Tag Archives: photography

March 26, 2012 · 10:04 am

When a rushed photo is better than no photo

On Friday, I was looking for something to combine with the weathered strong blue of the copper beads I patinated last week. I remembered seeing a length of silver-washed copper chain stashed away in my studio. It was from an impulse purchase at Beadin’ Path several years ago.

The links are quite thin, but the color and texture were just what I was looking for. I found a way to make the pieces work for me by separating them and combining them with glass beads, pearls, and the patinated copper.

I finished the necklace, and took some hasty photographs. The wind was blowing, and the sun was low in the trees, so the light was intermittently bright. I did not bother trying to filter out shadows. I was in a hurry  to see friends who had just arrived on the island for the weekend. I wore the new necklace…

…and then my friends bought it!

I’m glad I bothered to take a few photographs before I rushed out the door. The lighting may not be great, but I have a record of a jewelry design I really liked.

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January 12, 2012 · 8:30 pm

Getting in to photo mode

I can’t add to my Etsy shop unless I take some photographs. Yesterday was sunny and I got a good start, though I quickly      re-learned how fast the natural light disappears.  I started with a series of lucite earrings to warm up. That’s about as far as I got. Warm, but not hot.  I would have continued today, but we were getting the first snow storm of the winter, so it was not conducive to taking photos. C’mon back Mr. Sun. I have some silver pieces and we have more work to do.

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March 23, 2011 · 10:07 pm

A good day for earrings, but photos…

…not so much. I had a great morning in the studio, finishing some earrings with rivets, and some with copper pieces I had patinated last week. I spent the afternoon taking 118 photographs of 5 pairs of earrings I was planning to list on Etsy. I thought I was getting some good shots until I began to crop and edit them. Some were okay, but there weren’t 5 decent images of any one pair. Etsy will have to wait until next week, because I have something really exciting to do this weekend.

Silver was $36.97 today. Yikes. The cost of silver clay has become prohibitive. I’ve started thinking about sheet metal and simple fabrication. After an experiment with patina on copper discs, I decided to rivet them to some earring shapes I had cut from sterling silver sheet. I hammered the silver and gave it a hand finish, rather than a high polish. Not sure if I like the concave discs on this particular pair. The shape is from a template I made for toggle clasps, but it works out pretty well for an earring too.

I love the colors in the copper so much, that I decided to learn more about it. I’m waiting for the arrival of some patina solutions from Shannon LeVart at Miss Ficklemedia. The pdf file for the Color Drenched Metal tutorial is well written and looks like it will be easy to follow when my supplies get here next week.

Oh yeah…rivets!!

More copper discs with patina, mounted on PMC discs, mounted on beautiful glass head pins made by Sue Kennedy at SueBeads.

Hey Sue, check us out!

I had some copper discs lying around…. and I’m waiting to learn more about patinas….but I just want to keep riveting! Check out Sue Kennedy’s off-white glass head pins below. The white disc inside the rivet is some kind of bone. (I think.)  Sterling silver and gold filled head pins are used as rivets.

The photos below are the best of my worst ones. (Faint praise.) I didn’t feel like taking the time to deal with everything they were reflecting. That’s the problem with shiny silver and photography. I was happy with the decorative rivets, though.

Finger reflection and finger print….eeeesh. Not recommended.

Whoa baby!

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January 28, 2011 · 11:27 pm

Reflecting on reflections

It’s enough to make a girl want to stop polishing her silver!

Not only does it take more effort to create a polished finish on metal, it’s also harder to photograph without creating a mirror miniature of yourself, or your camera, or both, in the center of the piece. (Yet another reason to hire a professional photographer.) Taking a photography class could help, but a hands-on class is not easily accessible from the island. It might take a long time to figure out what works from trial and error, but I’ll keep pecking away at it with my amateur set up, for now.

These earrings are a simple design, but the convex surface reflects everything. There needs to be some bit of reflection to indicate that the surface is shiny, but hello? The camera? The card table?  Too much info for me to see in a tiny earring.

From the side, there is less surface to show a reflection. An easier shot. I’m happy with this.

But, back to the front of the earrings. I tried a larger piece of white paper to hide behind. I cut a hole in it for the camera lens. It was a little better, but I still need to work on this when it comes to the high polished finish.

Time to see if one of the mischievous kitties could help.

Then I just decided to embrace the shiny challenge…

….by wearing a disguise.

 

 

 

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