adina designs

my jewelry product photography has been posted by the seller, adina designs. i'm not advertising for him or anything. i am using his page to advertise for my photography =)

Adina designs, photography by Bobby Ren







today i finished the rest of the pieces for this set. i used the new 100W daylight bulbs in the two can lights, and it works really well. this is my awesome ghetto setup: 2 lights, 1 plastic bin light tent, one tall tripod, nikon d90 dslr with an 18-105 zoom lens. i shot the pictures at f11 with 1/13 second exposure, with a white balance set for daylight/sunlight.

moonlit photography gig

last night i did a photography gig for mark and his girlfriend. he threw her a surprise birthday party on his awesome north end apartment roofdeck. i got some spectacular shots not because of any skill of mine but because the setting was so great. here is mark surprising his girlfriend.





i met a lot of cool people and we had drinks and a lot of food. i guess i'm not one to be a pure photographer - i partook in the celebrations as well and i think it made the whole experience better.



the night sky was really pretty and i got a bunch of cool silhouette shots. well, it was just that i couldnt really get good photos so i told people i was taking silhouette shots. at one point, someone brought out a "wine bong" and i was like this is a strange mix of college and grown up drinking parties. yes, even i had some.



there was one point as well when they took photos of the mothers and daughters - the two girls who were best friends and their moms took a picture together. only today did it occur to me that in a different setting, "mother-daughter shot!" would have meant something completely different.








it was a cool night. i hope i get invited to more party photography gigs.

learning about lighting

the past few days i did a bit of work to put together a light tent for some photography projects. also, everyone and their mother seems to be doing home renovation so I made a trip to home depot for some lighting. i bought two sets of CFLs - a pair of 40W equivalent daylight bulbs (5000k color) and a 100W equivalent soft white for a shower light. and then i ran across two small can light lamps (kinda like this) that would have been pretty cool for my light tent. right now, it's a large desk lamp and my aquarium light. so i learned a couple of things:

1) bulbs have a couple of measurements: wattage, lumens, and color temperature. a CFL produces higher lumens for a lower wattage, and bulbs of all wattages and lumens can be bought at various color temperatures. daylight bulbs are best for light tents.

2) warm white, which has a more orange glow, is around 3000K, and cool white, which is typical of fluorescent bulbs, is around 4000K. daylight bulbs, which provide a full range of the sun's spectrum, is around 5000K.

3) bulbs are also designated by their sizes and shapes. the cans i want to buy use R20 or P20 bulbs. but as long as the fluorescent bulb fits, it should be ok. wattage limits are usually to protect the fixture so that the heat from the bulb doesn't melt the casing.

so now i'm going to set up a better photo tent. i'm not quite up to Ken Rockwell's level but maybe soon. I have a few jewelry photography pics from my last project posted on the designer's website, and hopefully this weekend i'll get more product pictures done, and also a picture of my very temporary, but fitting, setup.

jon la joie

i just discovered jon la joie.

"Every Day Normal Guy"



Sex Criminal fashions



i think i'll download this song and sing to it when i'm driving or at the mall