The subtle art of product photography!

When I first discovered this blockchain through @mada, I went though a process. The first was believing that this was in fact, real. The rewards earned here on Hive were in fact tangible. That was a major mental hurdle for me. Once I got over it, though, I was flooded with a tidal wave of inspiration for meaningful Hive posts. I was pretty manic, to be honest. Everything during my day was a potential blog, which lead me to what I wanted to address tonight. Photographing that which represents the reading. Giving a face to the content.

I guess you’d call this product photography, in a sense. If the blog is what you’re selling, it’s the hook that is going to get your audience to read the text. I’ve never really thought of Hive readers as the customer or client, the way you would in a marketing or traditional ad campaign, but that’s only because the value of the content we write and share is rewarding by the community and stakeholders. Still, a strong default photos does command attention here on Hive and thus, is usually reflected in the rewards it earns.

Over the years, between Hive, Etsy [selling prints], GoFundMe [setting up a crowdfunding project with @ghostfish] and various other creative endeavors, this has become a subtle art I’ve had to master. It seems strange to professionally photograph a print of one of my own photos, but the results are undeniable. It does add something special to product. With my typical esthetic using candlelight and dried flowers, it really does compliment the dark pinup style, even as a product shot.

In addition to the photos of prints or my book, Dark Pinup, by @wcpublishing, these professional photos have also come in handy giving me a way to showcase some of the illustration I’ve done over the years. Even know, as I design packaging for an NFT release on WAX, I’m finding myself using the product photo, rather than the actual photo of the model. Interesting. For new comers to Hive looking to make a splash, take the time and set up some unique, powerful and captivating blog photography.