One of the reasons why I wanted to move from our last apartment to this one, was the increase in natural light. Someday I look forward to living in a home, where light enters the living space from four sides instead of one (I guess we do have on window on the side of the apartment so almost two), but I do my best to be content with what we have now.

Living in this space means I have to look harder to find well lit spots for taking photos. I thought I would show you a few of my favorites for the still life shots I create for the blog, in hopes that it might inspire those of you who are feeling frustrated by your own still life photo adventures at home. For those of you who are posting photos of food you’ve cooked, try moving your dishes to different areas in the house that have natural light (if you are taking your photos during the day of course!) if you have a dark kitchen like I do.

First, the two spots I use in the living room.

This cupcake photo was taken in the chair spot.

And I took this stroller shot out on the porch spot.

I don’t take photos in the kitchen very often because the lighting is so awful, but when I do I’ll try to use the edge of the counter that gets the most light.

I took this garlic photo there.

Sometimes I take photos in the office, and when I do I’ll usually lay some fabric down on this black table (fabric bought on sale at JoAnns).

I took this picture of our kitchen scale in the office spot.

Lately I’ve been taking most of my photos in our bedroom, it has two windows and so the light wraps around the objects a bit better.

This shot of my Paloma’s nest bowl was taken on the top of our dresser. I clear the dresser off frequently and use it for photos for That Wife.

Sometimes, if I am working with larger items, I’ll set things on our bedspread and use the bed as a shooting location.

I’ve also been using the top of our laundry hampers when I want a bit more of a neutral background.

These cookie photos were taken on top of the hamper.

I struggled for a long time to find a good spot for my week-by-week belly photos, and I recently found that our bedroom is the best place to do so (if you look at the shot of our room above, I’m posing to the right of the big black mirror).

Of course my preference for photos of people is to do them outside whenever possible. I dragged That Husband outside with me for this shot and we found a nice little spot right outside our apartment door. Look how little my belly was back then!

Hopefully this tour helped inspire you to find some better spots for photos in your own apartment!

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