Capture the Details: Still-Life Photography and Belly Dance

Oh hi, did you forget about me?

It's been a bit of a delay since I posted last. With holidays, and shopping, and trying to get a load of work done before my week-long holiday (woohoo!), I haven't had a lot of time to chronicle my journey into belly dance.

So instead, I thought I'd do one of those fun photo posts where I tell a bit of a story. Mostly I want to tell you 4 things I learned during my attempts at being a still life photographer for HipMix.


Background: HipMix is running a sale that starts today, and ends THIS Friday. Ah! Fire sale! Run! Ok, but in all seriousness, it's 20% off everything on our shop, so you know, if you're interested, shop now using the coupon code HOLIDAY < /shamelesspromotions>

What I learned (and probably should have already known):

  Round objects roll

I was trying to set this Howling Pig Foot Balm on it's end, so I didn't have a picture of it leaning against our white box, when it started it's escape and I snapped this shot. I really like it, though, because it illustrates that even inanimate objects try to run away from me :)

Hands are super difficult to photograph

I'll tell you a secret: Kaitlyn has all of her fingers. But you couldn't tell that from the photo on the left, could you? It's a disgusting fact that hands are the hardest things to draw realistically, and I'll venture that they're in the top 10 of things difficult to photograph. I officially have a lot more respect for hand models.

If you're gonna personify your mannequin, name her Molly, and you expect to use her as a pin cushion to photograph earrings, you're gonna have to be a little bit of a sadist.

I wanted all of the jewelry pictures to look consistent, so I knew I'd need to stick some earrings into poor little Molly if I was going to have a similar background for all photos.

Of course, I couldn't help but feel as if I'd given her an extreme body piercing, and the effect from farther away is traumatizing for the weak hearted (aka me).

Capturing the details matters

To leave on a less funny, more thought-provoking matter, I found myself thinking about the details as I tried to capture the photographs. In order to sell an item online, I want the experience to be as intimate as lifting an item off a counter and trying it on. Your pictures need to do more than show the appearance, they need to display weight, texture, color, and unique attributes.

It's like that in any art. You are displaying something, and you need the audience to interact with you on an emotional level, even if they aren't going through the experience. That's why we love the movies we love: because they take us somewhere else.

In dance, one of the first things you hear is, "make it look effortless". Dance can do many things, but in order to be effective, you have to pull us in. You can't forget the details, if you don't want to be forgettable.

What have been some of your more memorable dance performances to watch? I guarantee they thought about the details.



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