Simplicity in stacks… 

I love when you can take the simplest things… and create the most dynamic photos.

Today I’m shooting some fabric stacks… and if you were in my Still Stories 2 photography workshop you’ll know I shared a bit of this stacking love with book stacks. I love interesting, colorful, things that stack. On books – I love the worn and tattered looks of old books. On fabric – I love the folds and colors. On papers – I love interesting uneven edges – especially on antique papers.

Things that stack have stories. You wonder a bit about the larger piece. You wonder what the story of the piece is and how old is it? You admire the interesting textures, stains, stitches, words, edges, etc… that you can get a glimpse of.

I’ve seen a lot of beautiful sari fabric items around lately. Seems to be the thing that stores stocked for the season. I’ve also seen some on Instagram from boutique shops that are a bit expensive… but oh so pretty… so I was playing on Etsy looking for some of these pretty sari quilts and price comparing… and in that search – wow – are there so many shops selling some –  “Wholesale Lot Of Indian Vintage Kantha Quilt” seems to be the best search term for finding these… and they are so reasonably priced that I couldn’t resist getting a few to keep in my photography stash.

The thing about getting these from a shop on Etsy is you don’t get to pick out your favorites. It is more of a grab bag approach and you get what they send you… which is super fun to me… I love surprises. I decided that I was going to like and enjoy whichever ones I got… and while the 4 that I received might not have been the ones I would have selected for myself – I LOVE THEM! I spent about $60 for 4 and I love the colorful variety. Just to compare – if I had ordered the one from the boutique shop on Instagram I loved – I would have spent about $400 for the one. Since these are props and not things I’m using to decorate my house – they were perfect for what I wanted.

Other fabrics you can stack – look around your house and gather up all the fun fabrics you have collected over the years – dish towels, linens, quilts, napkins, fabric stashes from sewing, etc… so much fabric goodness in our houses that can be interesting stacks.

Today’s shoot was pretty simple – so check it out below:

This is a bit of a pullback of today’s set up so you can see exactly what I was working with. I folded each vintage Sari Quilt so they would stack neatly… then I set them on my table. I kept it really simple. I didn’t want lots of other props in this setup. I wanted the fabric to shine and the photos to be simple yet dynamic.

I’m at my table by the window. It is about 11 am in the morning – so I have some good light coming in my East facing window. Since the light is strong when the sun is shining directly in it – I have my photography skrim in the window to diffuse the light.

I have all the lights in the room off. I don’t want to have any competing light sources or light colors on my setup. I only want the natural light coming in from the window on my setup.

These photos were processed with the Still Stories 2 preset collection that comes in the Still Stories 2 photography workshop. 

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