I Joined The Boycott Ebay Movement

I was on a Delphi forum earlier today called Boycott Ebay and this forum is urging everyone that does business with Ebay to Boycott this big auction web site. 

I am urging everyone reading this message to follow suit and stop doing business with Ebay.

Instead of doing business with Ebay I want to help promote a new auction web site that I just signed up with today, for free, as a basic member.  The new site is still in the process of growing.  The fees are much lower on this web site than they are on Ebay and the members of this new auction site are very helpful to each other.

The name of this new auction web site that I would like everyone to visit is OnlineAuction.com.  

http://www.onlineauction.com

 

I am not ready to sell anything on this new web site right now because this auction web site is still building up their memberships.  The more people that become members of OnlineAuction.com the better things will be for both buyers and sellers.

All that I am trying to do here is spread the word about this new auction web site and I hope that you will sign up and then help spread the word about OnlineAuction.com.

Here is a another link related to boycotting the once all powerful Ebay  http://www.myspace.com/boycottebay

 

On a separate note, if any of you want a lesson in what NOT to do when selling your jewelry online you should take a look at some of the jewelry scans and photographs on the OnlineAuction.com  web site.  They are the worst images of jewelry that I have ever seen.

I don’t know how anyone  can expect to sell their jewelry or other craft items online when they are using images that look so terrible.

Those sellers definately need to buy and read my ebook, or at least visit my web site and this blog.

Goodbye Ebay, It was nice knowing you, but I must move on.

Jim Juris

http://www.inexpensivejewelryphotography.com

 

 

Besides size, What Is The Main Difference Between A 8 Mega pixel Point and Shoot Camera Verses A DSLR Camera?

A 8 mega pixel point and shoot camera will never be as good as an 8 mega pixel digital single lens reflex(DSLR) camera made by the same camera manufacturer.  Why?  Because of one thing, the sensor in the camera. 

Point and shoot camera’s are much smaller than DSLR camera’s and because of that the sensor that is built into a point and shoot camera will be smaller in size than the sensor that is built into a DSLR camera.

How does a smaller sensor affect your photography?  The smaller sensor in a point and shoot camera limits the size of the prints that you can make.  For example, a 3 mega pixel point and shoot camera will not be able to make a 8″ X 10″ print, but you will be able to make an 8″ X 10″ print with a 3 mega pixel DSLR camera made by the same camera manufacturer .

In order to make an 8″ X 10″ print with a point and shoot camera you will need to use a point and shoot camera with a minimum of  6 or 7 mega pixels.

Remember, pixels refers to the size of prints that can be made.  If your only intention is to take 4″ X 6″ snapshots of your family and friends, then a 3 to 5 mega pixel camera will be fine.  If you want large prints, then you should consider purchasing a point and shoot camera with at least 7 mega pixels or consider buying a DSLR camera with at least 6 or 7 mega pixels.

If your intention is to take photographs of jewelry that you make, than a 3 mega pixel point and shoot camera will work fine.  I will go into more details about the differences there are in printing a photograph and seeing an image on a computer monitor in the near future.

Jim Juris

http://www.inexpensivejewelryphotography.com

 

I Predict That Hillary Clinton Will Not Be On the Ticket With Barack Obama

Nobody knows right now who will be Senator Barack Obamas running mate.  I predict that Senator Obama wil NOT choose Senator Hillary Clinton as his Vice President running mate.  If she would have dropped out of the race for president sooner she would probably have had a much better chance of being the nominee for the Democratic Vice President.

I don’t feel that Senator Obama needs Senator Clinton on his ticket to win the presidential election in November.

I haven’t seen any polls of how Senator Obama is doing in the presidential race against Senator John Mc Cain.  I still feel that Senator Obama will defeat Senator Mc Cain in the election.

As of right now, my track record on my predictions is as follows;  my prediction that Senator Barack Obama would win the Pennsylvania primary election was incorrect, but I am a risk taker and I knew that was a very risky prediction for me to make. 

My other prediction was that Senator Barack Obama would be the Democratic Presidential Nominee is just waiting to be made official at the Democratic National Convention near the end of August in Denver, Colorado.

Assuming that Barack Obama is officially named the Democratic Presidential candidate that would give me a 50% accuracy rate for my predictions up until now.

If my other two predictions should come true, and I think that they will, I will have a 75% accuracy rate for my predictions.

I will probably have to wait another four or eight years before I end up making any new predictions.

