Photo of the Week for 11/18/07
In 2006 and 2007, glass blowing artist Dale Chihuly showed his work at Fairchild Tropical Botanical Gardens in Miami Florida. The 2006 exhibit was the first time Fairchild had done anything like this. It was such a success, they did it again this year.
The gardens are usually open during the day, but for a few select Thursday nights, they opened again from 6pm to 10pm for “Tropical Chihuly Nights.” Dale Chihuly’s work is fantastic to see in broad daylight, but when backlit with carefully placed floodlights, they explode with color.
Photographing at night presents challenges. Artificial light sources are many times brighter than the darkest areas. The difference between the brightest and darkest parts of a scene fall outside the camera’s ability to render them. At the time, I thought doing a composite image in Photoshop would allow the image to be rendered as the human eye sees it.
Artists must always grow and progress. I know I have since I took the shot you see here. Even if you’re not an artist, you can relate. Think back to a situation at work or in your personal life and how you handled it. Now think about how you’d handle it today. If I’m not embarrassed by the photographs I took a year ago, I haven’t grown as an artist.
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