Product Photography

I have been knitting more than anything lately, and building up my stock of dead fish hats in order to have a booth later this fall at a craft show. This is a new adventure for me, I've knit for many years, and have sold a few of these hats by word of mouth, but never done a craft show before. I don't count the one show I did that was in a doctor's office after hours for their employees....

Now my challenge is product photography. My son that was willing to model the hats for me is at college, and I'm sure the other one doesn't want to. I need to find some way to display the hats for product photos without buying a bust. I also need to decide how best to photograph lace shawls to show the lace detail and size. I think I have a friend that might be able to help me out with that.

Product photography is always a challenge for me, I'm not much for still-life type of stuff and I always have a hard time arranging them to showcase what I want in an appealing manner. It's the one assignment I dreaded in my photography class, and the one I did the worst on...

I'm thinking of using a fish stringer hanging on my deck with the hats hooked on like the catch of the day...
Here's a shot of one of the hats, on a trouser hanger drying after being washed. This one's 100% hand spun wool (and belongs to my son).

Dead Fish Hat

I loaned out my camera...

I went to my family reunion last weekend, which is always a blast. I love my family, they are a great group of people that I probably would never have met if they weren't family. My cousin (That's what we are, in a roundabout way... I don't care enough to figure out our technical titles) LOVES photography. It's one of her passions, and I'm always happy to support anyone's passion (provided it's legal, of course!).

So, I packed my camera and lenses with no intention of actually using it myself last weekend, in order to hand it over to Samantha for the weekend. She also has an adorable new puppy that she was trying to keep track of which cut into her photography adventures this time, but she did get some amazing shots (and lots of family shots too).

Here are a couple of my favorites from her shots:

Zeus (the adorable puppy)

Nothing going on...

Yup, that says it all. There's been a whole lot of nothing going on. My boys' birthdays are coming up, and neither of them knows what they would like. My oldest son is headed to college soon, he's going to Michigan State University to study Chemical Engineering. Yes, he is incredibly smart, and yes, I am very proud of him!

My younger son is a tech addict, and I haven't quite decided if I should find a gadget, game, or gift card for him yet. He will be a sophomore in high school this year, and he's eagerly counting down the days until his brother leaves for college, but not the days until school starts for him.

I leave you this week with photos of my boys, taken last fall (Senior pics for the oldest, Freshman photos for the youngest) The background for the oldest's photo is a silver Mylar emergency blanket lit with a strobe with blue gel. Fill light provided by a strobe with a soft box attached. The youngest is photographed in front of a white backdrop, lit with a strobe/soft box and reflector.

Youngest son, Nate

Oldest son, Ron