ornaments

If you've followed my blog, you know how obsessed I am with getting the photography right in my Etsy store. Each season holds a new challenge, and now I'm facing how to do Chranukka (Christmas and Hanukkah) without losing my pagan buyers, and also eager to include any Muslims, Buddhists, Zoroastrians, or atheists. Because basically, we all want the same thing at our winter holiday, which is to charge less on our credit card than the amount that would cause us to go to jail!

So I pulled out these snowflake tealight holders as a backdrop for my ornaments, like the one above. My photo lab now consists of a Veritone taped to the outside of my back door, with me laying on the concrete patio to shoot. I did the snowflakes pretty well, and then started my Woodland Birds, with a paper and wire hanger. To cut to the chase, the paper caught on fire. I blew the candle out, which sprayed hot wax on my Veritone backdrop. I tried to scrape this off with a knife, cut my finger, and then bled on top of the wax. There was a bit of swearing involved at this point.

I can now give you a great tip. To remove wax and blood from a Veritone, use nail polish remover. That is my photo tip for today. So if you are in awe of my nifty candlelit shots, you now know exactly what kind of knowledgeable and capable photographer I am!