This is not a prediction, but I doubt that Senator Hillary Clinton will ever run for President again.  Who knows, maybe her daughter will be getting into politics and maybe some day she will run for President of the United States.

Jim Juris

http://www.inexpensivejewelryphotograpy.com

Any Questions About Photographing Jewelry or Craft Items?

I know a lot of jewelry artisans need help with there jewelry photography.  So I would like to open up my blog and answer any questions that you have about photographing jewelry or craft items. 

Jim Juris

http://www.inexpensivejewelryphotography.com

 

Senator Obama To Become The Democratic Nominee For President

I am thrilled to see that Senator Barack Obama will be chosen as the Democratic Nominee for President of the United States when the Democratic convention is held during the last week of August in Denver, Colorado.

You may remember that I made three predictions over the last several months on this blog.  I went way out on a limb and predicted that Senator Obama would beat Senator Clinton in the Pennsylvania primary, but the limb that I crawled out on wasn’t strong enough to hold me and I fell down and hit the ground hard.  Ouch that hurt.

I also predicted that Senator Obama would win the Democratic Party nomination and that prediction will come true later this year when the democratic delegates meet to nominate Senator Obama as their candidate at the convention.

Senator Obama was able to outsmart and outspend Senator Clinton every step of the way during the primaries.  Now the big question is will he be able to outsmart Senator John Mc Cain and win the presidential election in November.

Now that Senator Clinton has lost the nomination she is trying to become the candidate for Vice President.  She still has not admitted defeat in the contest for president.

My third prediction was that Senator Obama will become the next president of the United States of America. We will all have to wait until the results from the presidential election are announced in November before we will know if this prediction will come true.

What happened to the gas tax holiday that Senators Mc Cain and Clinton campaigned for?  Now that Memorial Day has come and gone you don’t hear a word about this subject any more.  Senator Obama didn’t favor this holiday.

Remembering Our Veterans On Memorial Day

The price of freedom in the U.S.A. is high.  We would not be enjoying all of the freedom that we now enjoy in America if it was not for all of the brave men and women that have fought and defended this great country. 

We honor our deceased soldiers, who have payed the price of our freedom with their lives, each year on Memorial Day. 

I wish that there would be lasting peace throught the world so that the President of the United States of America could bring all of our troops home.

Please join me in saying “thank you” to everyone that has served in the military because without all of their heroic efforts our great country would not be free today.

God Bless America!

Jim Juris

http://www.inexpensivejewelryphotography.com

 

 

Good Photographers look At The Subject Of Their Photograph From Every Possible Angle

 

 A couple of days ago as I was walking down the road to take some photographs I came upon this pair of shoes that where hanging from some cables overhead.  Normally I would never photograph something like this, but I took these photograph hoping to show one shoe in focus and the other shoe out of focus using shallow depth of field.  I don’t have a long enough lens to accomplish this but that is ok.

As I was returning home from my photo shoot I noticed the same pair of shoes that where hanging in the air, but this time I saw them from a completely different angle. 

I realized at that time that I did not take the opportunity to photograph these shoes from every possible angle.  Normally this is not something that I neglect to do, but this time I did.

I want to point out that you should always look at the subject of your photograph from every possible angle, front, back, left, right, above, and if possible from below, when you are taking photographs.  This applies to everything that you photograph such as jewelry, craft items, people, pets, nature, etc. 

You never want to come up to a subject that you are photographing and take the photograph from just one angle.  I know that sometimes this is not possible because of your surrounding environment but that is about the only exception to this rule.

I don’t consider these two images to be great photographs but I feel that they are perfect for showing the difference of how the shoes that are hanging down from an overhead cable look when you see them photographed from two different angles.

The peak of this church roof, shown in the upper photograph, adds some feeling of height and interest to the image.  I tried my best to use the rule of thirds for this image to make it look more appealing.

The lower photograph is probably a good example of how most people would take the photograph of this pair of shoes.  Even though I used the rule of thirds for the lower photo, the image doesn’t appeal much to me.

I hope that I have given you a good example of how important it is to look at the subject of your photograph from numerous angles instead of taking the easy way out and just shooting the photograph from one angle.

Jim Juris

http://www.inexpensivejewelryphotography.com

Today Is A Very Important Day For Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama

In just a few more hours the polls will be open in Pennsylvania for the presidential primary election.  There are a total of 158 delegates up for grabs.

It has been 6 long weeks since the  last primary election was held.  Both candidates have been campaigning very hard in Pennsylvania for the past week.  Senator Hillary Clinton needs a decisive victory in Pennsylvania in order to have any chance of becomig the democratic candidate for president of the United States this August in Denver, Colorado.

