Taking Better Pictures

Photography just isn't my forte. I doubt it ever will be. I'm lucky to have nieces and a sister willing to model designs and a brother who's offered to take photos. I'm absolutely grateful to them for their assistance, even when it's given begrudgingly.

There are some items, though, for which modeling is either not necessary or not practical. Or for which I don't have a willing model. And there might be times when a quick photo tutorial is what's needed, and I don't have access to my brother and his camera at just the right moment. What do I do then?

Well... I have this problem. It's just a little problem - not very big at all. But when I succumb to it, I succumb to it. I can be impulsive in purchases. I can also be too deliberative.

(To illustrate my point, I'll share these two quick facts: one day I thought it might be a good idea to buy a house, the next day I talked to a real estate agent, two days later he started showing me properties, and 2 days after that I'd made an offer on the first house we saw. I considered the notionof buying a house and then had signed off on the deal within one week. One week. Just one measly week and I'd made a huge purchase - the biggest of my life to that point. On the other hand, I had a couch I hated. It wasn't comfortable - even giving me backaches from sitting on it sometimes, it wasn't attractive, and I'd simply had enough. I thought about buying a new couch for months before I actually did it. And by months I mean somewhere in the range of 18-24 of them! For a couch. Years of deliberation for a measly new couch. Which I love by the way.)

Now back to our regularly scheduled program...

This morning I made an impulse buy. I was standing at the bus stop, thinking about how I might be able to photograph the plush toy I'm working on (don't get too excited ... it'll be a long way off before I'm ready to share). And I was thinking about how I don't care for the photos of the nook cozy at all. And I decided I needed to rectify the problem. So I fiddled around on my iPhone until I found this: 

And I ordered it. Right then and there. I really don't know anything about taking pictures. And I don't have a clue as to whether or not this will be a helpful tool. But I'm counting on it to be.

What do you think - good purchase? Bad purchase? Neutral?