Some Nice Arcade Toys Beautifully Presented

Thursday,  August 29, 2013
               (Blog # 2 of the day)

Some Nice Arcade Toys

Beautifully Presented

   I was checking out ebay yesterday, when some nicely-photographed Arcade toys caught my attention. You can see all kinds of excellent to bad photography on ebay and I really don't know if  how an item is photographed, makes the difference towards the final sale. However, for myself it does. I want to be able to see the details,and know that the person took that extra bit of time to photograph their merchandise well, as if that mattered to them in taking pride in working in their store or selling.

  So when I saw the nice photographs presented today, I had to write and ask if I might use them and write about the person, the store, and the photography. What attracted me to the photos is that the items were taken in a manner that complimented the old toys.  The background and the foundation (what the item is on) were old and weathered, had pattern and texture, were neutral in colour, and did not distract from the main item-the toy.

  When I taught pro photography and specifically taught tabletop photography, I would always set a minimum set of criteria for the photograph. One of these was not to use seamless paper. For those who don't know, seamless paper  is the long or short (roll that a person or product can be photographed on. It's used for straightforward imagery for a catalogue,and most of the time is very boring and  dull.  Naturally some students would complaint with all sorts of reasons why this was too hard. But most students, and even the "complainers" would come up with the most interesting foundations that you could think of. Naturally, as the teacher, I would have to produce set-ups that were both interesting and economical, and I did. 

Please click here to visit the store of Tweedindeed on ebay

   In their own Words 

(Biography)

Hi. 

I was with a friend when they were recycling cans and saw that they also bought Levi's. After buying the wrong ones, I learned what the had wanted was vintage denim. That branched out to other vintage clothes.  

I met my husband selling him vintage shoes and he taught me about antiques and other cool stuff. I've sold at antique show,and later we bought our house on ebay in Missouri. We had lived in CA (California) before, and we came out here not knowing anyone). My husband and I, started selling on ebay in the late 90's so that was our job when we got here. That's certainly a "different world". We decided to open a brick and mortar store 4 years ago, and have been doing well with that. 

We have found some rare treasures. No million dollar paintings, but lots of good stuff in the low thousand dollar range. We see the good bad and the ugly in this biz. You never know what will (or won't) walk thru my door daily. We get some"characters". 

It's a fun business. 

There's my bio, you can edit it how you see fit*.

lol 

Lisa McIntosh & John Greenwood

- tweedindeed

* I did some minor editing to this bio and arranged the writing in sentence s with spaces as you see above.

 I liked the fact that Lisa and John take the time to photograph their many different categories of merchandise in different ways.   They try to have different backgrounds and textures, both with the background and what the item rests on. AS well, the item is photographed well from the compositional aspect. Diagonals, repeating lines, are just 2 nice compositions that I found. Not only that, but the lighting is usually soft (maybe it's always cloudy in Missouri - just kidding). Soft lighting (cloudy) or in the shade reduces the contrast of bright to shadow) and allows the camera to capture the detail of items easier.  Another point that I liked, which also takes additional time is the fact that Lisa and John take many  photographs of their items, and write  very good descriptions of their items.

The above image  is how I normally present a toy.

I don't know if that small ball of white cement  was placed in front of the steam shovel bucket on purpose, but  it's fantastic!

I wrote another e-mail to Lisa to ask for her permission to present some photos of her other items for sale. As tyou can see, Lisa certainly has a talent for taking photos. But, more importantly,she likes to takes the photos and present her nice items in the best manner possible.

Above is a photos of Lisa and John's store in Brookfield, Missouri (USA).

I like how they've placed all of the merchandise neatly and easily to see.

Now where are those old toys!

Thanks for dropping by to visit,

and as always, 

have a great part of the day,

wherever you may be.

Stacey

toysearcher@gmail.com