Glass Inferno...

Faqra, Lebanon - July 2010

There's something mesmerizing about glassware photography. I find wine glasses to be a beautiful object to photograph, especially in a dark environment.

This unedited picture was taken on a beautiful windy night in Faqra, Lebanon; a half-empty, half-full glass of wine, backlit by a raging barbecue fire. With the aperture wide-open, a slow shutter speed of some 2 odd seconds allows the wind-stricken flames to merge together in an apparent explosion, and leaves the core of the fire appropriately overexposed. It could be criticized for hand shaking during the exposure, inevitable at these slow speeds, which is evident from the smeared contours of the glass and reflections.  Sure, a tripod would have made this a better picture,strictly technically speaking, but as I've learned, it is photographic imperfections such as this one that so often seem to add a little something to a photograph. Something raw and unexpected, something beautiful. In this case, a nice snapshot of the way I was seeing that night after the few watered down glasses of wine that preceded this one...