New Camera Lenses, Learning Curves, and Gold and Diamond Jewelry

One thing you may not know about me is that I was an art major in college.  I discovered metalsmithing after a friend signed up for the beginning level class.  You see how that turned out.

After many, many years working for other people in retail jewelry stores, I decided to get back to what drew me in to begin with.  Creating jewelry I loved.  I was so excited to start the journey that I never thought of all the things I didn’t know.  Turns out there’s a lot I didn’t know.  But I learned and continue to do so.

I found lots of things I had to do that were nowhere close to being on my radar.  Like writing blog posts.  And photography.  I don’t have a ton of experience with photography so there (like so many other things in my business) has been a big learning curve.  

I quickly discovered that I absolutely love taking photos of my work laid out on a flat surface with props (they’re called, conveniently, flat-lays).  Definitely a zone of genius for me.  One thing that’s not a zone of genius?  Taking pictures of my jewelry on me.  I truly suck at this.  No matter what I did I couldn’t get the focus I wanted.  I had long conversations with the owner of the local camera shop.  Many long conversations.  The woman deserves a prize.  

So I finally decided that while I had been quick to get a special lens for taking those up-close pictures of my jewelry I needed to try a better lens for the other pictures.  So I bought a new lens.  Today.  And I played with it. Yay!!  

So I thought I would share one of the pics I took today.  I’m wearing my small Lyric Warrior earrings and matching pendant.

While this probably isn’t the last lens I’ll ever buy it’s definitely a step up for this newbie!

Talk to you soon!

Nikki

P.S.  You can take a look at these pieces and all my other work in my online shop.  While you’re there make sure you sign up for my email list.  I promise not to annoy you, but I will share some of my favorite pieces and new work with you!