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Photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing and when they have

~Henri Cartier-Bresson

Ben has been lending Eve and I his SLR (Single Lens Reflex) Nikon. The last few days I've been having a grand time with it. I am really appreciating what transpires with the depth of field with this type of camera verses a small digital camera. Out of the blue I recalled some boxes of antique postcards my mom had brought over. She had seen some sellers on Etsy use antique postcards and photos for their product backgrounds. Since both "Vintage" and "Antique" are part of my branding she thought I would want to incorporate them into my photos. At first, I didn't see how they would work, then after making an vintage inspired treasury for Etsy I thought I'd at least take a look at them. I took out the boxes and began to go through them with Eve. We ooo'd and awe'd over their beauty, both the front side displaying images and the gorgeous calligraphy on the back side. (Wish I could write like they did back then!)

I began by laying a few cards out and then proceeded to put more and more on the table. We found some real gems that will become parts of future projects.

Eve and I have had quite a lot of fun over the last few days with both the camera and the old postcards. I have been using the postcards as background props for my liquid botanical perfumes and the solid natural perfumes. Most of the cards are made out to my great grandmother, Rosa Groppo. When I was a child in Argentina I called her "La ita Rosita" and in fact some of the cards are addressed to "Rosita" instead of Rosa.

The title for my Rosa botanical perfume is in part named after her as well as the native California rose. Eve has been having fun with the reflections through the bottles. She took both the opening photo and the one with the face reflected into the body of the bottle. The image that opens this blog post we refer to as the Ryden photo because it reminds us of the eerie paintings by our friend Mark Ryden.

Lucky for us Ben did not take his camera back today, thus more photos are sure to manifest, stay tuned.

~Ambrose Bierce

Posted by Roxana Villa at 12:27 AM Labels: art, Photos 
Dear Roxana!
What a wonderful idea of using of Antique/Vintage Postcard as a background for your pictures. Indeed it has something special. But there is also something to be aware of - many postcards with all different elements on them (writing, stamp, etc) might give too much information, so it's difficult to focus on the core of the image (the perfume). I guess less is more is definitely the rule here. I like a lot your picture with a face looking through the bottle, but I guess I'd cut the most of the left part of this image. The same with your last picture as well - it's wonderful how light is coming through the bottle, but I guess one bottle and a couple of cards is just enough. And with the beautiful box of solid perfume - to me it's difficult to focus on perfume itself... But we are all different - as Earth element I might be too critical sometimes. But I like your idea a lot!

November 9, 2009 at 12:02 AM 

November 10, 2009 at 7:18 AM 
Hey Max, did you see Where the Wild Things Are? THe little boy Max in it is really terrific.
I've been finding that there is as many diverse opinions about which photos of perfumes people like as there are people! In general Nordic folk have a penchant for real clean photos, which I admire. Since my core essence is tied into romance I have been experimenting with ways of weaving that in.
 
Thank you Walk in the Woods.

November 10, 2009 at 10:58 PM