Chihuly Glass

Sometimes I am happy to realize that, at this age, I can still be stunned. On a recent trip to visit my brother in Seattle, my wife scheduled a stop at the Chihuly permanent exhibition near the Space Needle. I had never heard of Chihuly so I did not know what I was about to see.

For background and context, I turn again to Wikipedia:

Dale Chihuly (born September 20, 1941), is an American glass sculptor and entrepreneur. His works are considered unique to the field of blown glass, “moving it into the realm of large-scale sculpture,” (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston). The technical difficulties of working with glass forms are considerable, yet Chihuly uses it as the primary medium for installations and environmental artwork.

These works were quite unlike anything I have ever seen. We toured the exhibit snapping away on our iPhones (along with everyone else). Not only was I surprised that we were allowed to take photographs, but images recorded on our phones were amazing.

I thought if we could produce these images on a smarty-pants phone, what could we do with a “real” camera (sorry iPhone buffs, but I think you know what I mean. An iPhone simply will not match a modern, full frame digital camera paired with high quality glass). I returned the next day with my Nikon 800e paired the Nikkor 24-70 mm zoom.

The exhibit space is very dark and the only light I had is the rather weak on-board flash. What I would have given for an external light source, but sometimes you have to make the best with what is at hand. The original images were about two stops underexposed. But they were within Photoshop’s ability to salvage.

Everyone going to Seattle should make time to see this exhibit. You won’t be sorry. Here are two examples of what I saw:

Chihuly Glase Image #1

Chihuly Glass Image #2