My New Photo Light Box

It's always been a challenge for me to get good pictures of small items...things that I might want to share on this blog or that I might want to list for sale on eBay. So I took the plunge and purchased a light box to help with that type of photography.

This is the one I chose:

I chose this one because it came with lights and with the backdrops rolled, rather than folded. It's also relatively easy to set up as well as to take down for storage. And the price wasn't bad, either.

I dug into my keepsake box for some things to use as test projects in the new light box.

First was a fan club photo of Clint Walker, who played Cheyenne on the television program of the same name back in the fifties and sixties. I was a huge fan of the show and the actor. The picture of Clint Walker is on the front of a postcard, which bore a postmark date of May 25, 1960, and a postage rate of three cents.

The second item was a somewhat larger postcard bearing a picture of a group called the Down Homers. The group was often featured on WOWO, a major radio station in Fort Wayne, Indiana. They also performed regularly at the annual Bluffton Street Fair, which is where this postcard was obtained. Three members of the group signed the back of the postcard for me. I don't have a way of positively dating the year of that street fair, but it was most likely also around 1960.

The third item was my old song flute from elementary school in the fifties. Music classes were a regular part of the curriculum at the time, and I think each of us received and learned to play one of these song flutes.

The above arrowhead was also among my keepsakes. I'm afraid I don't remember any details about how that came into my possession. It might have been my brother's. Or maybe it was mine. Memory fails me...too often, I'm afraid.

So, after practicing with my keepsakes, I tackled photographing my collection of Precious Moments figurines. I'm thinking about listing them for sale on eBay; but, even if I don't do that, the photos will be beneficial for insurance purposes.

I was an avid collector of Precious Moments figurines in the early eighties. In the intervening years, I've sold off most of my collection. A few have been broken. But there are still several left. We're at that stage of life where we look around at all our "stuff" and realize that we need to begin doing some serious decluttering. 

After experimenting with photographing the keepsakes, I realized I needed to make some modifications to my setup. I needed a little larger workspace than the top of the chest of drawers where I began. So I moved to the dining room table when I was ready to begin working with the figurines.

I also found it helpful to add a light to shine through the top of the box, in addition to the two side lights that came with it. Then I set the camera on a tripod, set the ISO to 100, and used a remote shutter control. 

I was pleased with the results. I'm sure I'll learn more tricks as I work with it more; but I'm feeling good about making the purchase.