Open Studio Friday: Jen Cameron

Welcome! We are going to be spending most of our time outside today so I can show you my photography set-up during nice the weather months.

The back of our house faces a southwest direction, which is perfect for later afternoon/early evening photo shoots.

When I first walk out the back door, I step onto this small deck. It's not really a deck in the traditional sense...mostly just a method for getting from the kitchen to the back yard.

Example of photo taken on the deck: 

We built this house almost 6 years ago and the wood of the deck is a beautiful weathered gray...perfect for taking bead photos. However, hubs threatens he's going to stain it every single year. So far I've prevented it. We'll see how much longer that lasts...

The railing of the deck is also a great spot to take bead pics. Not only do you get the look of the weathered wood, but also back lighting from the sun. 

Example: 

The deck is a really handy because I will also sometimes use this post to take photos (thank goodness I always have a "helper" close by...)

An example of the post in use:

 

Once I make my way off the deck, I still have several options. We have had lots of stone retaining walls built over the years that serve various purposes...mostly so I have someplace to take bead and jewelry pics!

We had this fire pit area added onto our patio last summer. (Ignore the stripe of dead grass. We are getting ready to make that area into a landscaped bed.) This area is perfect when I've waited a bit too late to take photos or if it's overcast (like it was when I took this picture because we actually got RAIN yesterday!) Otherwise, this area gets too much sun and is too bright. 

Here I've piled up beads ready to have their portrait taken.

Again, I have a helper. My favorite rock on the fire pit wall is the one to the far right where one key is by itself. The reason I like that rock is that it has less red and brown than most of the other rocks. 

On the other side of the patio, we have a retaining wall with a bed filled with burning bushes. This spot is usually perfect late afternoon when it's too bright for the fire pit rocks but still later in the day so the sun is being blocked out a bit by the bushes.

My favorite rock is the big one where that red planter thingy is. I've been using that one the most lately. Example of it in use: 

I've even used this giant hosta plant to hold bracelets while taking pics (can't find an example at this moment). 

But what about when the weather is bad? Taking photos in the cold or snow does not appeal to me at all. Sometimes I break down and use the photo cube. Especially because in the winter days are so much shorter, I don't have time to take photos when it's actually daylight. 

However, when the light is good and the problem is it's too cold or too snowy for my outdoor photo studio, I have big southwest facing windows and the perfect bead backdrop ceramic tile in the kitchen. 

My other option is our kitchen table. It makes a great backdrop, but the wood has a lot of red in it, which doesn't always work.

 

Even though I spent money on a photo cube set-up and the mega daylight fluorescent bulbs, I prefer using natural light whenever possible. It's not that the photos are bad in a photo cube, quite the opposite. There are a couple reasons I prefer natural light.

#1- I personally cannot photograph the "hot" colors like red, orange and pink accurately with the photo lights. Natural light is much better for my current skill set.

#2- The lights are so bright and so nicely diffused, that it sometimes makes the bead look even better in the photo than it does in real life. I do NOT ever want to mislead my customers.

Thanks for visiting! Just so you don't feel cheated by not seeing where the magic happens, I will share a picture of my torch area right after I cleaned it up last January (it's not this clean any more).

I also want to invite you to my virtual beady pajama party on my blog tonight. There will be lots of door prizes, new beads, and other fun stuff. However, you do have to be present sometime during the party to win. Visit my blog for more details.