Strap-works gallery photos

I was contacted by strap-works.com to take some photos of a few of their Panerai straps for their new website. I won't say no to a photo opportunity of course - as long as I'm not asked to post the pics on the watch boards. Most watch boards are non-commercial and I think it should stay that way. Posting pictures with the intention to generate sales for the strap maker is considered "shilling" and that's something I don't want to be involved with. FYI I took these pics for fun and didn't get paid nor do I have a commercial interest in strap-works.com. I just like their straps and the owner is a fellow paneristi and a nice bloke, that's all. Anyway, I received 10 straps to mount on different watches and was asked to "do my thing".

I started out taking the same style photo of each of the ten straps on my favorite background, black glass. I mounted a SB-900 on a stand above and left of the camera to create the bright spot on the background. And I used a second SB-900 on the right hand side of the camera to light the strap. Here are two of the straps that I shot this way.





Then I took a pic to show the special Decima buckle that some of their straps have. The lighting setup for this photo was a bit more tricky, because I didn't want to overexpose the stainless steel buckles (one polished and one brushed) but I did want to show enough detail in the black buckle. After some experimenting I think I found a nice balance...



Below are a few of the artsy-fartsy shots that I always like to take...


Panerai 2A


Panerai 243


Panerai 127 (Fiddy)


Panerai 243


Panerai 2A

And this one is my favorite:

Panerai 243

The straps are really different. I like their daring and bright colors and the straps are really affordable. If you're interested in a strap-works strap, please visit http://www.strap-works.com. The new website with my gallery photos is not yet online. I think it's scheduled to launch sometime in May.

For more information about the flash technique that I used for these photos:

Lighting setup for wristwatch photography
Wristwatch photography strobist style

All photos © 2009 M.Wilmsen