Pixie Floral Vase

My really photo crude set up...

This bead is interesting to me for a couple of reasons. It's the first of this type I've photographed, though I've been making them for several months. I photographed the setup, which unfortunately is extremely out of focus, but it gives the idea of just how jury rigged the whole business is:

The chain is hanging from the window lock and a leatherman tool balanced on the window ledge. The diffuser is a scrap of card stock left-over from cutting some business cards apart (had to print some up for my latest bead-store appointment). If you compare the setup shot to the picture below, you'll see the bead is more evenly lighted: I held up a white paper bag opposite the window to bounce light back on the bead. Not shown is the tripod; also, I took about 8 shots of this, from e.v. +1.3 or so to -0.7, and ended up using the lightest one.

pixie floral vase, 09dec03. It's probably about 28--30 MM long, and hollow. Pixie dust, effetre, sterling silver, czech fire-polish. Private collection.

One of the most freeing things I learned in my studio photography class is that you don't need all those fancy light stands and flash bulbs (though they surely make life easier)--- you need to look at the object being photographed with a camera's eye: a lense that doesn't have all the light-softening and color-correcting filters built in, the way our optic nerves and brains do for us.