Happy 4th of July!

I captured this image on a recent trip to Chicago. Since I don’t live in a big city with massive skyscrapers I’ve never seen this affect. The building opposite this old office building was made of glass. As the sun set it was reflected back, coating the building in squares of light. As I walked past this phenomenon the flag passed between me and the building…that’s when I saw this truly amazing affect. See more pictures in my Chicago gallery.

As I’ve said before I am enthused with glass and how it plays with light. I love the way the shape and forms it produces changes depending on vantage point of the camera and light source. The first series  I did I used a etched crystal vase. This created some great images, but I learned you have to be very careful with lint. Even if you think you have it clean many times you do not. Many of the images I took ultimately I could not use without a great deal of retouching. One of the things I pride myself on is not manipulating my images in any way shape or form from what was originally captured. This is not to say I won’t when I need to, but if the image would require hours of retouching then in my honest opinion it was a bad shoot.

With this series of Glass Work I took more care in the cleaning of the glass prior to photographing it.  Not only did I use streak free glass cleaner I used a special lint free cloth. In this shoot I also used a more smooth yet decorative vase. Many of the images of this shoot turned out and are usable…but for what?

As I take these images I know they are not the ultimate in fashion, portraiture, architecture, or landscapes. There is no life changing, social rehabilitating, or scientific uses. I can’t think of any big marketing firm looking for these type of images for that next incredible ground braking eye catching million dollar revenue generating advertisement.

So why take them many of you may ask. Well I have to answer why not?

To often in life we get so busy we don’t notice the things right in front of our faces. Glass is but just one of those “things”. When was the last time you stopped and thought about what makes up the mirror you look at while brushing your teeth or the windshield you look through every morning while on your drive into work. Or, the LCD screens you look at while checking your e-mail, listening to iTunes, Tweeting or reading this post. When was the last time you wondered about how the glass that you drink out of everyday was made; the chemical composition of the windows in your house; or where it all comes from?

So in my search for capturing the little things in life we tend to over look glass is a great compositional element. It can be invisible or a glaring distraction. While I don’t know where my wonderment of glass is going to lead and I still ask myself what in the world I am doing I have stumbled across one use. For that though you have to view the entire series.

I hope you enjoy…

I noticed that there is quite a bit of lag I thought this may happen if streaming from my ISP, but was hoping streaming through Youtube would help. If you are experiencing lag try watching directly on youtube here.

There is something about skylights that are beautiful. In lining up for this shot I thought about going for the symmetrical look, but the sun light shining through would make it imposable. I decided to stand off to one side and shoot at a slight angle. The result I feel is well balanced and more visually interesting then the standard symmetrical ceiling shot.