# Grandfather clock



## Don Kondra (Jan 2, 2010)

Greetings,

Finally finished building this project which in hindsight was a good thing, gave me a couple of years to play with lighting 

One of the more difficult pieces I've shot due to the glass and shiny brass. 






















Any and all combinations of lights shining on the case resulted in multiple bands of reflections on the weights. Finally I took the covers off my softboxes and used two B1600's reflected off the ceiling.

Even with a Circular Polarizer there is still some floor reflections in the glass and if this was a paid shoot I would have placed a sheet of brass to the side, notice the reflection of my jointer in the pendulum... 

Seeing so may variations of reflections I decided I liked the "propeller" on the clock face and the single reflection on the weights.

I've also decided to leave the shadows on the three quarter profile shot 

Cheers, Don


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## MasFotos (Jan 29, 2010)

very nice work, and photo


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## Don Kondra (Jan 29, 2010)

Thank you.

Cheers, Don


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## LearnMyShot (Feb 18, 2010)

Hi Don, nice work...it may be easier to just take the glass out of the front so you can light the brass without having to deal with the reflections in the glass. Just a thought.


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## matfoster (Feb 18, 2010)

impressive Don. what kind of wood did you use in its construction?


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## Don Kondra (Feb 18, 2010)

LearnMyShot said:


> Hi Don, nice work...it may be easier to just take the glass out of the front so you can light the brass without having to deal with the reflections in the glass. Just a thought.


 
Normally that would work but in this case the glass is installed from the front and held in with the thin black strips.  If I removed the glass and reinstalled the strips there would be the "space" left where the glass is supposed to be  

I was actually quite impressed in how much a difference a circular polarizer made and these images are basically OOC. 



matfoster said:


> impressive Don. what kind of wood did you use in its construction?


 
The wood is cherry and to get a little more technical, it is "pitchy" cherry.

What that means is there are black pitch pockets and discolorations that render the wood useless in a commercial sense.  As a furniture maker I go out of my way to find wood with character  

This lumber is culled at the mill and a local shop had a contract to buy it as soon as they have enough to make it viable to ship north... 

Thanks for the comments.

Cheers, Don


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## matfoster (Feb 18, 2010)

pitchy cherry looks real fine.


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## icassell (Feb 18, 2010)

Don, another beautiful piece and your photography shows it well.  Did you buy the movement and design the cabinet around it, or was the movement made for you?


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## Don Kondra (Feb 19, 2010)

Thank you Ian,

The clients showed up at my doorstep with the clock movements and asked to have a case made.

They already had some pitchy cherry pieces so the wood was decided and the only other requirement was that the works should be as visible as possible.

So the basic size of the case was determined by the space needed for each component, the rest is mine 

Cheers, Don


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## Don Kondra (Feb 21, 2010)

Thank you.

The different background color idea is a good one but... 

On line selling of handmade furniture hasn't worked for me.  In the eight or so years my web site has been up I have had a number of inquiries but no sales.

Well, I did sell a blanket chest to a guest at a social event, I used the hosts computer to show the guest a chest that was on my site.  So as a remote portfolio it's handy but no direct web site sales.

Cheers, Don


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