Flowers, plants & dried palm fronds gathered from our garden for photo sessions

 

Photographing Jewelry

April 28, 2011

When I set out to have a website I realized that I would have to photograph my jewelry. In the beginning I experienced only frustration and discouragement - the learning curve seemed insurmountable. Now photographing my jewelry is something I look forward to and very much enjoy.

I lived in the Caribbean for fifteen years and that is where I discovered my first piece of sea glass and started making jewelry. In the tropics you become an extension of your surroundings and it becomes an extension of you. Inside or outside nature presents itself to you. No matter how clean your house is a trail of sugar ants appears out of nowhere. Lizards are like family members. Banana leaves become temporary place mats and palm fronds weave into useful things such as baskets etc. Gardening efforts are rewarded with fast results. In the tropics things change fast - metals rust, things mildew and sticky dust builds up. So whatever is blooming in the garden becomes an ephemeral low maintenance knick knack. Experiencing the Caribbean informs just about everything I do. The spiraling of the surf, seashells and the opening of a flower translates into flowing and spiraling wirework and designs.

Nature is the force behind my work. Although sea glass comes from man made glass it is taken in and recognized by the sea as being natural. It is as if the sea has blended with the glass and the two become inseparable. I find that sea glass comes from the life source - an infinite place of creation and renewal. While photographing jewelry I try to create a world of depth, texture and color that subtly reflects the world from which it came. Since the tropics is where I come from and is where I created my business I use tropical elements for our photographs - seashells, flowers, dried palm fronds and tropical plants etc. and our pool provides a water element. ( All of the seashells seen throughout our website were found uninhabited on the beach by us ). I photograph my jewelry outdoors in the Florida sunshine. Life in the Caribbean taught me that less is more and I have found nature to be the best photography studio.

The photo sessions at Out Of the Blue Seaglass Jewelry are very simple. Flowers and green and dried palm fronds etc. are gathered from the garden. Seashells, beach stones and other natural items are arranged to create a setting that is meant to serve as a microcosm of the natural world from which sea glass emerged. I find that this process makes picture taking to be a pleasurable and relaxing experience.

 

Seashells that we collected while travelling