My friend Cindi asked me to photograph a bracelet for a postcard, and since I wasn't under the usual constraints (i.e. suitable for jury slides) I decided to play with the background and lens a bit:

Denim blue floral bracelet, with micro-macrame^[1] shot with the lensbaby sweet 35. There is a lot of background to give the graphic designer more cropping options.

I was hoping the point focus would emphasize the lampwork accent, as the postcard is to promote the artist's beadwork, rather than her jewelry-making. —Normally all that lace and whatnot would be way too distracting, but as the exposure nearly whites it out, not to mention the circular bokeh, I didn't think that would be a problem.

Unfortunately the fringe competes with the button. Well, rats. I could re-style the thing with the fringe to the side, as in the photo below, but I really wanted the diagonal composition. After messing with this awhile (I threw away a bunch of pix with inexact focus, specular highlights from bouncing light with a mirror, etc) I decided I was done. We can go with tried and true:

On black plexi, using my standard zuiko macro 50mm prime lens. The white spot on the black bead on the foremost fringe is an artifact, weirdly enough. On the big version of the image, it's several teeny dust spots.

Sometimes, easy and simplest is best. Well, easy in the sense that I had two seconds to grab and hold a diffusing panel in each hand before the shutter clicked. I shot this at various f-stops but liked the f.2, with the very short DOF^[2] was best—not only hid all the dust on the plexi, but also popped the button and reduced the competing interest of the fringe.

But at least my friend liked the artsy styling, though to be just she was judging from a tiny pic on my phone.

Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.