Good morning, friends. I just realized, as I sat down to write, that this is my 4th Weekend Roundup post. Four isn’t that many, but I’ve already come to enjoy writing these weekly posts for my own sake. I love sharing a little glimpse at what we’ve been up to, knowing that in the future I can look back over these and get a snapshot of my life at this point in time. They may not be the most popular posts, but they are important to me.
This past weekend was not how I expected it to be at all! It’s good I fit a lot of action and adventure into the previous one, because the last two days were about recovering from a quick bug and getting a lot of Janery work done. This weekend was supposed to be a long one, one spent in a cabin in the mountains of West Virginia with friends, but Hurricane Sandy destroyed our chances of that when she took out power and water in that town by high winds and 3 feet of snow.
However – and this is a big however – I have not spent a moment lamenting how the weather changed our plans, because it is irrelevant compared to the damages that affected people’s basic needs along the coastline.
But first, a little excitement from my Friday. I was minding my own business, working from home, when I really started smelling smoke. I looked behind the back yard and saw fire trucks surrounding a house on fire. An hour later, when our house was getting even smokier, I went out to see what was going on. They were training fire fighters using a foreclosed house that’s scheduled to be torn down. I was glad to see the house getting used in some way before going to the landfill.
Fire fighters and other emergency reposnders are brave. So incredibly brave. Watching them inside the home, walking straight up to the flames, just gave me a much more in-your-face realization of the dangers they face in order to help others.
I’d have loved to see the final fire they set and fought, but I had to get back to my desk and keep working. Also, breathing the smoky air was surely bad for my lungs and the cold they were fighting!
On Saturday I spent 4 or 5 hours photographing items for my shop. 600 photos later, I had photographed my waterproof coaster sets, Sunglass Sweaters, Merlin Mats (dog crate pads), Charlie Cushions (coming soon! The ultimate dog bed!!) and Catnip Cuddlers. I still need to photograph my stuffed owls, tea towels, Christmas stockings, and tooth fairy pillows – and some new pillows.
Here’s my photo setup this time around. It’s the best one I’ve found so far – but I need to improve the lighting.
After that I spent hours editing the photos. Sorting the good from the bad, color-correcting the ones I wanted to use, because I still don’t have good enough lighting when I photograph. Then I tackled creating or updating my Etsy listings. I’m still working on photo editing and listing the items. This is the time-consuming behind-the-scenes work I was referencing in my Handmade Business 101 / Before You Open an Etsy Shop post.
This guy, one of my sample Charlie Cushions, has really been challenging for me to list in the shop. It’s hard to write the “perfect” description, because this is the product I’ve been so excited about for so long.
It doesn’t look like much, but I can tell you that it really is a kickass dog bed.
Oh! When I was playing around with the manual settings on the DSLR, I accidentally got my first bokeh in a photo. There’s just a little of it, glancing off the wine glass, but I’m excited.
You see? I told you my weekend was all work and no play! (Except for a lovely dinner with friends on Saturday night.)
4 Comments
I think you may have hit the aperture setting on your camera. If you have a smaller aperture, then the background will lose focus. It’s tons of fun once you get into it! 🙂
I love the potted plants in the window. I have one of the stripped ones in my kitchen.
For the dog beds, showing some weight on them to see how stuffed they are, could be helpful.
Actually, you want a larger aperture (against all logic, a smaller f-stop number means a wider opening) to get the shallow depth of field you are talking about. The lens is open wider at f/2.8 than it is at f/16, and the resulting photo should give you that nice blurred background you’re looking for. 🙂
Wow, those firefighters are brave! I can’t imagine doing what they do on a daily basis! Your products look amazing. I really need to learn more about my camera (I keep saying that…). Anyway, just catching up on my favorite blogs while Evie naps! I haven’t commented in a while but I wanted you to know that i’m keeping up! =)
Amazing firefighter action shots! And I’m so impressed with the progress you’re making with Janery – that is a lot of product photography and I know how grueling the whole process can be!