Today is a good day. After spending some time thinking and observing, I have decided to improve my photo set up. This specific set up is only temporary until I can get some better photography equipment. As many of you know, I was using the cabinet that my old home stereo system was contained in and using a Scottish styled flannel cloth that my old flannel sheets came in for a background. When we hauled it off, I lost my solid base for photos which I got back in the form of a nightstand which you see below. I used two cameras and memory cards to take these photos so I can put this specific blog post together. I also changed the size of my photos from 16 mm to the VGA setting on my Nikon Cool Pix B500 camera for several reasons. The first reason was because the photos took a really long time to upload and I don't have a lot of time these days. The second reason I decided to go to a smaller size is the fact that I can take more photos. I went from 6831 photos to 9,999 photos just switching to the VGA setting in my digital camera:
I loved using the top of my laundry hamper as a background and base. The natural wood color worked extremely well and really dressed up the photo. Unfortunately the base isn't too solid and it was hard to get my bottles of aftershave to stand up straight. The lighting was good there as well too. I just wish the base was more solid. These photos are still going to be used in my shave videos. I'm pleased to announce that I have purchased a Joby mini magnetic Gorilla pod for making shave videos. Now I will not be doing reviews. What I will be doing is basic video journalism instead:
While my nightstand is a more solid base, the lighting sucks over in that part of my room. So I have temporarily installed an old desk lamp until I can find something that will help with the lighting. I will have to find a solution to this after I get paid though because photography lighting can get very expensive rather quickly and I want to get a piece of equipment for sharpening my kitchen and personal knives. I'm not worried at all about the lighting in the bathroom for making videos because I've gotten some excellent photo results in my bathroom and my YouTube videos come out great when I film in there:
In addition to the old desk lamp, I put down a white bath towel down to help out with the lighting which is also only temporary. One piece of LED photography lighting should be plenty and easy to get. I will get it dialed in eventually. The new Joby Magnetic Mini Gorilla Pod will be a huge help. I also might switch out the white towel for a black towel. I will do some test photos of both to see which one works best for photos. Right now the biggest problem is the lighting. Florescent lighting seems to be the best. My bathroom mirror has one florescent light on each side of the mirror which does make shaving a lot easier. My blog will still be utilized in some way but not as much as it is today and when I started doing mail call and straight razor honing videos, I have slowed way down blogging. I'm doing no where near what I use to do which was at least triple of what I'm doing today in terms of producing content. I have sneaking suspicion that removing the bath towel might be a good thing and stick with what I have been using by itself.
