2016—Vintage Dior

I’m practicing with my remote speed light and it continues to challenge me.  I wanted to try my hand at photographing a piece of vintage costume jewelry that I brought home from my Mom’s  a year ago.  It was a good challenge for me to use flash.  I used my 105mm macro lens and tried various apertures from f/2.8 to f/45 and placed the brooch on a mirror to get reflections.  In the end, I decided the most interesting result was using the lens set to f/3.2 to get the out of focus reflection in the mirror.  I also tried rear curtain sync so the flash triggered at the end of the exposure not at the beginning.

I was actually looking for something else in the jumble of necklaces, pins, earrings, and bracelets placed haphazardly in the various frayed boxes and worn fabric jewelry cases in which  my Mom, for decades, had stored her collection of mostly costume jewelry.  When I picked up this piece of glittery, and just a bit gaudy, costume jewelry and noticed there was writing on the pin, it got a bit more interesting.  The writing said “Chr. Dior 1961” and “Made in Germany.”  Although Christian Dior died in 1957, the heyday of his fashion house  continued into the 1960’s.   I did a quick Google search  which showed this set (there are earrings, too) might have some value.  Since I’m going to be in San Francisco on Thursday with my friend Melinda, spending the day wandering the City (as much as two old broads feel comfortable wandering around San Francisco) I thought I would take the brooch set and a few other vintage pieces to a dealer who specializes in vintage estate jewelry.  Turns out the dealer I found, within walking distance of our starting point, isn’t interested in 1950’s and 1960’s vintage jewelry.  “Don’t you have anything older?” she asked, after making an appointment.  “We don’t usually deal in that sort of thing,” she sniffed.  So, the appointment is cancelled and  Melinda and I will have more time to wander around the City in search of wonderments to photograph.