I am a Canon Rebel

 So, you think you need an expensive Canon Digital SLR with all the fancy-shmancy buttons to take a good photograph of your assemblage jewelry? This camera was my camera for almost all of the years I've been photographing jewelry to put "out there" in my Etsy shop, Sacred Cake. Yup. This is the one I've used. And it was used when I got it.

Old Betsy Blue

She's been dropped, bopped and treated very poorly by my grandchildren...she's had amateur sand removal surgery and when I got tired of the blue showing up in the reflections of my photos, I hurriedly tried painting her with white nail polish...over the red polish that was on her when I bought her...I even hid her behind a blank page with a hole cut in it for the lens so her color would not show...

and I still got photos like this

photo of bridal earrings taken with Old Betsy Blue 

And this

aqua blue collet in silver

Now (thanks to the three easy payments plan on HSN) I have a brand spankin' new Canon Camera...but reluctantly purchased and only because the lens shutters on Old Betsy Blue had to be removed in order for the lens to retract. And it is still NOT a Canon Rebel digital SLR (cue angelic heralds and boy-choir music wafting in  from above). It is a basic Canon camera like I had, but with a better zoom. Drawback for photographing jewelry, once again, is the COLOR. Will I paint my new camera with white paint or nail polish? Probably not.

Will I make a white paper with a lens sized hole in it and hold said white holed paper onto front of camera while trying to take a decent photo? Most likely, if it is a super shiny thing that I don't want to see a big black blob in when reviewing pictures.

this is me zooming with new camera

I never thought I'd be one of those old sticklers that doesn't want to try "new technology", you know? But I was resistant to learning a whole new camera all over again! What I had worked. If the lens had not gotten scratched from it having no lens doors from it falling in the sand at the lake while taking pictures of those meddling kids...none of this would have happened... Me and Old Betsy Blue would still be working together after almost 4 whole years.

Would you like to know some of my secrets? I'm going to tell it all for you right here. Because I really like to teach. I like to share what I know.

Here are a couple of non touched up photos from my new basic Canon~ on automatic....not too shabby eh? You can take good photos with whatever you have. Trust me. Can you see a huge difference between the photos above and below?

photo of earrings taken with Big Black 

Come back soon because I'd like to share with you some simple tricks to use to take better photos for your online shop.