough to be a professional photgrapher and wanted to work as one. But, my profession being engineering, I dropped the idea and settled as an amateur with lil skills.
DSLR photography is big on investment and cheap on experiments. A very good tool to improve skills and understand the composition and art in photography. I learnt thru practice, thats all I could say.
Phani
Janis,
Talking about how I read this picture:
1. No flash - just because I didnt see any reflection or too much light. Also the fact that it was indoor photography and I didnt see enough light.
2. ISO 400 - as the picture was not grainy and is sharp. With indoor photography with no flash, you wanna have high speed film or higher ISO setting. But with more than 400 ISO, you will get grainy picture and can capture a lot of light. This picture is perfect to have just enough light to allow refraction and reflection of the room's light.
3. shutter speed range: I gave the range just to be safe. With fixed ISO and no flash, you can play with different shutter speeds and f-stops to get same picture quality and content. So, I guessed in the good ball park. Lower shutter speeds capture more light, so your picture should be the one as the ambient was low light.
4. Software masking was obvious, I used to use photoshop when I was at school when I experiemented a lot of pictures (Not darkroom though, just digital).
Phani: It is so funny you said this--
My passion is not just taking pictures but also trying to infer whats on the photographers mind and what the composition is. I believe in every picture, there is a thought behind it and I like to know what it and what in-turn it comes down to technical aspects of how the picture was taken.
Absolutely, I feel the same way, wanting to know what the photographer was feeling. When I photograph glass, my goal is to treat it as if it were a portrait of a person. I want the glass to look its best, to glow, refract/reflect/bend light. Pottery stops the eye. Glass stops the eye, initially, and then allows the eye to see beyond the surface. I like to know where the viewer's eye will go.
On the decanters, I see the focal point as the point at which the 3 decanters meet and then drifts up to the stoppers. Balance is important to me-- balance of color, shape, positive and negative space.
I'm glad we're using this blog not only to promote purchasing glass but also to promote archiving by way of PHOTOGRAPHY.
I don't collect anything pink but am starting to think that pink glass would enhance my photography.
WV Janis
WV Janis
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