Photo Shoot

I've been making fake ads for my portfolio over the past few weeks. This has been a learning experience, since I've had art directors and another intern give me feedback and suggestions for how to improve them. If I can figure out how to post small ones on here, I can show you the progression. In any case, they look a lot better now.

At the suggestion of the creative director, I also began making a series of ads for my custom jewelry business. Okay, it's not actually a business, but I make jewelry or am commissioned to make a specific piece and then sell it. This is really more of a hobby than anything, but of course I would like to grow my little business and perhaps put it online. And where better to start than with ads?

We have a light box in the office, which is a fairly large box-like thing with a light on top, that provides good light when shooting small objects, like say jewelry. I brought some ribbon to play with the display and here's a sampling of the result:

Not bad, eh? I liked how the ribbon looks like the breast cancer ribbon. And the earrings don't look bad either! They are made of sterling silver chain and earring backs with Swarovski crystal and cubed red coral accents. Here's another one:

These are Venetian glass, also with sterling silver backs and beads.

The production guy at the agency used the large, fancy camera that we have to take these shots, as it is very expensive and I have no idea how to use it. I also took pictures on my own (still nice but not as large or expensive) camera, so I'll have to put those up later if I find some good ones.

So do they look good enough to buy? In an ad, I'm hoping they'll look good. And, as a small plug for my jewelry business, the second ones are available for purchase (however, the red ones are my mother's, though I can replicate their style) if you're interested.

As my first photo shoot, this was a fun experience. Especially getting to tell the production guy what I was visualizing for him to do for the shots. I know as a copywriter, I wouldn't really be doing stuff like this but it was fun pretending to be an art director for a day.