in (camera, ring, future husband, and SUN) love

Since living in our apartment, I have come to love this time of year. The sun is at a perfect angle to shine brightly and directly through our windows for much of the day. Our dining room is a particularly lovely place to be, since the sun doesn't have a patio roof or trees to block it.

Since Will and I got engaged at night, I didn't have a chance to take pictures of my ring in great lighting conditions, so I decided to take advantage of the sun this morning. I also have a new dslr camera that I've been lusting after for years, so I've been so excited to read some "jewelry photography" tutorials and start experimenting.

First step? Set up a photo shoot of sorts using things I already had. I don't have a macro lens (a lens for taking close up pictures), and I don't have a tripod, but that just means I need to be creative while I save for those things. I am by NO means an expert at shooting with a DSLR, so I'm not even going to begin to give specifics for how I took these pictures. After about a week with my camera, I'm inching my way out of automatic and into manual, experimenting with settings until I get a shot I'm happy with.

sundae dish as tripod? sure, why not?!

I used various items from my dining room cabinet: a white ceramic bird dish, a turquoise teapot top, and a milk glass sundae dish turned upside down. I had a black cardigan out to try a black backdrop, but ended up liking the light, bright background of my table a lot more.

When I was done, I had over 100 pictures on my memory card. I ended up with about 30 I was happy enough to save into my flickr. Here are a few of my favorites:

If you're interested, you can see the rest in my flickr account (linked to the right-->)