A month of hearts: February 15

Photographed back in 2006 using a Lensbaby 2 lens on a tripod. A bit of red ribbon, some Battenberg lace, an old-fashioned charm, and the result is a rather dreamy, ethereal-looking photograph.

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Family "jewels"

My mom and I both had charm bracelets that we began when we were living in Hawaii and then Japan. Her charms were pretty cool — all sterling silver — and so were mine, but some were made of silver, some were enamel, etc. Here you see one of my mom's charms hanging from her bracelet.

My grandmother Carol Leigh had this big silver cuff bracelet that she got maybe in the 1930s, 1940s. It's from Taxco, Mexico and now sits in my jewelry box. I buffed up a section of it and photographed it a couple of weeks ago.

Both these pieces — and now these photos — remind me of two strong (often annoyingly strong) women in my life.

And now I'm going to be strongly annoying and remind you that I have an online macro class coming up that begins March 1. It's a shortened version, with just four lessons/assignments in six weeks. And it's designed for those of you who have close-up equipment and who wish to work on a series of simple yet challenging projects. The first lesson will be, obviously, JEWELRY.

Six weeks, four lessons/assignments, begins March 1, registration fee is $85. For more information and a link to my store to register: http://www.carolleigh.net/classes.htm

©Carol Leigh, insufferably annoying from time to time!

Macro jewelry

One of the lessons coming up in my Mini-Macro online photo class is about photographing jewelry, exploring lighting and depth of field. I have this old silver and amethyst necklace in a glass jar on a shelf in my studio. I kept the necklace in the jar and shot through the glass, filling my frame with beads and silver. Weird? Yes. Cool? Yes. Fun? Yes.

©Carol Leigh, who is usually weird, infrequently cool, sometimes fun...