Can't get a satisfactory picture, but I haven't given up quite yet. I still haven't tried combining flash with lighting, more natural light (which means trying while I'm on vacation next week, since I'm not home while it's light out in the winter), or using a film camera instead of digital. I could also try a better digital camera, since mine is pretty old as digital cameras go and the equivalent model to the one I have now has a macro focus range of 2 inches (down from six). But I'm not planning on spending money on that until a) I run out of other options, and b) I figure out what's going on with my job after the holidays when they're supposed to have their big announcement about being bought out by Engulf and Devour. On the plus side, posing them has proved easier than I thought it would be, and if I could just get the pics less dim I'd be happy with the results.
Meanwhile, I'm trying to climb the learning curve of the photoshopette software and my graphics tablet. Progress is being made, but boy howdy this would be so much simpler if I wasn't such a perfectionist. I'd accomplish so much more, in just about everything really, if I were more willing to just slap it together and put it out there, then move on to the next thing. Don't look back. Instead, even when I work on it, I end up procrastinating in effect if not in effort, by doing it over and over...tweaking here, tweaking there. That's why I'm a bit surprised that I was able to pose the little buggers in a fashion that I thought was adequate. Of course, maybe if the lighting wasn't such a bugger, I'd suddenly discover/invent flaws in the arrangement...but I think I'd be able to bear what I've done.