Good haul

I fell in love with the Lowel Ego light the instant I saw it on Jaden's site. I raved to Steven about how great it would be for the winter when it's virtually impossible to get a good shot of dinner because the sun sets at 4:30pm. The only thing he said was how ridiculously expensive it was. He was right - I mean, cmon $100 for a light? Me being the incredibly frugal aka cheap person that I am, I wanted to rig my own setup. I figured I could get some decent full spectrum bulbs, light bulb bases, and make the lamp body out of foam board and tissue paper and save myself $50. I never got around to making it. Sure I could save money but effort = time = money. It was quickly forgotten about and good food went unphotographed. Fast forward many months to Christmas morning. There I was, opening this huge present and I had no idea what it was. I couldn't believe it! It was the Ego light I had been pining for (and totally forgot about) a year ago. I couldn't believe Steven remembered!

He told me that when he was trying to come up with a great present, he vaguely remembered something about some photography light. The problem was he had no idea what it was called. After random googling for 20 minutes, he finally found what I was talking about. He even looked up how to rig up a lamp from scratch because he knew how much I value saving money and in the end, decided it was way too much trouble. Soo sweeet! *gush gush*

Our student lounge has a few light therapy lamps so the overworked med students don't get SAD. When you're in class before sunrise and it's dark by the time you get out of the bunker-like, windowless classroom, you start to feel crummy really fast. Those SAD lamps are pretty damn expensive too! So now I have a gorgeous professional photography light that doubles as a SAD happy lamp. Win win!

Now my nook table has been taken over by the light but I don't mind. My impromptu light box consists of a reflective board (that came with the Ego light) directly opposite and another one behind the light (this foam board comes from a school project from the 8th grade, I kid you not) and a piece of white posterboard propped up on top. It doesn't look very pretty to say the least, but it gets the job done. Most importantly, the light is amazing! A lot of my recent photos have been taken long after the sun has set and I think they look even better than some photos during the daytime B.E (before Ego). I also use the light during the day since 90% of the time it's overcast and the light is dull and gray so the Ego gives a much needed lighting boost.


To top it off, he got me the lens I had been pining for too. I've been using the kit lens ever since I got my camera. I haven't used the new lens yet but I will soon.