Purple Floral Amy’s Rag Bag Pad, the Starry pad is from Indigo Honey, and the Geisha from Mimi’s Dreams.

Outrageous! , C-pop commodities and Indigo Honey

I bought the Outrageous, C-pop and I did a pad swap together (I cannot tell you how much I love that sushi print!), and the Indigo Honey just mysteriously arrived for me one day, with a cute little note and a cute little paper crane!  Awww  Thank you!

I admit, I have some set aside for MiniObsi in a box in her wardrobe, and a bag of ones I don’t like as much but can’t bring myself to give away…. So the ones I actually use are kept in a bedside table type chest of drawers..
(Pantyliners & small pads)

(Medium length pads)

(Long pads)

(Extra long pads)

So…. what’s actually in my stash…. I photographed most of them…

Amaz Padz, Ambrosias, Angel Pads (x2), A Little Monkey Business (x2), Amy’s Rag Bag (yes, that’s a belted pad!)

Blue Faerie (weepingmoonblue)

Clair De Lune, County Cloth Creations (x3), Clara’s Cloth (x2), Clothique (x3)

Diana (swapped) and Daisy Girl (middle pad)

Ecofemme (x2), e-a-poos (x2), Essence of Eve

Glad rags, Go With The Flo (x3), Girly Bits (x4)

Homemade Mama /Homestead Emporium (x5), Honey Bee Hill,  Hag rags (x8 though I’m missing 2 more)

Joyful Living Naturals (x3), Jade Lady

Lady Tango, Luna Wolf (x2), Lunapads

Top row – Mimi’s Dreams, Modest Maiden (x5), Mommy’s Touch, MoonEase, Moon Pads (AUS)
Bottom/middle row – Modern Acorn, Mimi’s Dreams (x5), Moon Pads (USA), Matersum

Naturally Hip, Nice Knickers, Noonee Wilga, Nature Tex, Natural Blue Cloud, Nice Knickers (now called “Flourish’)

Fussy Butt, Outrageous

Obsidian Star (my own brand)

Obsidian Star

Obsidian Star

my extras too boring and old to photograph and that I no longer use

Top row – Picanini (x7), Punky’s Pads (x 7)

Bottom row – Pleasure Puss, Platinum Panties (x2 – 2 missing), Procraftination, Pink lemonade (2 missing)

Quirky Quintessentials (x3), Yurtcraft (x 6)

Razzily Rhino (x5), Red Rag (top), Red Drop Pads, Rainbows (x6)

Sckoon (that I dyed purple), Surrender to the flow, Scarlet Moon (missng a pink heart one), Sanguine (x2)

Twinkle Lily (x5), Tamarack

Devilindisgize (x3 – missing another long one), pads from swaps

Hippie Made, Born of Nature (x2), Ditto Pads, Sassy pants (x3), Aunt Flow

Vag Pads (x2), Wemoon, Wonderfully Made, Wee Essentials, Wrigglebots (bottom)

Top row – Zen Moon (x4), Swapped pad made by Beetle Bums

Bottom row – swapped liners, Blue Moon Designs (x2)

Assorted – Ambrosias, Twinkle Lily, LilyPads, Picanini, Kayz pads, Happy Heiny, and a couple of swap pads and stuff

Typical, Brought in the laundry the day after I took all these photos and found my other Scarlet Moon pad… and realised I’d forgotten to add my Feral  Feminine Splodge pad (which I’ve been meaning to frame and put in the toilet – since it’s too special to actually use).

Twinkle Lily, Quirky Quintessentials & County Cloth Creations

Homestead Emporium
(I did have 3 of the liners, but MiniObsi wanted one for her stash)

They are by (from let to right):

• “Purple Haze” pad from Hippie Made (Using the Kiki pattern)
• A bamboo velour and 2 (though only one is pictured) bamboo fleece or jersey (it’s smooth) pads and a smaller BV pad from Zen Moon
• 2 pads from Modest Maiden (I have a tea pad and it has “chai” on it!!!!!  how cool is that…that’s why I bought it…. to have a pad with chai on it!)

