Vintage Jewellery Shoot

Hello everyone!

How are you all?  I noticed yesterday that it stayed light long after we got back home from school pick up yesterday, which made me very happy!  In fact, I sat down in the living room for a good twenty minutes, despite still having a ‘to do’ list as long as my arm, and just enjoyed it.  Good to appreciate those little things once in a while!

Shooting Jewellery

So, I’m really happy to share these shots from a jewellery product shoot I did in January.  Sue (Bright As A Button), sources beautiful old buttons, which she then repurposes into jewellery.  I’ve been shooting content for her for a couple of years, but I think this might be my favourite shoot so far!  Sue had spotted my tiny little vintage Chanel perfume bottles, which sit in an old printers tray in my studio.  And we said a while back, that it would be lovely to use them on the next shoot.  There’s something so iconic about those bottles, I just love them.

Shooting with a macro lens

The second reason I loved this shoot, is that I got to use my fabulous new macro lens.  To be precise, it’s actually second hand.  I have no qualms whatsoever about buying second hand kit, my Canon 5D Mk iii is also second hand.  (This is in no way sponsored, but I’ve had brilliant service from this company.  I’ve had a few bits from their website, so I highly recommend them – www.mpb.com.  Their kit is graded by the condition it’s in, and I have to say, everything I’ve had from them has been spotless.)

Anyway, the lens I bought is the Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 L IS USM Macro.  Brand new the price is a bit ‘yikes!!’, so second hand it’s still an investment, but worth every penny, it’s quickly turning into my favourite lens.  And it’s especially good for jewellery and smaller items.  It’s meant to be wonderful for portraits, I’ll report back on that as soon as I’ve had a chance to try it!  From what I gather, part of the reason Canons USM range is pricier, is because it has the ability to autofocus quicker than other lenses.  Canon do have cheaper macro lenses, worth looking at if you love to photograph close ups of flowers, nature etc.

Well that was a bit of an essay, thank you if you’re still with me!  I’ve turned into a bit of a geek when to comes to this stuff, and I’m really enjoying learning as I go along.  FYI this was all shot with natural light, on a grey January day.  I used a reflector to bounce some of the light back into the shadows.  I should really do a post with some tips, let me know if you would be interested in that sort of thing?

Spring is on the horizon…

In other news, I’m starting to look longingly out of the back window, into the wilderness that is my garden.  Once it warms up a bit, I need to get out there and start the big clear up operation.  I need to tie in roses, scrub the decking, and add lots of compost round the base of all my hydrangeas, as they all looked like they needed a bit of TLC last summer.  I love this time of year, when the promise of spring is on the horizon, and nature is starting to wake from it’s slumber!

Tamsyn x