Characteristics of Portraits

Artist Sculpting

8x10

Photo by ToMi Creations Photography

Tom Willa

I find the characteristics of portraits a topic which entails passion, technique and commitment. Whether it is capturing the intensity of the individual, a reflection of the charisma or the sparkle in the eye I love the beauty of the moment. As a photographer, I seek to share the emotion of my internal thoughts when creating photographs. Less it better.

Here's a new blog by Cyrielle:
http://cyriellewilla.blogspot.com/2010/02/over-analysis.html . You can see what a completed glass sculpted magnifier looks like and how cool a multi-dimensional creation it is.

Industrial Photo

Sculpting Magnifying Glass

Glass by Hugh Willa

Photograph

ToMi Creations Photography

The other day I took some pictures of Hugh working at sculpting. I was playing around with black and white photos. I was inspired to add some sepia in photoshop. I enjoyed the addition of some warm tones and it reminded me a little more of photos of factories from the 1920s and 1930s. This is not a real complicated process but, I felt the result was worth sharing.

Have a great week, best regards.

Clear Vase

Clear Vase 4x5 Photograph

by ToMi Creations Photography

Glass Vase Hugh Willa

This photograph captures the spark of humanity and the beauty of creativity the artist was able to achieve. It was shot with natural light taken with 50mm lens. The delicate nature of the flower vase in contrast to the practicality of the water glass is emphasized. The focal area of interest is accented by the contrast between the colors of the desk blotter green,brown and white background. Speaking of background, the skull and books elements address human learning which is the only way such a vessel can be created. If I could adjust one element of the photo it would be to move the water glass to the right eliminating the negative space between it and the top of the vase. Many photographs of glass art are taken against a neutral background this photograph for me captures the beauty created by the artist placed in the light of our daily lives. Happy New Years.

Cutting Cane

Hugh Cutting Cane
5x7 Photograph
by Tom Willa

Wow, where does the time go. That's twenty one days without post. That's our son Hugh glass blowing artist extraordinaire at work. I shot it with my prime 55mm lens, used day light and stopped it down or is that up ( just about wide open 2.o) to help it freeze the motion. I think the fact that the studio was filled with light from the furnace and warm long autumn natural light from a sky light created a harmony of color. I also shot a real estate listing in South Seattle this week, too. I have an early meeting so good night, good day and sweet dreams come true.

Pumpkin

Pumpkin blown glass

by Hugh Willa

Photographed Tom Willa

I wanted to show you some of the glassware we took to Return to Renton Show. Miki fell in love with this one. I shot it on the way out the door with a flash and my 50mm lens, I rarely shoot hand held images but this one turn out pretty good. These gems have wonderful optic qualities and are quite fantastical. It is way late as a matter of fact it tomorrow. Have a great day.

Gathering Glass Artist, Cross Processed

Gathering

Photograph

By Tom Willa

This photograph was tweaked to resemble cross processing from back in the days of wet processing. It was a practice which added saturation to the blacks and caused some shifting in other colors. I also am trying to figure how to create a glass blowing photo alblum in Picasa, making them available on my blog or from my facebook. It is kind like driving somewhere knowing where you want to get with any specific directions.

Focus

Depth of Field

Photograph by Tom Willa

Today I was working with the 85mm lens at Avalon Glassworks . It was an interesting experience Hugh was working with Sean a fellow glass artist at an open house event. I got some great shots which will probably make their way into paintings or some photographs. The glass studio seems to yield interesting creations for me as a photographer. Avalon Glassworks Studio was a very pleasant experience in West Seattle if you in the Northwest you should stop by. I am going to let the photo speak for itself my wrist seems to be paining me at the moment. Have a great week

Collage some more

Glass Blowing Collage

By Tom Willa

Yesterday, I wrote an article for Biznik about Photography. One of the elements of good composition photographic technique was not placing a single subject by itself in the center of an image. This collage seems to be the exception. Alix is the star surrounded by several other photos. I used Picasa to generate it. Next time I may explore the envelope capabilities a little more.

