Taking photos

The last couple of weeks have been busy and productive. I've made quite a lot of 'stuff' and I've enjoyed doing it. Were I to carry on at this rate, we would be swamped with soft furnishings and crocheted things. The dining room now looks like it has been overcome by a monsoon of craft supplies and the air is getting thinner at the top of the washing mountain.

 

So I've been taking photos of the things I've made with a view to them finding good homes elsewhere.

 

 

This may, or may not, happen. The process of redistributing things will involve craft fairs and an etsy shop, for the moment anyway. Both of these things, however, require decent photos - something I'm slowly getting better at achieving.

I'm no photographer (my Canon Ixus 140 is rarely off automatic), so I'm not going to attempt to write about how to take the perfect photo of some crochet, or any other lovely handmade thing. But there are a few rules I always follow...

Natural light, no flash and basic photo editing software (I use a free software called Picasa to crop, adjust brightness and contrast), and for the moment it suits me fine.

Of course, I have set my sights on something a bit fancier. Something that can cope with lower light levels, that can remove some of the frustration of endless short, grey winter days when getting a decent photo is nigh on impossible.

If I gather enough pennies in return for some of my handmade bits and bobs, then who knows, I may not be cursing the clouds quite as much next winter.

So, this weekend I sought out some open space, some lovely props and backdrops (courtesy of my Mum and her partner's home and garden) and made the most of the winter sun by positioning, rearranging and generally faffing around (I'm particularly good at faffing - I do it with blog posts too!) with some of the things I made and taking LOTS of photos (if I take enough there's bound to be one or two that will do!).

Now, I'm trying to put them to good use - a craft fair application has been done and my etsy shop (up there on the sidebar) is slowly being populated.

All of this was much helped by the supply of a lovely moss and lichen covered bench, many hot drinks, a gorgeous red brick wall, my Mum following me around a freezing garden with bags of stuff, soup, a wonderful collection of old books, and an enthusiastic chicken called Wilma!

xx