Photographing a miniature

I woke up today, with a layer of snow over everything. So, what was the first thing that came to mind? PHOTOGRAPHY! So, this one is pretty weird, I will admit. I have been wanting to photograph this miniature for a while. It was painted by a friend a few years ago. It looks very good, even after a LOT of use. I think that the shield shows off his quality amazingly well. That is all done free-hand.

So, I figured the light clouds, and all the white snow would make for VERY even lightning. It turned out right. My first pictures, put the miniature on the right side of the frame, and it really looked weird. I moved it to the left of the frame, and I really liked it. After a touch of cropping I came up with these two pictures.

My girlfriend suggested bumping the exposure a bit, and blowing out the background. That probably would have been a bit better, though, I am still very happy with these pictures.