Photos always tell a different story than what I see in real time. It never ceases to amaze me the details I over look until I snap a photo. Then, in the still proof of a moment captured, I notice.Â
This is mostly true with product shots. It’s only after a couple hundred frames are loaded into the computer to edit that I notice the stray string in every shot. Or the random rake left on the porch that appears to be floating in the background. Â If you take product shots then you know, backgrounds count as much as foregrounds. A messy kitchen doesn’t sell your wok! It’s all about image manipulation. Create a wonderful environment for your product and people linger. In fact, it’s the number one bit of feedback I get on Mireio, “Your store is so inviting. I want to live there!” Â
Yeah, ME TOO! Truth is, a great product shot is about staging the environment in just such a way as to eliminate the distractions and highlight how fantastic your creation is! Right! Because it is fantastic and you want the world to see that. This is why, no matter how “real” my mounds of laundry might be, they won’t be taking center stage. Clean up those spaces, pare down the backgrounds, and let your light shine.
These details matter, in business anyway. But in real life, laundry does happen and random rakes do float in the background. And staging my life or the photographs of it is just a bit more neurotic than I have time to be!  Which is why I’m always amazed at what I see in a photograph.Â
Take the images above. These were shot last week. Boy Wonder and I have decided to plant a container garden on our dilapidated deck off the laundry room. It gets lots of sun and is pointless otherwise. Because it’s off the ground by a floor, we’re not worried about vermin munching on our veg—so it seemed the perfect spot to claim “Victory” and plant away. (Plus, I’m kinda making up for the fact that I took the kid’s “plot” of land in the front yard and planted roses. That was a bad mommy  moment. Ahem. )
But until I started editing  the photos, I hadn’t noticed that the back deck was missed 2 years ago when we painted the house. How did that happen? I mean, it’s this awful moldy earth-to-terracotta flaking mess out there. It should have been the first thing they painted.  Seriously? How did I not notice this disasterpiece before now?Â
What I did notice was that we miraculously had just enough old planters left over from the Marin garden to house all our new plants. And I noticed that my child, while totally enthusiastic at the nursery picking out plants, tends to bite off more than he can chew. Â Like his mother. He pooped out planting after 3 containers and left the rest to me. But he loves watering and so that’s all good. Every morning he’s out there crowing over the growth. Mostly, I noticed how much he loved just being together.
I suppose that’s the real mystery of life. We see what we want to see. Naysayers and photographs might tell us differently, but the lens we don to see life through is very much a choice. Not that the back deck doesn’t need painting. It does.  It’s just not the most important thing in the picture.
What I notice is that I get so used to seeing certain things that I don’t even pay attention. (like my very nasty strainer in the kitchen sink–EWWW!) Too many coffee stains, so I bought a new black one at Target. No more white. I wouldn’t have noticed the deck at all! My husband has been working on ours and our fence; we are painting our house this summer. Between colors and styles and procrastination, I hope we can stay married during the process.
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Man, home improvement can test the best of marriages, eh? It’s hard to get it all hashed out without a few tears. 😀 ~W
Great thought! Good to slow down. Don’t worry about the painting, you will barely stay ahead of the moss..:-)
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I have a feeling we may do it this summer. But if not this summer, then definitely next, since the backyard is on the agenda for ’10. ~W
sooooooooo glad someone else has stray sthreads in their photos, too
and glad you’re his mamma
I really like the idea of a garden on the deck. Way cool. As I’ve thought about it, I think perhaps we were thinking the deck was low enough to the ground that we could handle in the future. That, and since the deck wasn’t exactly damaged in the storm, not a part covered by insurance. Anyway, it is a really good project and I’m glad you guys are doing it. Oh, and seeing the glass half full is a good thing. 😉
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I suspect seeing the glass half full is a choice–you know? Well, at least for me. 😀 ~W
Thank heavens when we bite off more than we can chew…we often have partners who can help out! I love to plant and don’t have as much fun remembering to water…but, for the life of me, I can’t get the cat to agree to do it 😉
And you’re right, isn’t life about staging it the way you want to see it? We can see all the ick, but sometimes it’s better to just look at something more beautiful and find a way to capture that instead…but really, it’s so funny to look at pictures of a carefully staged scene and then think, “…wait! What the heck is that?!?!”
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Your cat comment made me giggle. ~W
I’m always amazed by the stuff I can overlook. Now that my kitchen is DONE, I look at old pictures of it and shudder in horror! But, most of the time, I didn’t really see it. Even now, my kitchen is lovely but covered with clutter. Maybe I’ll clear some of that clutter away today as a gift to my husband! 🙂 Happy birthday, honey. Don’t get used to it! 🙂
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I don’t even want to think about our kitchen, Liza. I just close my eyes–it’s so bad! (there would be so many more cooking posts if our kitchen wasn’t such a pit!) ~W
I love those pictures, please come to our house and take pictures! 🙂
That back deck needs to be tangy! 🙂
I love what you do with your shots – they are always original. No two pictures are the same – even if you shoot them in the same space, you always make it look a little different.
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I suspect the back deck will end up the same color as the fencing in front. Just a guess. 😀 But it’s possible we’ll treat it the same as the front porches.
And thank you about the photos. Lately, I’m not feeling them. But I think it’s the lighting that’s getting to me. 😀 ~W