Saturday, February 19, 2022

The Olympics Winds Down and Photos for Etsy

The Olympics are wrapping up. It's been a wonderful event - despite the lack of crowds (and really, who would want to stand around to watch an event in -20F temperatures anyway?). The athletes brought their best to the ice and snow of China and the competition was stiff and thrilling. I'm someone who really doesn't like being cold (so why do I live in Minnesota? Yeah - good question.). I've learned how to bundle up, although my hands still get horribly cold when I'm outdoors shoveling the snow. I've got good outerwear and I've learned how to layer my clothing for warmth. I might be silly sometimes, but I'm not stupid, but I'm also not doing athletic events in the cold. 




The Freestyle Halfpipe event was absolutely 
frigid. The temperature was sub-zero, and the 
wind chill pushed that to -20 or lower. Miserable. 
I'm delighted that David Wise and Alex Ferreira 
(who lives in Aspen, Colorado) won silver and 
bronze in this event. The winner was Nico 
Porteus from New Zealand. 



I spent yesterday taking photographs of Swarovski crystal cubes that I'll be listing on Etsy. After doing individual photos of each color of cube on the 11th, I wasn't happy with how I would have to format the page on Etsy, so I determined I would retake the photos in a 4x4 grid instead. I actually broke down and didn't use my small, portable light box. Instead, I went into the closet where I keep my photographic supplies and grabbed my larger pop-up white box, and my two spotlights with their tripods. I've photographed my own work for years and have accumulated some very good equipment over time. 




I made the 4x4 grid earlier in the week. (I actually 
missed one color and just ended up adding it on 
the final page - I'll live with it and didn't want to 
have to retake all of the photos a second time to 
insert one onto Page 1). This gives the customer a 
good idea of what they're buying, and if they want a 
detail photo, I'm happy to email one to them. I'll have to 
figure out how to watermark these before uploading 
everything to Etsy. 



I wanted to use a tripod for my cellphone - because I'm using the cellphone camera for the pictures. Unfortunately, my tripod has a screw mount for an SLR camera, but no mount for a cellphone. I ordered one from Amazon after realizing that lack, but I had to rely on "breath and brace" methods for the series I took yesterday. After running a test photo past DH and Chickie via text, I changed a few things and got down to business. After a few hours I had all six pages done and everything put away again. I'll start working on the actual pages at the shop today and tomorrow, and might be able to upload those soon. I'd really like to get back to my Trade Beads. DH had interrupted me for the crystals project, so my priorities were shuffled. 




When I look at my notes, it appears I haven't been able to 
work on the Trade Beads since before the Olympics. I'm 
going to focus on these two categories now, and if DH wants 
something else up on Etsy, he'll have to wait his turn. 



I'm able to catch the final performances of Pairs Skating now, so I'm going to wrap this up and watch beautiful people on the ice. I hope you have a wonderful weekend. The Olympic torch should be doused today or tomorrow (the time zone issues can mix me up) and next week life will return to "normal" once again. I'll be back on Monday. 




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