Photographing Painted Jewels

I took all these close-ups at the Musee D'Orsay yesterday. I just spent the week in Paris.

I was thinking about how hard it is to photograph little jewels at home.

The lighting needs to be just right so you can see all the details.

But when you photograph jewelry in paintings a different set of rules apply.

The closer you get..the less it looks like jewelry.

And that's when you realize the genius of the artist who's painting you admire.

Small strokes of paint can look like a complicated piece of jewelry from a distance.

Up close, you might have a hard time knowing what this is.

Or you might think my camera was out of focus.

Beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder.