Stationery Staging and Photographing

 I'm spending a lot of time lately trying to take better pictures of all of my designs. Pictures are a huge part of selling your product - if what you're selling doesn't look good in a picture, who's to say it'll look good in real life? It's mind boggling to me when I browse through "successful" websites and see the crappy pictures they have of their products. I'd like to think they are the exception to the rule, because I do genuinely believe good pictures sell better than bad ones.

So, with that, let me first say I am still learning the art of photographic my products. I've come a long way since I first started designing, both in my design skills and in my photography skills. Lately I've been photographing cards for the Believe Notes Holiday Line - I don't have an arsenal of props, so I have to try to make the pictures look good without much prop-age (is that a word? It is now!). I've been using a simple ribbon as my prop, and I think the cards have come out nice. But really, I give most of the credit to my camera for taking nice pictures. Although, the camera doesn't just take pictures without any futsting around on my end. So, here are a few things I've learned about taking pictures of stationery:

1- Use a decent camera. I have a Canon Rebel DSLR
2- Adjust your white balance. This allows the pictures to come out truer to life. Take a picture of something pure white, under the same lighting you'll be using to photograph your stationery, and then use that solid white to adjust your white balance.
3- Have a solid background that isn't white. Some designers can pull off white backgrounds, I can't. I use a slightly textured cream linen fabric and it adds just enough to the pictures without taking away from the designs.
4- Simple props are good. I use ribbon, candle holders, pens etc. My fellow Minted designer, Kimberly of Daily Sip Studios has a great blog post about how to use props. Check it out, learn it, live it. I'm working on it, too!
5- Make sure your lighting is good. I take pictures during the day, next to a nice big window, with three extra lighting sources, all covered in tracing paper to help make things all nice and soft. I try to minimize the shadows, since I want all the focus on my product and not on other contrasty things.
6- Take lots of pictures. I take on average 20 pictures of each design, from all angles.
7- Don't be afraid to digitally enhance. I'll brighten up some pictures, correct warmth and smudge out address information. Who cares? Do you? I don't. In fact, I'm glad I do it!
8- Oh, and lastly, make sure to take plenty of close up detail shots along with some shots of your entire suite/product. Don't be afraid to have things going off the screen, it looks nice and adds interest!

Here are some pictures I've taken recently:

Business Cards using tacks as props

thank you cards using a rock, antique spoons and a candle holder with pens

holiday card with simple red ribbon

Vendor Review - Limos and Transportation

I'm back with more reviews!! I hope you're not bored yet, caused I'm keeping these coming!


The one thing I left up to Mike to handle was the transportation for us and the bridal party. He ended up booking through Elegant Limo, and here are some of my thoughts around transportation....

I had originally wanted to rent one of those vintage type trolleys for the whole day to serve as our bridal party transportation and the guest shuttle service, but my family thought it was a terrible idea. I was frustrated to see that the traditional car and limo package was three times the price as my beloved trolley would have been and I absolutely couldn't bring myself to spend the money. So, I had Mike do it....and he got lucky because while the stretch Escalade might not have been vacuumed the night before - the drivers more than made up for it!!! In fact, the entire timeline for the day very easily could have been blown when the wedding that was taking place at church before us was running over 40 minutes late....but our awesome limo drivers saved the day!! I'll explain after the first picture below...

Mike booked us the 1938 Caddy, driven by Ray, and the 20 passenger Escalade, driven by Junior (Charlie Jr.). The Escalade was for the bridal party, and the Caddy took my parents and I to the church, and then took Mike and I to the reception.

So let's talk about how Ray and Junior saved the day....

The plan was for the Escalade to pick up the groom and the groomsmen and drive them to the church early and then swing back to my parents home to pick up the bridesmaids. Let me first say that our cars were ALL ON TIME, which helped so much!!! Junior picked up Mike and the groomsmen to go to the church, but when they got there they realized that the wedding before us was running almost an hour late. When Mike got to the church the other wedding party should have been on their way out, instead they were just starting their full Mass ceremony. Uh oh. So Junior, our limo driver, got the phone number of the limo driver for the other wedding party and asked that limo driver to call him as soon as they left. This was perfect. Perfect!! When Junior and Ray showed up at my house - perfectly on time, might I add - Junior told me to take my time with pictures because the other wedding wasn't going to be done for at least a half hour. At first I had the initial feeling of panic, and then he said, very calmly "Don't worry, they are going to call me the minute they leave, it takes us 10 minutes to get the church, you'll be fine." Ray and Junior insisted we use the delay to take more pictures, which turned out to be perfect. While we were waiting for Junior to get the call from the other bridal party, we snapped some fun shots in my neighbors garage sale...

Most brides might have been upset by their neighbor having a garage sale, I thought it was kinda awesome. As long as my cars had a place to park, I was a perfectly happy camper.

We also got to take some fun shots with the Caddy....

Alright, so while we were taking the pictures, Junior got the call that the other bridal party was getting into their cars and heading out. It was GO time! Ray was super helpful in getting me (and the gown) into the car.

Ray helping me get in, and Junior holding the door for me.

In fact, Ray ended up being the one to show my dad how to pull the veil over my head, and Ray was also the one that put out my train before I went down the aisle. Thank you SO much, Ray!! Ray was such a kind, warm and helpful guy, which was just what I needed to calm my time-line nerves.

Ray and Junior planning our arrival so perfectly that I literally pulled up and walked from the car outside the church straight inside and down the aisle. It was amazing!!!! So, so, so perfect. Thank you to Ray and Junior for saving the day and my nerves!!!!

starting the walk straight to the alter!

Turns out we started our ceremony only about 10 minutes late and - thanks to Father Steve (the fasted Monsignor out there) - we ended exactly on time!!!

As for the couple before us....I do feel bad because my guests crashed their receiving line. In fact, one of my guests asked for a picture of the other couple to show me "who made me so late". HA! So now I have, along with my own pictures, a picture of the other bride and groom who's timeline didn't work out so well. I hope their day turned out amazing anyway!

Today I am Tired

Today I am tired. Not just a little tired, but sleep-in-your-food tired. You know the feeling, looks a little like this...

I might feel like hell right now, but I think I've gotten a lot accomplished this week. I've started a Believe Notes Facebook page, which is really exciting because I adore Facebook (who doesn't?!). I'm planning on doing a little give away when the page reaches 100 "likes" so please head on over and like like like me!

I've also finished up two more of my wedding invitation designs for a new line, which I know I've been dragging my feet on, but now that my own wedding is over, I can focus on launching these new designs.

Over the week I've done some research on taking better pictures of my products, and I've starting re-shooting everything using the tips I learned. Everything looks great and I plan on adding a new item to my Etsy Shop every week! I'm also exploring other options for online stores. Etsy rocks, but I would love to be able to offer higher end wedding invitations through a separate vehicle. Sometimes I feel like Etsy demands the lowest prices possible, and in order to do that I need to keep the designs simple. I'd love to have two shops, one for the high end products and another shop for the more DIY client...I might even explore printable designs.

Anyway, this week I have also begun networking. My business has taken a backseat over the past two years to home buying and wedding planning, but moving forward I want focus on growing my passion for stationery. I'm looking forward to learning as much as possible about the stationery business world over the next years.

So, for now, me and my tired little self are going to go relax - for maybe 5 minutes....and then I'll find something more interesting to do :)