Giant Redwoods: Make me want to build a brick house.

Since I'm busy procrastinating on a few jewelry orders I've recieved, I'll post one last set of photos from California. These are from Muir Woods National Monument just north of San Francisco. We didn't have time to actually hike in the park, which is a shame, but we did get a few photos from near the entrance. It definitely makes me want to visit Northern California's Redwood National and State Parks when I have a whole day to dedicate to hiking and photography. Click the photos to view more.

Look at the tiny people! ↑

Inching Along The Kitchen Floor, Following The Light

The sun came out today, and through my kitchen window I was lucky enough to recieve some direct sunlight, in the form of an 8 inch beam. I put my lightbox on a chair, added my full-spectrum lamp, and, on my knees, followed the beam as it moved across the room, frantically taking pictures. Later today, I will be scrubbing the floor. Anyway. I took my blog commenters advice which included changing the ISO speed from 400 down to 50. The results? Less grainy, yes. But spectacular? I'm not so sure. I played around with colors of backgrounds, props, angles and exposure times. These were my best shots:

(old versions - click any picture to enlarge)

The verdict? Its an improvement, and I'll try to get in some more re-takes before the suns goes to too low an angle. But I still wish I had one of these:

My Camera

After my last blog post I went on the etsy forums and asked for a critique of my Ring-A-Ding Pendants. I got a mostly wonderfully positive response, so I'm not quite so bummed like I was. I also got a blog comment I'd like to respond to.

Yazmin said...

Why don't you share with us your camera model and the settings you are using? Maybe someone can make a suggestion on how to improve with what you have.


Also, are you using daylight bulbs in your lightbox? They can really make all the difference. :)

Thanks Yazmin :) First off, I have one daylight lightbulb lamp that I use with my lightbox, but its still just too dark. So my current setup is this:

I sit on the floor next to my great big sliding glass door and usually don't bother to use the lightbox and set it aside. My camera is a Canon Powershot A85 which I use with a great little Mini Tripod.



My photos are taken without flash, on the largest size, with the superfine (best) resolution. When I take jewelry photos, I set my camera on Manual. I use the macro option, and set the evaluative white balance. My ISO speed is at 400. After reading my manual I have set the exposure time at 1/160 and the Aperture at F2.8. Do I really know what this means? Nope! Everything else is left at normal settings. So If anybody has any tips for me, I would love to hear what I'm doing wrong.