Saturday, March 19, 2011

A foggy morning

The first day of spring is tomorrow! *glee* But that always means some crazy weather. A warm damp day followed by a cold night and we get a morning like this:


Foggy morning by *dbvictoria on deviantART

Perfect day to stay inside till it burns off and do some serious prep work for this year's Vampire Ball. I'll be vending again this year, for either the 5th or 6th time (I've lost count now). It's always an amazing evening.

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Another day at Emerald City ComiCon

We made our pilgrimage to our local geekly Mecca today. Many good things were seen.

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Spidey shot the husband with webbing, then had a little disagreement with another costumed attendee:

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I got some bunny love:

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The Vorlons sent an ambassador:

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The husband and the munchkin had mechwars over their pizza:

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And the munchkin defended Chewbacca against a nasty Tusken Raider:

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I made a new friend in my crusade for Robots' Rights!

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And we came home and relaxed to good food and tasty beverages:

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The rest of the photo set is here

Can't wait to see what next year will bring!



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Thursday, March 3, 2011

Stock photography tips

Realizing that I have been a bad blogger. Bad kitty! I thought I'd do a little bit on tips for photographing your stock for listings. You get five shots on Etsy, and 10 on Artfire if you're a pro seller. Mix it up!

For quite some time I was using just a plain piece of ivory satin as my photo backdrop:

Cut Glass Drop Necklace with Rice Pearl

I switched after a bit, to a piece of white on white embroidered fabric:

A necklace for me

But the white washed out a lot of my pieces. I started mixing things up by using a slate tile, for texture and depth:

Aurora Borealis Crystal Set



Then I started mixing in different pieces of scrapbook paper, for color contrast:

Citrine & burgundy glass necklace

Rhodonite & Lepidolite multistrand necklace

I made an earring stand from some base metal wire and a stolen smidge of my daughter's Play-Doh:

Blue and brass earrings

And I got a necklace form to try to showcase a little better how the pieces would look when worn:

Antique Victorian Cinnabar Butterfly Necklace with Glass and Purple Fluorite

Purple glass

Because being able to coordinate with my husband to have him take pictures with me modeling pieces doesn't happen all that often:

Manna from Heaven necklace

But my favorite images have come about when I added something else into the picture:

Red Gass Bracelet

The Necklace for Unlocking Arcane treasures

Now that's not to say that a plain background can't still make for a stunning shot:

Swarovski crystal and pearl bracelet

But mix it up! Have different backgrounds, move the piece around in different positions, take shots from different angles, or on necklace forms or draped over different props:

Aventurine Pendulum

Geode necklace

aurora borealis swarovski crystal bracelet

Don't be afraid to retake pictures, especially of older stock. Your eye's changed since you took the first set, I assure you. I go through phases where I pick one category and rework all the pictures for those pieces, and it usually does result in a spate of sales. It's a lot of effort, but it does pay off.



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