No nature photography this time. My friend Larry and I took a drive to Corning, New York to visit the Corning Museum of Glass (CMOG), a museum that I have visited many times over the years. The museum had been closed for an extended period of time to allow for complete remodeling of the exhibition space, the demonstration areas, and to create a new Hall of Innovation. I had not been there since the remodel, and we were in for a treat! Larry and I had two reasons for taking this trip: for our own edification and to do some photography, and to get information about the possibilities of a visit for the students at our therapeutic school where Larry and I teach at risk teens.
Some of the changes to the museum include a complete remodel of all the exhibition space and a HUGE new gift shop area. Of interest to Larry and myself, however, was the current display of modern art. There were some very interesting pieces in the collection that were displayed in a very nice open space. The first object that caught our interest is pictured below.
Refraction 1
As we looked at the object from all different angles, we saw, to our amazement that every angle of view provided an amazingly different look to the object with rainbows of colors due to the refraction of the illuminating spotlight.
Refraction 2
We also enjoyed our time in the Hall of Innovation - although I have no pictures from this area of the museum. This is the area I would intend to spend the most time with when I bring my chemistry and Larry’s physics students from The Family Foundation School, our school for angry teens. The school has college science classes (these are actual college classes - our science students are enrolled in these classes through two local colleges) which would really benefit from seeing some real world physics and chemistry applications. Interesting exhibits here included the formation of glass-ceramic by introduction of microcrystals in the glass, and also the displays on optical fibers and glass tempering. All of these applications of physics and chemistry would be very valuable for the teens at therapeutic boarding schools, such as ours. Science experience outside the classroom is sometimes not so easy to come by when a school is located in a rural an area, and students do need some time off campus as well.
Part of the new display space is set up like a living area with fuzzy carpets and benches. In this area there were some more interesting objects of glass. The object in the image below intrigued me, not just because of the clarity of the glass from which it is constructed, but also it’s form.
3 D Arrow
The last thing we did on our trip to CMOG was to visit the Hot Glass show. This show is a demonstration of how glass objects are made. Here are two images taken at the show. Both images were taken with my Nikon D300 and 18-200 mm VR lens. The images at the hot glass show were taken at ISO 3200.
Hot Glass Show 1
The second image shows formation of the pour spout of the pitcher, and clipping off the excess glass. Note the falling away of the excess glass. The motion blur is due to a very slow shutter speed.
Hot Glass Show 2
The bottom line is that Larry and I definitely need to make this trip happen for our students. CMOG is definitely worth the two hour plus trip from our high school for troubled teens!
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Thanks for visiting! Perhaps we’ll see you and your group in the Spring!