Glass

I find that glass, in the form of bottles and vases, always makes for interesting still lifes. The transparency, curves and reflections allow for an almost endless variety of compositions. Subtle changes in light or angle can take on a whole new look. I should make it a quest to collect old bottles when I find them and save them for my retirement years so I can photograph them in as many ways possible, since I’ll have nothing better to do. I’m sure my wife will totally think that is a great idea! 😉

I walked past an “antique” store in Wheeling today and there were some old bottles on the sidewalk that were instant still lifes. I spent quite some time trying various compositions and focus/exposure shots until I thought I couldn’t do any better or someone would chase me away. I am sure I looked like a total doofus shooting away at the old bottles at every angle. I had my Pentax-A 50mm lens with me so I did most of my shooting at wider apertures because, well, I could.

Glass bottles are a natural for black and white and that’s exactly what I did here. Only after I did the conversion, I decided to go further and add some texture. It wasn’t totally needed, and the straight shot looks great also, but the texture took the image in a slightly different direction. The straight shot can be found on my Flickr page here.