When I joined Etsy just over five months ago, like a lot of new shops, I was struggling with a just about every aspect of the game. Marketing, exposure, photos, descriptions – the list could go on forever. About three weeks in, I started attending the Virtual Labs. They were Oh-So-Helpful, especially when it came to photos.
Boy, how I struggled with photos. I would easily spend 3 or 4 hours a day, taking literally hundreds of photos of one item. When I was done, I’d load them on my Mac, and then sift through them for hours, sometimes not finding a single one I liked. I think my personal item photo record fell at 538 photos of one item, and not a one of them turned out! Talk about frustration. But, in the virtual labs, I had always heard practice makes perfect with photos. It seemed that I was practicing a lot and that perfection was but a pipe dream!
One day, something changed. I’d like to think that fate intervened, but I really think I just physically wore out the moving parts in my camera. It was a point and click that wouldn’t focus worth a darn anymore. I knew sales were pretty dependent upon good photos. I needed a new camera.
I’d always heard in the virtual labs that you can take great photos with a point and click camera. Somehow, I didn’t think that was a good idea for me. Less than 2 months on Etsy and I already wore out a good point and clicker. I did the math and figured that if I went through those types of cameras that quickly, then the amount of money I would spend replacing them all the time in under a year would buy a better camera. So I ditched the Point and Click genre and went straight for a digital SLR, the Nikon D90.
The improvement was immediately noticeable! Better detail, sharper photos, less noise and graininess, better control over the camera’s features, and I only spent about an hour a week photographing items! That alone opened up a lot of crafting time while relieving a lot of frustration. I’m still working on my technique. I’m not sure I’ll ever have ‘perfect’ photos, but as long as I am improving, I know I’ll be motivated to try new and interesting things with photo styling.
Wanna see how far I’ve come? I started selling on a different site around Christmas last year, and these are some of the photos I took. I shudder and cringe at the thought of these, but if I can continually progress, I think anyone can! 
Why did I ever think this was a good idea?
For the record, I don't use giant stickers of snowflakes anymore!
Wha . . . ?!??!?!!?
*giggle* great post. Love the sample of how far your photographs have come! Thanks for the encouragement. ^__^