Flower setting on my camera (and others!)

My new camera has a special setting for 'taking more vivid shots of flowers'

I thought I would have a go at taking some photos of the flowers in my garden today and see what they turned out like.

I'm not sure whether the 'vivid flower' setting is really anything more than just putting the camera on to macro but this camera does make me smile with all the possibilities it appears to offer. 

It even has two separate settings; one for 'optimizing focus on the faces of dogs' and another completely different setting for 'optimizing focus on the faces of cats'.  Who would have thought dogs and cats were so different to photograph!

New camera... new earrings

ALLURE OF THE SEA
Moss Aquamarine Sterling Silver Blossom Drop Square Frame Earrings

Disaster! My beloved camera suddenly stopped working and I have had to send it off to be repaired. When I was told it would be about 6 weeks, I went into an absolute panic wondering how I would cope. After a few days of sadness, I decided I needed an interim camera and went out today to purchase a new one... and I have to admit, probably a 'better' one. Here are a couple of photos of two of my latest pairs of earrings I took whilst playing around with the settings on the camera.

CRIMSON LACE UPS

Garnet Sterling Silver Circle Frame Earrings

It's going to take some time for me to learn how to use this camera to get the best photos possible but I think I'm going to enjoy it!

Both of these earrings are now available in my online shops (see links on the right of this page).

Flowers in my garden

I was outside this morning taking photos of my latest jewellery pieces (more about that to follow in another post) but I got distracted with the beautiful spring flowers in my garden. A lot of these beauties are self-sown - nature is so kind to me.

Battling the elements

I found an hour this afternoon to photograph my latest Flower Earrings. Although it was very chilly outside, the sun was shining so I decided to venture outside, as ever looking around my garden for new backgrounds and textures for my photos. To start with I was getting frustrated because the sun was just too bright, so I moved under the gentle shade of my willow tree which is just starting to shoot. Here I discovered some moss mottled paving stones. They have a great rustic feel to them.




I then looked at the tree trunk and wondered how that would look as a background. I decided I wanted my earrings to be hanging off a twig so had to construct something for the twig to be supported on. I created a very temporary structure with a vase and a box and was able to take these 2 photos just before the cold wind blew, the twig slipped and the earrings fell off!





I tried a few more times but the weather was having none of it and kept blowing my earrings around so I couldn't get a clear focus. Shivering and stiff from lying on the ground, I gave in and went inside to download my photos and have hot drink.

Spring Sparkles - the perfect background

What a beautiful spring day we have just had. The sun shone all day and I couldn't resist getting out in the garden with my latest jewellery pieces in search of different backgrounds for my photos.

A tub of daffodils proved to be the perfect backdrop for my Spring Sparkles Earrings - the brilliant bright green of the daffodil stems really brings out the green in the peridot rondelles and the sunshine made the earrings sparkle and shine.

Hammered Circles

My 'Hammered Circles' range of earrings, pendants and bracelets have proved to be some of my best selling jewellery pieces and the design offers itself to so many different gemstones (a different colour for every different outfit!). Recently I made this set in amethyst (one of my all time favourite gemstones as I adore purple).

Then last night I made this bracelet and earrings set using the most beautiful kyanite beads I have seen for a long time. They are a blue/green colour with amazing lustre and colour changing inclusions.

I took the above pictures outside to maximise the colours shown in the beads and discovered a great texture background in my garden bench. I tried lots of areas in my garden to explore different types of natural background. It was pretty cold outside and I wonder what my neighbours must have thought seeing me lying on the damp grass - oh, what you have to do for a decent picture!

Finding the right angle

A while ago I wrote a post about how difficult it was to photograph bracelets and this morning I have had the same struggle with my latest necklace. It is made from beautiful fluorite nugget beads with a handmade spiral clasp. I wanted to make sure I was showing off the amazing range of colours found in the fluorite beads.

To take these photographs took ages to find the right angle and I've still got a lot of other jewellery to photograph (as well as a load of housework!). Oh well, tomorrow is another day!

My little helper!

I was busy taking some photos of earrings this morning when along comes my little helper (distraction!). So I ended up taking pictures of her instead.

This is Coco our 7 month old little (?!) kitten. She's round my feet a lot of the time at the moment as she has had an operation recently and can't go outside until the stitches are removed (one more day to go). She is desperate to get back out in the garden and has been spending quite a bit of time looking out of the window watching the world go by and planning her next adventure.

Sea Treasure

I was photographing my latest jewellery pieces this morning and taking advantage of some sunshine (although the weather was a bit of a pain with clouds moving across the sky constantly changing the light) and my husband was having a bit of a clear out in one of our cupboards. He came across a lovely material covered box (a present from a friend a long time ago) and said "What's in here?" On opening we found our 'sea treasure'! The treasure being a collection of beautiful shells we found on a memorable holiday in Paxos, Greece back in 2000.

I had completely forgotten about these beauties and such perfect timing to find them as I immediately used them as background for my jewellery photos.

Why are bracelets so hard to photograph?

Phew! I have finally finished my Blue Topaz Swirl Bracelet. I started it at Christmas and was all fired up about it - I even worked on it on Christmas Day during a moment of quiet (there weren't many I can assure you!). For some reason though it had sat unfinished for a couple of weeks now whilst I got on with other things. It is based on my Labradorite Swirl Bracelet I made last spring. I kept this one for myself and have had quite a few compliments, so I thought it was about time I made another with a different gemstone. I chose a light coloured stone this time - very light blue topaz for an icy winter's day.

Using the labradorite bracelet and my previous sketches and notes, I actually found it quite easy to replicate and was determined to make the new bracelet better than the first one, which has quite a few scratches from my pliers and the wire is quite dented in places (another reason I kept it for myself). This time I made up the swirls and tumbled them in my jeweller tumbler to remove any scratches and I also tried to be much neater with my wire wrapping to hold the swirl links together.

Anyway, to the main point of this post - why are bracelets so hard to photograph? I spent ages this morning placing the bracelet on different surfaces looking for the best angles. It was hard to take a picture of the whole bracelet without either being too far away and losing detail or having part of it out of focus. It also didn't help that it was very grey and misty here and I always take my photos in natural light. However, I did find my new gorilla tripod very useful. This was an excellent Christmas present from my husband and really helps me keep the camera steady as I move around. It has very grippy, bendy legs and is easy to manipulate into lots of different positions. I think these photos are the best I can take in the light that's available but might try again on a brighter day.