I got an actual camera
You know what has shocked me throughout this whole process of building a business? How GOOD I have to be at SO MANY THINGS in order to just be kind of adequate. Maybe at the beginning of everything in 2023 I just thought that if I was good at making art, it would basically sell itself. Firstly, I love that sweet, innocent thought, and secondly, it would be cool if it was that easy.
In 2023 I remember crying before my first holiday sale because I had no product photos of anything I'd ever made. My very sweet friend bought me a little lightbox and showed me how to set it up and take very basic photos with my iphone camera. I'll always be so thankful for her kindness and care. I remember being proud of how much better it looked, but recognizing that the pictures still kind of sucked. Was it great? No. Was it better than nothing? Yes.
In 2024 I kept trying to take good product photos. It was my first year of having an online store, and the product photos directly affected how my sales did. If I didn't have a picture of the product, no one would buy it. If my picture was blurry or oversaturated or didn't represent the actual thing I made, that was also bad too. I would spend weeks in the studio making something I was proud of, and then choke at the last minute with how to photograph it. Should I do it in direct light? In a shadow? On a sunny day outside in the summer? On an overcast day in the winter? I now know how each of these changes affect the quality of photo I take, but it was trial and error for all of 2024.
In 2025 I asked a photographer friend for help. I literally took a video of her explaining how to adjust my white balance because I was so certain that I would forget. (I did forget). During all of last year I still kept making art, and it still needed to be photographed, whether I was good at it or not. I am not ashamed to say that many of my photos were too pink, or yellow, or gross looking because I just could not get it figured out. I couldn't figure out how to photograph jewelry without light reflecting in the glaze, I couldn't figure out how to display the earrings without getting anything else in the shot. During most of 2025 I practiced with my husband's camera but still couldn't get the result I wanted. I was scared of breaking his camera in some way, and felt very conservative with changes I made to his settings.
In 2026 I was tired of trying to patch things together. I decided to buy a new-to-me point and shoot camera that would be my very own; I could mess with all the settings and experiment with it knowing that it was mine. I wouldn't fully dive into the world of photography because that's not how I want to spend my time right now. Are my pictures fantastic now? No. Are they adequate? Um, unknown, but I think there's some improvement.
In preparing for my upcoming vendor events that start next month, I needed to do some marketing work. This morning as I took product photos today for the first time in months, I realized that I was actually kind of proud of this picture. I think it looks cool. More importantly, it may be the first time I've been proud of a picture I've taken of my jewelry.
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If I could go back and speak kind words to the 2023-2025 version of myself, I would say, "Kate, you don't have to be good at everything all at once. There's no need to be embarrassed if you aren't great at something. To quote Adventure Time,
'Dude, sucking at sumthin’ is the first step towards being sorta good at something.'"