The tide was out and the sky was blue as the sun was setting in Silverdale. To my right I could see the dark clouds beginning to roll through and over the Olympic Mountains as they became barely visible. As my fingers quickly became numb waiting for the sun to fall behind the trees, I anticipate waking up to a white blanket of fresh snow in the morning.
At the end of a wonderful session tonight we were chatting about the sunset and how pretty the sky was. My client who loves landscape photography had wished she could get a shot of the sky. Well we hugged and parted ways, but as I was driving home I looked in my rearview mirror….woah. By the time I was able to pull over and grab my camera the deep red color had turned into an incredible pink and purple. Here’s the view from here…a stunning sunset over the Olympic Mountains from Silverdale. (M – please don’t be mad at me, I know you wanted this shot, so here it is for you to just enjoy the beauty *HUGS*)
I love being a narrative photographer, telling the story of an event in one’s life through photography is a special experience. Though as I watch my own little one grow up so quickly, I thought that sometimes its a “thing” that has a story too. Meet two very loved “things”….Baby and Blankie (pronounced bwankie).
The sweetest joys in life are quite often the simplest….from a bite of a cupcake to a big hug from Papa. The past few weeks we’ve had a chance to enjoy some very special moments while in sunny Arizona. Taking the time to spend with family here has been like taking a deep breath, one that helps you focus on the things we often take for granted. Although a few may not embrace the idea of Valentine’s Day, just make sure to embrace the one you love today.
When you have love in your heart, you have love in your life.
(Although this cupcake was yummy, it doesn’t compare to a Bella Bella cupcake. Oh how I wish I could stop by their store in Silverdale and pick up a few to share with everyone here!)
It isn’t often I take landscapes, I leave that to my husband who does them so well. Yet on a crisp winter day, this view of the Olympic Mountains was too gorgeous to pass up. Certainly seeing the mountains in person is the way to really take in the majestic scenery they offer, but I wanted to post just one. We have so many areas of the Northwest that are picturesque, that I think I might start a regular blog post called “The View From Here”. Enjoy!
If its all about taking a picture…why hire someone to do it? Well, sometimes you want more than just a picture. I guess thats why I gravitate towards weddings, pregnancy and newborns, as they are all about celebrating an important moment in life. Be it a candid interaction or a posed portrait, I want to catch the details that will remind you exactly why that was so special. Even when its posed, I think of it as being composed in a way that it creates a memory of the specific details of the subject. So much heart goes into every image I include in a client’s session gallery…from planning out their custom session to editing each image to delivering a tangible memory of their life.
I don’t want someone to regret that they didn’t have photos taken during an important part of their life….because I do. I regret not having maternity portraits just because I felt a little awkward at the time or didn’t think I could afford custom photography. Now I think about it so differently, how could I afford to have missed out on that very important moment of life?
However it wasn’t until I started doing this as a business did I discover the great expense, both monetarily and time wise, that being a photographer entails. I figured out on average, for every 1 hour spent behind the camera a photographer will spend 4 hours or more on that same hour after. That means for a 6-hour wedding, an additional 24 or more hours are spent on that wedding. Aside from taking the pictures, is the initial meetings or emails, phone calls, preparing ideas, preparing equipment and back-up equipment, traveling to and from, sorting through images (referred to as culling), editing, retouching, uploading, blogging or posting, ordering prints, creating an album or preparing files for a disk, backing up files…for each and every session. There is also time a business person spends on their website, making contacts, paying taxes, creating marketing materials, researching, continually learning through workshops or books or forums, participating in events, emailing prospective clients, networking with others, and so on. I didn’t touch on costs of quality equipment because I think even for myself, its more difficult to value someone’s time.
Whew, that sure seems like a lot, yet its absolutely worth it to take photos for someone…for them to never have to say “I wish I would have done that when…” Because when I deliver a canvas or know that a client will be receiving their prints that day, I am so excited for them to have that tangible memory. I love what I do.
Below: Belly to Baby + Celebrating Life
Remember my post about an obsession…oh I mean…collection of Celestial Spheres from Glass Eye Studio? Then, I am sure you can imagine how excited I was when they recently invited me to their studio for a tour and to actually make a glass piece; an absolutely incredible opportunity and an amazing experience. I wanted to photograph the intricate process and art that goes into it, so I had my husband be the one who made the actual piece (that and I’m such a chicken…the glass is 2100 degrees!)
