News from Earth and Fire -- September 21, 2005
This is why I could never be a "real potter."What used to frustrate me the most about making pots was that so much of it was a variable. I would make a pot, glaze it, fire it, and when it didn't come out, I thought, "Oh well... enough of that."
Where a "real potter" thinks, "...next time I'm going to try such-and-such" I just wanted to walk away, sure that "I just can't do it."
I have a very low frustration level. That's the background you need for the rest of this story.
My semi-annual grovel call to Maren Kloppmann paid off yesterday. Two large boxes of beautiful pots. "Great!" I thought to myself. "Line these babies up.. take some pictures, and I've got a newsletter." As I was taking the pictures, I imagined that the newsletter would be about how I found Maren at the annual pottery show and sale at The Old Church Cultural Center in Demarest, NJ -- a show that is curated by Karen Karnes, an extremely well-known and highly respected potter.
Didn't quite work out so well. Today I realize that the newsletter is about how hard it is to photograph Maren's pots. Especially when you are "tap dancing on dirt" with a low-budget photography studio, an inexpensive point-and-shoot digital camera, no lighting except the natural light from the front windows, and extremely little knowledge about photography.
Maren's work is soft and elegant, and there are a lot of very subtle shades and many of the pots are quite light in color for the most part. A perfect storm for disaster with me trying to photograph them.
My buddy Rex, the professional amateur photographer, continues to advise that "it's all about the light." I had discovered a couple of weeks ago that bright sunny days don't work so well for me. The blue sky evidently gets reflected off my background, and turns it very, very blue. Overcast or cloudy days seemed to work quite well on the other hand. Yesterday it was fairly overcast, so I wasn't worried.
This one worked out on the first go-round:
Vase pair
Left: 9 1/2" tall X 6" wide X 2" deep
Right: 8 1/2" tall X 5 1/2" wide X 2" deep
SOLD
Right: 8 1/2" tall X 5 1/2" wide X 2" deep
SOLD
Or so I thought until I sent it off to Rex. He said the pots were flat and lifeless.
Then I showed him some of the other pictures I'd taken of some of her other pots, and he came around to my side of the table a bit. The two vases in this paring have the most "color" of the pots that Maren sent.
Compared to the trouble I was having with one of the boxes Maren sent, I was really happy with the image. Against the same background, taken at pretty much the same time of day, under the same circumstances (lighting, background, etc.), this is what I was up against.
It looks like the pot has a coat of peach fuzz on it! There's no definition to the edges. You want to wipe that coating of Vaseline out of your eyes and take a good look!
Rex said it was because the pot was so light and my sad little camera was overwhelmed by all the lightness. He suggested a dark background to get some contrast. So I pulled out the black cloth we had used the day he photographed Sam Taylor's pot for my Ceramics Monthly ad.
Any better? Is it going to make anybody jump on the phone and buy the pot?
I didn't think so, either.
This morning, the sun is out and the sky is blue, and I thought I'd see what would happen with the background from yesterday, but this time under a stronger light from outside.
See how much bluer the background is? And it didn't help much with the fuzzy peach problem.
OK.. what does the black cloth do today, with stronger light?
Ewwwwwwww.
Rex suggested I move the background down further, so I was photographing the pot against the darker part.
Well, that's a little better, I guess. Still not great though.
With frustration mounting, I went back to my roots and put the pot up against my old stand-by blonde display furniture and snapped a quick one.
I'll admit it's not a great photograph, but you know what.. I think that's almost the best picture of what the pot actually looks like.
I've updated the website with what I think are the best of the pictures I've taken. If you know Maren's work in the flesh, I hope you'll use your imagination a little and accept that these pots are up to her usual wonderful standards. If you don't know her pots in person, trust me, these photographs don't do them justice.
When you look at Maren's page, notice how differently the backgrounds all look. That will give you some idea of how many pictures I've taken in the last two days.
I really don't like this fiddling around trying this and trying that. I want a setup where I can put a pot and take a picture and get reliable, consistent, acceptable results every time.
It's making me nuts to realize that probably isn't going to happen.
I do feel a little better now, actually. In the middle of all this frustration, Maren called to make sure her pots arrived safely, and I told her how frustrated I was with my meager talents, trying to photograph her pots. She laughed and said that her professional photographer really hates it when she shows up on his door with pots for him to photograph.
It's not just me!!!
Rex says he's coming by on Saturday, and maybe he'll take a crack at it. I'll keep you informed.
Have a good week.
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