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.