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2008 -
BEAD PHOTOGRAPHY : Shannon Brickey &
Don Meadows |
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If
you missed this meeting, you missed a wonderfully professional, thoughtfully
constructed, consistently interesting, and dead-on useful presentation on
photographing beads. It was given by Shannon Brickey, a graphic
artist, web designer, and photographer. She is also the wife of Don
Meadows, a SF member and a glass artist who makes beads, figures, goblets,
fused dishes, blown vessels, marbles and more. To check out their work go
to their beautiful website
Shadows
Unlimited. |
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Shannon
Brickey
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Don Meadows
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This may be
first time that Southern Flames has had a Power Point presentation
projected on a large screen (OK, a wall) . The title of this
screen, is "Finding the Magic". Shannon's point was that it
is very important when photographing a bead is to decide what is
most special about it and use the camera and set up so that those
properties are featured.
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She used
examples from books to show how different photographers showcased
specific qualities e.g. transparency, texture, shape, etc. a It is difficult to see in this photo, but very clear
what the photographer was doing when we viewed the projected image.
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Shannon used
this poster of Kristina Logan's beautiful dotted beads to illustrate
some pointers for photographing bead sets. In this case, while
there are many beads in the photo, pattern, texture, and color (orange,
blue, cream) are repeated which makes the whole cohesive.
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In photographing
glass beads, Shannon listed a number of challenges are always faced: stabilizing the
piece, lighting it to show depth, texture and sparkle while avoiding
reflection and shadow; arranging the work on a background that
complements rather than overwhelms the work. Shannon showed us the set
up she uses - a small tent with a neutral graded background flanked by
two floodlights. The camera sits on a tripod. Sorry that there is
no photo.
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Don Meadows
brought some examples of what he and Shannon use to display beads and
keep them stationary when being photographed. Shown below are
goblet bases that Don made (aren't they beautiful). The beads are placed
on the stem and then the stem is erased from the photo using Photoshop.
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In these photos
you see Don's wine stoppers and marbles displayed on the tops of sawed
off wine bottles - red wine works best because the bottlenecks are
straighter then bottles for white wine.
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There were
additional challenges when beads were photographed for the SF postcard.
Shannon and Kristy Nijenkamp who worked with Shannon,
wanted to showcase all the beads equally - so all the photos had to be the
same size and on the same neutral ground color. Shannon
discussed many of the individual beads on the postcard and the specific
challenges they presented - for example, the detail on large pieces was
easily lost.
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Shannon said that this bead by Maureen Lovell posed
the greatest challenge. Because the small bead had raised gold stringer,
it was difficult to find a way to focus so that both its surface and
raised areas were clearly defined.
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It was a
wonderful presentation and we hope that Shannon and Don will let us post
the Power Point outline in our Tips and Techniques section so that
everyone can learn from it.
 The theme |
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