Having a clean Camera

This is SUPER IMPORTANT when you have an online store.  I realized earlier yesterday that it's been over a year since I've cleaned the lens on my camera, and during that year, the camera went on a vacation to Mexico, was loaned to my 1yr old son several times, and had an accumulation of saliva and dust.

Why is this important?  If you lens is dirty, you're not going to get a good focus on your items, and when you're photographing something close up, like I do for the store, you need a CLEAR and CRISP focus.  I cleaned my lens yesterday and am very happy with the results.  Check this latest listing out:

The focus is clear and crisp and the photo is beautiful!  There is very little noise in the black, the colors are strong and wonderful.

So, how do you clean your lens?  Very simply.  If it's a compact, turn it on, so the lens extends.   Get a cotton swab and wet one end with rubbing alcohol and then wipe the lens down with the swab, going in a circle starting from the outside.  Make sure to get as far to the sides as you can.  Depending on how dirty your lens is, you may want to dry it with the dry end of the swab, then wipe it down with the wet end again.

When it's clean, lightly blow on the lens to dry it.  DO NOT put your mouth too close to the lens.  The vapor from your breath can get into the lens and condense on the inner elements, making it impossible to focus.  Make sure to keep your mouth about eight inches away from the lens when you blow on it.  It should dry after a minute with no streaking.  If it streaked, clean it again.

And, there you have it!  Your lens is clean so you'll get cleaner photos.

Craigslist

So we had a custom order the other day. That was good. Little by little we're getting our sold number up. How much good that will do us, I'm not sure, but it looks like progress!!

To try and help with the progress, I've started to list things on Craigslist in Las Vegas. If you're not familiar with Craigslist, I would familiarize yourself! It's only the best free classified ad site in the whole entire world! Things are good.

Karla's pregnancy is going along fine. I'm totally wasted as I work over 40 hours a week and then I have to come home and cook (cooking makes her sick) and clean the kitchen (cleaning the kitchen makes her sick) and spend time with her, since she doesn't have much to do all day. Between all those activities, I don't have much time to do anything! I did buy some energy saving bulbs today that give off 100 watts of light while only using 25 watts of electricity. They work very nice; the light is nice and white and it doesn't super heat my small studio.

Speaking of that, I did take some more photographs and we listed a couple new items today. Check'em out.