I worked today on taking new product photos and updating our online store. I am not a photographer, so after much web-surfing of articles on how to take great product photos, I was still wishing I could just call our son-in-law, Jason Duchow, who IS a photographer! (He would be happy to do it for me, but he lives 700 miles away!)
So, I put on a brave face, constructed a little lightbox and went for it. I wish I could remember where I saw this apparatus, and I would link to it, as it was not my own invention. It is made from a piece of poster board, a 10″ x 13″ piece of glass (from a picture frame), some packing tape and a couple of battery-operated stick-up lights. You make slits in the sides of the poster board, carefully slide the glass into the slits and secure with packing tape. Then, stick the lights on the sides as shown below. Here are a couple of shots of my setup:
I ended up using it outside in natural light, but would like to try some inside shots with another lamp shining into the box. I tried that this evening with some agates and I very much like the effect. 
I may take some inside shots tomorrow for comparison.
Check out our updated store: we’ve added new soaps and some gift packaging, as well as our lotion bars. I still need to add a few more photos tomorrow of the various fragrances of lotion bars and some gift boxes we’re working on for the holidays.
