The essence of glass making is the application of heat. While photographing glassmakers at work in the Museum’s demonstration area, the Hot Shop, I noticed them working on a piece of glass with a blowtorch. I zoomed in on it with my longest focal length – 400mm. I had no other choice. The telephoto was the only tool for the task, since I was not allowed to go down on the floor of the demonstration gallery itself and even if I could, I would want to stay well away from the dangers of fire and hot glass. I made this image from the visitors gallery and was able to capture the yellow, and orange colors of the fire enveloping the piece of art glass under a blast of diagonal blue flame from the blowtorch.
You can watch the process yourself on live streaming video from the museum’s website at http://www.museumofglass.org/live-glassmaking/watch-the-hot-shop-live/