craftgrrl | Some new necklaces, two pins and a couple of questions...

I've been in love with using big vintage glass gems just lately, but I was in between orders for a while and was determined to use up some of the jillion bits and bobs and have.

I love this one - I bent the filigree into a little box and it's filled with pearls. I'm not sure the final look is what I hoped, but I'm keeping an eye on it in case I think of something to fix it. I love the mix-matched chains though.

These bracelets remind me of armour. This one is not my favourite colourway, but I cannot find my favourite seed beads anywhere.

This is the one I am always trying to recreate!

Thought I'd try my hand at a "yo-yo" after seeing them posted about on here a little while ago. So much potential! This has a pin on the back.

I like this pin but I think the green 'gem' is too stark, I may have to add something around its edges:

And onto my questions... I found these great glass lockets at a bead show and I love how they look with these pictures in (they are double sided - the two round ones are front and back views, the smaller one is pretty much the same both sides).

I like the way they look but I am having two issues. The first is photography. I am doing better with my normal stuff, but these being so shiny and with large glass components, I'm unhappy with the pics. They are much nicer in real life than I am managing to capture in my shabby photos. Any advice on snapping good pics of this kind of medium? The other is, just on the chain on their own I think they look unfinished, a bit barren, but at the same time when I try grouping them with other things, it takes away from them somehow. Am I missing an obvious third option? Any suggestions?

ETA: 2 pics I forgot about!