Hillary Clinton has done well in primary elections where the make up of voters is similar to that of Pennsylvania.  Can she do it today in Pennsylvania?

Whoever wins the Pennsylvania primary election will not only pick up more delegates they will also obtain bragging rights that they can use against their opponent in the remaining 9 primary elections.

I know that the residents of Pennsylvania will be happy when this primary election is over because of all of the campaign ads.  Barack Obama has spent a lot more money than Hillary Clinton has spent campaigning in Pennsylvania.

Of course I am hoping for a victory by Barack Obama.  If he doesn’t win today then the limb that I crawled out on about 2 weeks ago by predicting that he would win this primary will break this evening and I will fall down.  It would sure be nice if I could fly.

The results are in from the poll that I conducted on a forum that I belong to in which I asked the forum members to vote for the candidate that they would like to see become the next president of the United States.  There where 34 responses and here are the results;  John Mc Cain received 13 votes, Barack Obama received 7 votes, and Hillary Clinton received 14 votes.

Of course I expected Hillary Clinton to receive the most votes from this poll because the forum that I conducted the poll happens to be made up of about 98% women.

I was actually disapointed in the amount of votes that Barack Obama received.  I was expecting him to beat John Mc Cain.

Some people would have voted differently had NONE OF THE ABOVE been one of the choices in this poll.

Jim Juris

http://www.inexpensivejewelryphotography.com

 

Self Portrait

  I will admit that I have no talent as an artist other than photography.  I decided today to do a self portrait of myself and see if I could make it turn out decent.  I spent all day Sunday, about 10 hours or so, on creating my self portrait.

I Have some brass practice wire for wire wrapping and the first thing that I did was create an outline of a face with this brass wire.  It only took me a couple of minutes to create a profile of a face.  The face turned out nice but it was too tall for the small gauge wire that I was using.  

I then took another piece of wire and made a much smaller face.  This face turned out nice but it was just a face outline.  I wanted something better.

I have lots of beads and bead chips that I haven’t used yet to make jewelry so I took some brown chip beads and placed them in the face outline.

Now my self portrait was starting to look better.  Next I decided that I wanted to give my self portrait a little bit of class so I took some more brass wire and experimented with making a bow tie.  At first I tried to wrap the bow tie around the brass wire that I used for my self portrait but that didn’t work.

I then made a bow tie and just slid it underneath the wire of my face outline.  I used some blue chip beads to fill in the inside of my little bow tie.  Yes, I know that bow ties are black, but this one just happens to be blue.

I was now ready to photograph my self portrait.  I placed the bead chips and the brass wire facial outline in my light box.

The photography is the part of the self portrait that took me a very long time to do.  I tried using different backgrounds for my self portrait and I finally decided on a white background.

After I took some photographs of my artistic creation I decided to use a white bead chip for the eye. 

I add the bead chip to enhance my self portrait and I took some more photographs.  Just when I was happy with my self portrait photo I realized that the white eye doesn’t look good on a white background.  I replaced the bead that I was using for the eye and continued taking photographs.

Several hours later I finished my self portrait photography. 

I wish that there was a way that I could make this item smaller and make it into a pendant for a necklace.  I like wearing necklaces with pendants.

Jim Juris

http://www.inexpensivejewelryphotography.com

 

 

 

 

Hillary is Beating Barack and John in My Poll

I put up a poll about 5 days ago on the About.com Jewelry Making forum asking the forum members who they would like to see as the next president of the United States.  I have Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Mc Cain as the three choices.

Keep in mind that this is a forum consisting mostly of women.  Of course I expect to see Hillary as the winner in my poll.

Some of the people asked me about a fourth choice and that choice was NONE OF THE ABOVE.  I will admit that I never thought of having that as a choice and I was very surprised that anyone would want someone as President of the United States other than the three names I have listed in my poll.

I know that there where other people running for president that would be as good or a better president of this country as the three that I have in my poll but they didn’t make the cut.  Maybe they will run again in another 4 or 8 years and succeed.

As of this morning, April 10th, the latest results of my poll show the following results with 31 votes cast so far.

Hillary 14 votes

Barack 6 votes

John 11 votes

Up until now Hillary has been leading, as I expected.  What I didn’t expect to see was Barack trailing so far behind the other two candidates.

My poll will run for 30 days.

Jim Juris

http://www.inexpensivejewelryphotography.com