Amateur Jewelry Photography & Duke City Fix

Duke City Fix is a ning community that's got "the inside line on Albuquerque." (Did you know the late Bo Diddley lived just south of here for years? I just watched the Bo Diddley video Adelita posted 4 times in a row! Hey Bo Diddley!) In fact, I was all set to link there in a upcoming blog post but Duke Citizen Spring Griffin done beat me to it and blogged me first! Thank you Spring. I am just so thrilled she complimented me on my photos because it has taken me a long time to figure out how to get something decent (when I first opened my Etsy shop I used a scanner. For jewelry. Ew!).

Why, just yesterday afternoon I was yanking the gamma. Hey! Don't get ahead of yourself. I mean adjusting the midtones...strongly...in my photos. Along with the highlights. I thought it would be fun (as opposed to "funny" cause it's actually quite sad, LOL) to show a before and after of what I was working with today.

But first...ahem. My shooting method. [sound of knuckles cracking]

1. Rush home before sun goes down.
2. Find camera.
3. Locate empty diskette.
4. Turn around and start running across the room with camera still plugged in to charger.
5. Shoo boyz from game cube (they yell at me for walking back and forth with camera).
6. Put pretty paper on tray table. On top of other pretty paper from last time. Scoot tray table closer to sliding glass door. Hope stack of pretty paper doesn't slide onto floor.
6. Toss jewelry onto paper.
7. Turn on camera, autofocus off.
8. Squat bent over in non-yoga position, squinting over bifocals into viewfinder. Turn focus thingy until jewelry gets all squiggly. Pray that means it's in focus.
9. For hanging jewelry shot, find dirty old bottle, drape jewelry on it, put illustrious boy Buddha statue behind pretty paper to prop up paper backdrop.
10. Do this over and over until I'm sweaty.
11. Curse the boyz for not turning on the air.
12. Run back to computer and pop in the diskette.

And that's my method. [sound of beatniks snapping fingers]

After that it's top secret editing time. Top secret, because I couldn't tell you what I do or why, exactly. Basically I lighten the gamma, adjust the highlights higher, tweak the shadows, and occasionally tip the colors (usually away from blue...we have big skies around here and they throw a color cast, even into my living room). Sometimes I have to do so much gamma yanking, I have to resaturate the photos a bit, but only just a bit or my A gemstones turn into AAA gemstones, LOL!

Ok here's the photos. I actually work with them 2-3 times as big as they are here.

Healing Heart Necklace

Himalayan coral earrings and estate sale coral, restrung

Flirting with Squidoo

Har! This is what I saw when I logged into Squidoo today:

Why, yes, as a matter of fact, thanks for noticing! First I teased it, then slathered it down with olive oil! Then I stuck a strand of old Roman coins in there with a couple of paper clips. How do you like it? 8-) Is it me??? (Too bad I can't see the coins from this angle. Or lick my elbow...)

New Jewelry Offerings

On Sunday, I rearranged the categories in my Etsy jewelry shop in the hopes of explaining WTH I'm doing...LOL. I like to use vintage components, repurposing them into simple jewelry thangs. So I made a "repurposed" category. I'm still very loyal to seed beadwork though it's a tough sell for most of us. Southwestern stones and style will always be close to my heart. And I love using things I find in jewelry -- I'm not exactly a recycled jewelry native but I am familiar with the landscape. ;-) Etc. etc. I thought the new groupings were more logical actually than "earrings," "pins" etc. I hope. ;-)

Here are a couple of new offerings, one from last week, "before the great macho computer fix," and one from just yesterday:

Vintage cabochon in a (I think it's vintage?) copper pinback setting,
with a vintage turquoise bird fetish and gemstone beads. Rather petite.

Amazingly amazing clear vintage beads covered up with metal wire mesh.
Handmade earring wires. It's unusual vintage finds like these that make me all crazy happy!

Actual Work Getting Done

This weekend was so productive! I actually managed to fix my computer, which has been on the fritz for over a month, all by my widdle self. You cannot imagine the workarounds I've been doing to get from 1. photography --> 2. image editing --> 3. upload to Internet, using the combined attributes of 1. a new laptop with not enough software, 2. an old borrowed Tablet PC with a wonky wireless card, 3. an old dual media digital camera (nice macro, no driver...), and 4. an external floppy drive. I got so much *else* done thanks to having ONE computer again that does everything I need (plus scan and print).

I'd like to take credit for the fix cause I always feel so macho when I tame a machine, but actually it was two coworkers who told me what to do. See, I had fiddled with the monitor settings and totally screwed things up. My coworker goes, "Did you boot it up with F8?" I say, "Uh, no. What's F8?" He says, "You don't know about F8?" (Hey I'm a driver, not a mechanic.) I said, "I have gaps." He says, "Oh, F8 is great." My other coworker goes, "Then you can Restore your computer to back before the crash." (Nice of her to phrase it that way knowing it wasn't a "crash," it was me thinking I was smarter than Bill Gates.). And so I did! Those simple words of theirs. Who'd have thought? And it didn't cost a dime! I was ready to haul the thing in and pay some gamer half my age to fix it...

So anyway, I made jewelry. Lots of new things in the pipeline. I read a book. I took a nap. We went to a movie. Etsy sales were fairly awesome in May so Saturday I treated myself to some silver findings from New Mexico Bead and Fetish. How lucky am I to have not one, but two bead stores just two blocks away? Or maybe it's not luck, it's too much temptation...

Plus the local bakery (aka Golden Crown panaderia) had sent out flyers in the neighborhood, advertising a pizza family special, so after spending my dough (har har) on silver I went down there and ordered the most deliciosa green chile pizza, a huge salad, and cheese bread takeout. I've adored their empanadas but never sampled their pizza and let me tell you mama was not holding back. Hey it's a bit more than Dominos, but such flavor!

Cyndi Lavin's Bead Journal Project

I meant to post this earlier but it's okay that I didn't because Cyndi has added yet another month to her BJP (Bead Journal Project). I love her theme. Years ago my students and I used to compile month (moon) names in various Native American languages for an annual calendar. When the web happened, we put them on our website but that was years ago. So I enjoyed seeing how Cyndi tuned in to the moon and the months in her BJP.

Check it out: Why Not Art BJP