Pig, piggy, piglet...

I love knitting.
I don't have much patience.
So, small projects are perfect for me.
That is why I love knitting small baby socks or pigs. Yes, pigs.

While looking for small items to make for my sons, I stumbled upon these beauties. It was a free pattern, so I went for a try. Let's just say, it took me many trial and errors to end up with these:

Rainbow piggy

Again, knitting is the easy part. 

At this point you have no clue how big they are... or how small.

Pictures are sooo important. Let me show you one of my first trials at taking a picture of the first piggies I made.

Pink piggy

Hmm, something doesn't look right... Ok, photoshop can help with clearing the background, but looking back at these... I just acknowledge it as one step on my path.

Now let's see if I improved anything

Autumn piggy

These became my best sellers at one point. 

Here is a little sense of scale:

Autumn piggy

Next improvement was, (besides clearer pictures, which could be taken outside in the afternoon on a white table) when I learned how to knit in beads as eyes.

New collection of pigs

This picture also shows size very well. 

Size can be shown by adding a ruler or a coin, but holding a small item in the hand seems the best for me. Yes, it would be even nicer to convince my son to hold it and stand still for 10 seconds, but I have to see that happen. 

Now back to the little rainbow piggies. In the next picture I'm barely touching it, but still you get a sense of the scale. A human hand also helps at judging the colors. Our eyes tend to adapt, and our brains recognize colors better if in the picture is a familiar object, not just plain white background.

Rainbow pig

And last but not least, a picture taken on my phone. That should really give you a sense of scale, since most people own a smartphone. Ok, most people out of the people browsing the internet. (My father doesn't have a smartphone... but he's not browsing the internet either)

Rainbow piggy

If anyone would like to see just how many colors and combinations I made so far from this pattern, you can check them out here.

Details, details...

Adding a macro lens to the collection is one of the most important things I did. A DSLR camera will reveal its true nature once you begin using the right lens for each job.

Autumn forest shawl

Dove gray shawl detail

Blue yellow crochet lace shawl

For the first weeks after receiving my camera ( NIKON D3300) i played around with the kit lens. It was fun! Still something was missing... I couldn't capture details, I had to crop the pictures to get rid of the unwanted bits.

So with the first occasion that an ad popped up on my facebook, that accessories for my camera were 20% off, I went for it. And never looked back. Enjoying the moment. :-)

More pictures of each shawl can be seen in my shop over on Etsy, here.

Or you can come back, to see what I have to share next...

In the middle of things

Recently I purchased my first DSLR.
The passion for photography has creeped in slowly over the last two years, resulting in this much needed investment.

White leaves shawl

I wanted to take stunning pictures of the beauties I make. Yes, I knit. And crochet...

Now the most important thing about these is presentation. If you can't show your items "live", you have to have pictures that "speak" to people. Here comes professional photography. Or let's say "passionate" photography.

That is ME in the picture and I'm not the one holding the camera. :-(

This was just about enough text, now I'll show a couple of pictures with right and wrong settings that just happened in real life.

The pose could be ok, but the focus is waay behind me, resulting in blurred subject with a clear background. NO

Autumn stripes angora shawl

This is much better, focus is almost in the right spot. The blurred background makes the subject (me, again) stand out.

If anyone is wondering, I knit these beauties by hand and they are for sale in my shop over on Etsy, here.

I'll be back with more pictures soon.