The Perfect Spot

Despite my interest in reading The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to our Brains by Nicholas Carr, I do run an online business. So, taking pictures and posting them online is a big part of my job.

In my old house I had what can only be called a perfect set-up: beautifully colored blank wall in a room with tons of natural light. Taking intense, saturated pictures was easy.

Though I love my new place, both workplace and home, I've struggled to find a great place to take photos. Finishing and therefore needing to photograph a quilt is not an everyday activity, so my assistant and I will go out on location shots for that purpose, but, I make fabric EVERYDAY and it's not a good use of my time to schedule a location shoot every time I have new fabrics to document and add to my store.

I honestly didn't feel like I had a solution for this problem until we converted my youngest daughter's room (she went off to college) to our new guest room/office. We bought a new bed and that has made all the difference.

It all happened by accident. I put neutral colored sheets on the bed because that's what I had and I positioned the bed alongside the window because that's where it seemed to work best.

Then one day, I glanced over to the bed and thought, " I bet I could take my fabric product shots there."

So I did.

And they turned out great.

In this shot I chose to include the edge of the windowsill by the bed.

Now I take all my photos here, group shots, individual images, as well as details of the fabric. 

I've gotten so attached to the spot that I won't let the dog on the bed for fear he'll mess it up. 

When I think about it I realize that it took a few years to find that first "perfect spot" in my previous home. I didn't even recognize it as THE place until I painted the wall. So, it's not surprising that coming upon a new place to shoot product shots might take a few tries and a bit of time...and some luck.

Instagram Inspiration

For a while now I've pondered the idea of how I can "craft" my instagram feed, that is the entirety of the images I post there. I came to this question because I wanted to create something beautiful and, frankly, something that would help me promote my work in an attractive and interesting way. 

Like most folks on instagram I began with just posting whatever was new. Images of fabrics, quilt designs, and finished creations comprised the bulk of my feed. Lately though I've wanted to do something more, something different. 

To that end, I did a bit of research, looking at a range of feeds and asking myself why they do or do not appeal to me and have found one essential ingredient that all the feeds I'm drawn to have in common: cohesiveness.

Each of the feeds I'm about to mention have pictures that all "hang" together. 

For instance, take a gander at @local_milk. It's easy to pinpoint the palette of this feed, a soft gray with bits of color interspersed. The images primarily focus on simple, domestic scenes and many of the pictures are taken from above or at a close distance. 

Compare that with this feed, @emfratson. I love both feeds and they're equally effective and attractive, but for different reasons. There's a broader range of colors here, though all the images still have a similar color feel. Additionally, there's a greater variety of subject matter among the images in this feed.

I'd invite you to check out those two as well as these, @nikoleherriott, @runnerkimhall, and @sundaysuppers.

Though I'm still working on mine, thinking about my feed and looking back on it has given me an opportunity to re-discover some images.

Some of which are very obviously related to my work:

Others say more about what makes me smile.

And some that can only be labeled, "For the Love of Charlie".

It wasn't until I did the review that I discovered these three themes and, I think, as I work on unifying my feed, I hope to maintain a focus on these three types of images.

If you all have recommendations for instagram feeds that inspire you and you think might inspire me or others, please, leave a comment here and share the beauty.