This past weekend I was tasked with taking photos of the Community Carbon Project, a Boulder/ Longmont – based company that is recycling glass bottles and making useful products out of them. This was part of a website development project I am doing for them. I wasn’t sure what the lighting situation would be like, so I brought some umbrellas, my Cactus trigger, and my homemade softbox. Turns out I didn’t need the umbrellas. I set the softbox on my Olympus flash, connected it to the Cactus wireless trigger, and kept it camera right and on a medium setting, 7.7GN if I recall correctly.
From there it was a matter of aiming it at what I was shooting. I got the guys in action, turning Red Stripe beer bottles into drinking tumblers, and also some action at the furnace where they heat the glass to a working temperature.
I also tested a filter that a generous DPReview person let me try. It did not get the desired effect though, so I will be sending it back to him and instead sending a UV filter to a company called Aura Lens who can insert one of their Didymium filters into the frame. If I am going to be shooting glassblowers as much as I think I will in the near future, it is a sound investment.
I really enjoyed being in the shop, watching these artisans do their thing. We are all excited at the potential their business idea has, and I should have the website done this week or next for you to order items from. They are making some seriously cool, functional items. And I get to document it all, including all the product photos. Not a bad gig at all.
Also, a special thanks to Ryan, Angelo and Regist for putting up with me while I was there. They let me try making my own glass. I failed miserably, and they were great about it.
