Well, in my blogging absence, I have certainly not been idle. One of my recent projects has been to create some lighting. I just love DIY, and from my resources online and a few creative ideas of my own, I have been able to create some light diffusers and a light box with which to work.

The light diffusers turned out awesome! All I needed was some scrap cardboard from my ever-increasing supply, some duct tape, aluminum foil, Pellon interfacing fabric, and a couple of clamp on shop lights from Home Depot. From my research online, purchasing these lights and diffusers would have cost around $100. With DIY, I think I spent less than $50 for the two lights, diffusers, and the creation of the light box. It may not be as pretty as the cute little kits, but the functionality far surpasses what I have accomplished with the cute little kits in the past.

Oh, what is that? You want to see photos of my handiwork? Why sure!

Ok. So maybe it’s not that impressive. It does, however, provide some great lighting. The first thing I tried it out on was my daughter’s baby doll that was passed down to her from her great-grandmother.

And then, of course, Molly decided she wanted to get in on the action. And I think Angel (the baby doll) had a few words of wisdom to pass down to the pup.

Then the Holly Hobby doll decided she wanted some tea party pics, but she fell asleep before I could get a good one.

Then I got a photo of my favorite carousel figurine and my tea cup.

A few days later, I was working on my weekly photo challenge. The challenge was “Less is More.” The extra challenge was to get a high key photo. After looking up the how to of getting a high key photo, I headed to my studio and built my light box. I got it built and then spent quite some time in the studio playing with lighting and taking “high key” photos.

I found that you can make just about anything interesting with this technique.

And then I thought of a really good combination for a photo puzzle. Can you guess what it means?

Then last week I had a chance to use my new toys for a product shoot. A friend asked me to take some photos of some of the dishes in her restaurant for the new menu. I’m going to show you my favorite one, so get ready to drool.

It smells and tastes as good as it looks! Trust me!

And thus concludes the story of my new lights and light box.

For now…