Lessons Learned:
1) I am not a product photography stylist. It takes a certain skill that I just don't have, no matter how many articles I read or photographs I studied.
2) Michelle (my photographer) can work magic in Photoshop. Even after all my years of digital scrapbooking, I would never be able to do what she's done. You'd never be able to tell that it was extremely dark and stormy the day we took the pictures. Thank you a million times Michelle for putting up with my crazy.
3) Speaking of crazy, it's crazy how much work goes into what turns out to be 5 finished photos (not including all of the individual product photos). I will not be taking a job in magazine styling anytime soon.
4) Let it go. I finally had to give up on planning it all out perfectly and just go for it. I ended up nixing almost everything that I had planned for that day, just because in reality my ideas didn't work. So I spent months agonizing over something that I had to make up as I went along anyways. Despite all this, the photos turned out way better than I expected!
I'm working on uploading everything to Citrus and Mint Gifts, and when I'm done I'll be back with more to share on all of the new products I'm releasing. Here are some preview photos for your viewing pleasure. Let me know what you think!