Into the season of sparkle.

So it's not quite the season, but it's so darn close I just couldn't resist getting a start on adding holiday sparkle to my life.  I found some pretty ornaments and thought I'd try them out in my little home studio.

Well, turns out I have a HUGE reflection issue.  (Which I kind of knew would happen, but I'm here learning people so I had to try and work with what I had for this first round of photos.)

My setup involves leaning several pieces of white cardboard leaned up against a photo album that sits up against a Rubbermaid storage container.  Today I even resorted to taping the cardboard in place so that two pieces of cardboard could be side-by-side - which increased the size of my backdrop.  (That move was my first attempt at reducing some of the refection.)

My lighting involved the overhead light, a large 'happy' light to the right of my set, an LED work light to the left of my set, and either a headlamp or a flashlight usually straight in front of the set or sometimes above the set.

I've been reading a little about reflections, and I knew I would have trouble as soon as I added a reflective item to my stage, but winter is a great time to learn about fixing unwanted reflections.  (Tons of reflective sparkle, sparkle, sparkle available over the next month, plus it's cold and while light painting outside sounds intriguing I suspect my fondness for the idea will wane a bit as the temperature drops and drops and drops.)

I found a book that I'm hoping will have some practical advice, so we'll see if I can improve.  But for now, enjoy today's best shots:

(And for this last shot, the blur is intentional, that's my Lensbaby in action.)

See on,
Julee