There are lots of ways you can take product photos….. Some can look stunning and make you more likely to buy the product just because it looks great, some can make the product look bad simply because the photo is dark, grainy and terrible.

Photos of products you’d buy online (like pads) are REALLY important, because it can be what people base their buying decisions on.

But I see in my travels lots of pad makers who are not doing their pads justice by the fact that their photos aren’t the best. I’ve been turned off buying pads because the photos are so bad I assume the craftsmanship is too (or just simply I can’t see enough detail to make me comfortable buying it)

So….

I’ve taken some photos of the same pad in many different locations around my house and on different backgrounds.. to show what a difference just the background can make to product photos… so I can try to convince some pad makers that it is important to put some thought into how they photograph their products and think beyond just using a piece of white fabric or something…

I’ve simply cropped and resized them…. as you can see the lighting around the house and outside can make the pad appear completely different too (dark blue to royal blue). Normally if I am photographing pads inside I use my graphics program to adjust the brightness/contrast to fix the low-light dimness they tend to have… but I’ve left them be for this to demonstrate how lighting also affects the look… as this is also something to consider.

So… reply and tell me which photos you like the best.  Which ones would make you more likely to buy the pad (assuming you were in the market to buy a pad of course).. which ones do you not like.. and why. If we can discuss this, it might help pad makers work out how best to display their products.

I know the other option is to have no background (edit the photo in a graphics program to remove it)… and setting up fancy light boxes and stuff to make a more professional photo…… but here were just focusing on if you have to have a background and you’re just going to be taking photos in a basic form (without light boxes and graphics editors), what’s the best way to do that to make the product look best.

I’ve actually written up an article for CPS about this too… but I’m hoping to get some discussion happening here so that people can see what other peoples thoughts are, not just my own

The Photos!

(Black Fabric, “White” Fabric)

(Bamboo Velour Flat, Bamboo Velour Wrinkled)

(My Doona, Computer Chair)

(Microfleece flat, Microfleece Wrinkled)

(Dyed BV flat, Dyed BV Wrinkled)

(A throw rug flat, the throw rug Wrinkled)

(Cotton couch cushion, Metallic thread scatter cushion)

(Tutu skirt)

(Coloured balls, Bamboo placemat)

(Book, Teatowel)

(Various shots using a gold metal basket on bamboo velour)

(Floorboards)

(Plain white paper, Particle (wood) board)

(balcony Railing, Blossom tree)

(Daisies and Weeds, Wooden decking)

(2 kinds of concrete)

(Fence, Grass)

(Flowering Bush, Tree branches)

(Clothesline, Garden of weeds)

A Procraftination pantyliner, a Yurtcraft Geisha, a Go With The Flo and 2 Luna Wolf Lovebug liners.

And pads I got in a swap:

Naturally Hip (orange), Punky’s Pads (Large Geisha), Sanguine (Blue Batik), Fussy Butt (Purple Velour), Modest Maiden (Blue liner), Yurtcraft (Geisha with fan), Platinum Panties (red Geisha)

Go With The Flo, Quirky Quintessentials and Platinum Panties

Here is my other Platinum Panties Geisha pad I misplaced

Aren’t you jealous!!!

Isn’t it beautiful!!!!!!!!

It was a birthday present from a friend. It is felted, hand dyed and appliqued with a woman worshipping the moon. Which is (accidentally I believe) almost exactly the same as the avatar I use a lot:

and she has a pentacle tattoo on her lower back very cool.

Also… normally when I take pics of my stash, its to show off bought/swapped pads I have, not normally pads I’ve made for myself (mostly because I don’t have the chance to make pads for myself much)… but I’ve included some of my favourite pads I’ve made myself.

Bought/Swapped pantyliners:

Some of the nicer pantyliners I made for myself

Bought/swapped smaller pads

Some of the smaller pads I’ve made for myself

Bought/swapped medium to long pads

Bought/swapped long and extra long pads

And lastly, some of the extra long pads I’ve made