Being a solo-preneur can sometimes feel a lot like being a one-woman band, where you have to do everything yourself. Of course, you can hire talented craftsmen/artists/freelancers to help you (technical editor, copywriters, translators, photographers, models, knitters, dyers, etc.) but let’s be honest, this is not often the case. And then you do everything yourself.

One of the crucial skills in our work is our ability to take, or at least have at our disposal, good photos. If you dig a little into your memories or pull up my Instagram feed, you’ll see some pretty bad photos. It took a lot of hard work and study(*) to be able to take pictures that I’m proud of and that I love!

Well, almost all of them! First of all, let me just say that my face is intentionally absent from all my photos. It’s a personal choice because I don’t feel comfortable enough to have it everywhere on the internet, I’m far too shy / reserved for that. But that doesn’t make taking pictures any easier!

I take all my photos on my own, with my camera and a tripod. I’ve recently changed my device, which means I now have a screen and a remote control, which makes things a lot easier…

Taking beautiful photos of a model requires a lot of work. Typically, you have to be careful to stay in the frame, be in sync with the camera countdown, have a nice pose, and also watch out for any creases that might hide the knits and patterns you’ve spent hours creating and that the shawl doesn’t fall off! And have a nice background, and a nice highlight with the other clothes, and good light. The list goes on and on! But #onestpasdesmannequins, so … we have quite a few failed photos stored in our hard drives! Hence this little challenge to share these not-quite-perfect photos with all of you and not just with each other 😉

Finding the right pose is never easy. We want to showcase knitting and stay natural at the same time, while making a pretty picture. If you have any tips, we’d love to hear from you in the comments! And if not, you can invite your favorite designers to show us their photos too. Because #onestpontdesmannequins!

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