A feline photo session

As a seller on Etsy, good photographs are crucial in order to get sales and be featured in treasuries and so on.  I'm not a good photographer, period.  But I have been working on my technique.  I'm enrolled in a photography class starting tomorrow but in the meantime I've been reading up online and taking advice from friends on Etsy.  One such bit of advice was to get a white back drop that I can hang on the wall and drape over my table.  This would give me the white background I need, since all our walls are painted, and allow me to hang my totes for better pictures.  Here was my first attempt last weekend.

New back drop.

Totes waiting to be photographed.

I woke up this morning to some unexpected sunshine so I got busy taking some more photos.  I got everything set up, pictures were taken and then I was informed that Cleo and Loki wanted a photo shoot too.  Here is what transpired.

Loki being original and posing behind the backdrop.

Doing a little turn on the cat walk.

Cleo joining the party.

Loki ventures in front of the back drop to check things out.

Loki trying to figure out how to get Cleo.

Let's play ring around the back drop.

Cleo ready for her close up.

Loki looking guilty after taking the corner of the back drop down.

You always need a hiney shot.

Artful contemplation.

Loki emerges.

With the back drop finally defeated Cleo gives it a closer inspection.

 Now you may be wondering: Where was Pepito while all this was going on?

He was supervising from a safe distance!  What adorably naughty kitties!

It's almost time!

Tuesday, November 1st, this little bird will officially be born!  On that day my business will be a legal entity in the state of California and my Etsy shop will be open for business!  I suppose I could make some references to an egg hatching or bird spreading it's wings, but I think everyone gets the gist. 

This week I got my Federal ID number so I can open a business bank account, which I'm doing later today.  I also went to the paper and published my fictitious business name.  I started adding data to my Etsy shop, but nothing is yet listed for sale.  The biggest to-do was reorganizing and cleaning my "shop", aka - my craft room.  I found things I didn't know I had and put like with like.  Now I just have to figure out the best form of fabric storage.  Sadly I have had to impart my own rule on myself - no more fabric in the house if there is no room to store it.  (Mr. Bird lives by this rule in his man cave, I guess I should too.)

This weekend I have a whole host of things to do focused mainly on preparing listings for my shop.  I have to figure out how to take good pictures of my listings so I'm sure I'll be busy reading the camera manual.  I need to set up a Pay Pal account and Quick Books subscription, and figure out my shipping policies, but mainly I need to CRAFT! 

Not only is my shop opening, I have a craft fair on the 12th and I need enough items to sell on both.  Recently I've been making some gifts for a special someone, but I'm almost done so I can work on other things.  I've been able to consistently spend an hour a night during the week to crafting, or cleaning the shop.  I hope that will be enough time on a regular basis to satisfy customer demands (if I have any) because it works really nice in our evening routine.  Weekends are a whole other animal.  I lose time in that room on the weekends.  It just slips away!

Well, that's all for now.  I hope to post some photos this weekend when I figure out the tricks to the camera.

Cheers,
this little bird