Collar Pick up Glass and Photos

Photo Collage

8x11

by Tom Willa

Here's some digital design from a photo shoot at Viscosity. I pretty much got lost in the photos, what you see above is Hugh working the process where sections of cane are fused together to form the vessel which than is blown and formed by glass artist. There is a name for the technique but it eludes me. I have been experimenting with different lenses yesterday was a 50mm 1:1.4D which worked out because it was fast. The depth of field is the tricky in relationship to f-stop, the shutter speed to image clarity, all have to be balance to the intensity of the light. I used some of the my camera auto focus functions to help. I positioned my self where I would be shooting from, then adjusted the shutter speed to a wide open aperture before the molten glass was in the scene. I had to tell myself while shooting that any slower the 1/100 shutter speed would create focus difficulties. I was pretty satisfied with this approach, the three photos above are the pickup, smoothing and finishing with adding a lip and handle. I used Photo shop to manipulating the photos size and shape into a document adding a gradient to finish up. Updated March 31,09

Onset Sphere

Onset Sphere

6x9 Soft Pastel on Art Spectrum Colorfix

11x14 matted $55

By Tom Willa

Here is another gem of glass being made. Hugh has a wonderful new creative sculpture series, Culture Cells, that he has designed and currently is in the process of producing. (See image below.) It involves a lot of optics, spheres and cold work to make one. We visited the gallery while he was making a sphere component for one. I snapped the photo because I could sense the glass starting to transform into a sphere. In my painting, it was my goal to capture that moment where the bubble starts to takes on the characteristics and form achieved by Hugh's efforts.

Culture Cells

By Hugh Willa

On The Bench, Vase:

Glass Vessel
Designed, Blown and Photographed
By Alix Cannon

Here it is, the Vase which was produced by Alix Cannon The painting On The Bench resulted from my observing her craft this vase a couple of Sunday mornings ago. The two solid color masses dramatically accentuate the lovely clear cane middle, while the fluid shape also contributes to the majestic beauty of the vase.

On The Bench

On the Bench

by Tom Willa

8x110 Soft Pastel on ArtSpectrum Colorfix

$75

On the Bench is the result of our latest trip to the glass blowing studio. It also sums up a lot of where my creative efforts are taking me this year. It was painted in the studio from a photo. Photos, yesterday I finished up a real estate photo shoot for David Edwards in Issaquah. It was a magnificent home with wonderful windows, an office and great layout.

I really love taking photos and painting. I am off to shoot a family event tomorrow. I am going to try out a 85mm lens. Sometimes the peace of pursuing what we have passions for is little consuming. That relationship creates a larger conflict when you are trying to make a living. The contrasts in this latest painting represents some of those emotions. Warm and cools, spheres and linear, abstract and realism kind of sums up how it feels some days.

I will route an image of the finished vessel and post it for you to see at a latter date, time to finish organizing for the shoot which also involves doing a traveling packing and a quick yoga session to keep me sane

Glass Blowing

On The Pipe

6x9 Soft Pastel on ArtSpectrum Colorfix

By Tom Willa

$55 matted for 11x14 frame

Here's today painting. I wanted to paint in March and post it. Miki started working on a Series about glass blowing her first painting is posted. She has captured the furnace's heat with her painting. Glass blowing is difficult and intense subject to capture in a painting. She is definitely my source of inspiration. My design layout was to capture the molten glass which is the beginning of the bubble. Additionally in the background is a paddle with some freshly made cane cooling on the floor. My next painting should be a winter floral with a vase blown by Hugh. To see glass blown by Hugh visit French Curves their etsy page.

Glass Blowers

Glass Blowers

7x5 By Tom Willa

This another photo from our trip to Uptown Glassworks in Renton. The team is putting together a sphere using an Italian technique. The rods of cane are fused together to form a cylinder. The cylinder is then shaped into a vessel. In this case, Alex is shaping the creation into a sphere. That is simplification of the process.

Capturing pictures around the a glass studio is an interesting challenge. Nothing is still (hands, people, even the molten glass are always changing) , the temperature of the the glass is around 2000F, the intense light from the furnace and the glass can be an interesting contrast to the studio lighting. It is a tough assignment for a photographer. I love to capture the concentrated intensity of glass blowing. It is like shooting an event from a documentary point of view, the opportunity for shots come fast and "look this way and freeze" is not an option.

Uptown Furnace

Uptown Furnace

By Tom Willa

This is one of the glory holes at our local glass blowing studio. I took this picture from about twenty feet away. I adjusted the curves function and used the watercolor filter after cropping the photo.