All of the craftsmen at Glass Eye Studios are extremely skilled and talented artisans. The craftsman that walked us through the process and helped us through each step of creating our piece, has been there for over 26 years. As their head glass maker, he is in charge of several people, about a dozen when we were there. He shared with us not only his time, but his knowledge and experience. It was interesting that he had first gone to school to become a doctor and later ended up a glass craftsman…both of which require working with your hands and a great deal of skill and stamina.
The process begins with a steel rod that is heated up and placed into the giant oven to collect some molten glass material. Because of the intense heat, you then quickly cool the rod with a water spray. Keep in mind, you have to constantly turn the rod to keep the glass centered since it has the consistency of liquid honey. For our rather simple piece, you add color by rolling it in the selected color material (I wanted blue and pink – Add to Heart colors). For many of their other pieces, the process is much more complex and can require up to 4 craftsman to work on a single piece. So you can see that after color is added, it needs to be re-heated, and then the other color added.
Once the colors are incorporated, more clear glass material needs to be added to the piece, which is then shaped, heated, shaped, and so on. Special tools are used to manipulate the glass on the rod, from adding bubbles to shaping the glass in specific ways. The glass can be cooled with compressed air, to speed up certain processes. The glass will be reheated as necessary, or more glass material added depending on the size you are going after.
Directly below are the hands of the head glass maker helping to roll the rod while my husband was learning how to use some of the tools. To the right a photo of one of the other makers using another tool to flatten the glass. Once a piece is finished, it will sit on the auto-rollers until it cools slightly and then it goes through a special curing process. After a certain amount of time it is then taken to the cool room where it is ground and polished to a finished piece. Those pieces then go through a quality check and those that pass are stored in their warehouse. We also got a sneak peek at a product in development…I can’t say what it is, but I can tell you I’ve never seen anything like it and looking forward to adding it to our collection.
As far as our paperweight goes, it still needed to go through the annealing oven and the cool room. We are very much looking forward to seeing the finished piece next week. I’ll be sure to share a photo of course 
As the last photo shows, although there is certainly consistency within a product, each piece is hand crafted and one of a kind. A tremendous amount of skill and time goes into each and every piece. Truly, this is art. I feel extremely fortunate to have been able to see this in person and am so very grateful for the unique experience Glass Eye Studio has added to my own heart.
For several years we’ve been collecting work from the Glass Eye Studio here in Washington. Each is its own one-of-a-kind piece of glass art. The pieces we’ve collected over the years have a celestial theme which reflects my husbands interest in astronomy. All of their glass contains Mt. St. Helens ash, and since I was born just days after the eruption in 1980, that detail just makes them extra special to me. I haven’t had any time “for me” so I took a brief time-out the other day and worked on this personal project. I wanted to try figure out a way to capture the vivid colors and unique detail in each of the spheres so that I may share them here with you. It took a bit of trial and error, but I finally achieved the effect I was after.
I couldn’t contain my excitement when I realized Add to Heart was mentioned in the August issue of Rangefinder. Its a very surreal experience to know that something you’ve put your heart into will be seen by hundreds, or even thousands of complete strangers. The article by Steve Tout discusses design, marketing and photography. I am very attached to the points mentioned in the article because of my experience as a designer, having to always embrace change and use it to my advantage. You can find the article by clicking here
First let me say THANK YOU to all those who came out today!!! It was a clear and sunny day on the Dyes Inlet, really nice for walking around and enjoying Whaling Days in Silverdale.
Here’s a shot of our group – It was so nice to meet all of you and have an opportunity to chat with you and shoot with you.
Once we were near the end, we walked through some of the carnival rides as they were getting set up for the day. I thought the lights and colors were fun and so here is my themed set “Shooting Stars”.
Thank you for your interest! To find out more about session pricing and details please visit the main website: Add to Heart Photography
If you have any questions or would like to schedule a session email me or call Laura at 360.434.5937
The studio in Old Town Silverdale is by appointment only. Its a cute little red house near the waterfront at 3475 NW Byron Street, Silverdale, Washington 98383
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