The Backdrop

So, today, we worked a bit more on our backdrop. We're really excited with how well it is turning out. We still have a bit of final tweaking to do on the edges of the 2'x3' frames. But, the photo below will help to give you the idea.

On the photograph: The brown leather are the 2'x3' frames creating a 6'x8' backdrop when combined using bolts and wingnuts. The black pieces you see there are the foamboard we have for our photographs. We're mounting our own photographs later this week. There are five 20"x30"s, two 10"x20"s, and one 30"x40". At the top middle will be our name - Anna and Spencer Photography. We're thinking this will reach our intended target (and not look too shabby either :) ).  Oh, and it is currently residing on our 8'6"x11" area rug. Tomorrow we'll work on mounting the photographs, mounting velcro to the back & to the frames, and more!

Also, today, we went to a local Art store for supplies - Art Creation near Coolidge Park. If you haven't been to Art Creation, the staff there is super friendly and the prices are definitely reasonable. :) I suggest anyone to check them out if they happen to go by Chattanooga.

One last note - lighting! We spent hours at Lowes today trying to find the perfect lights for our IKEA lamps for the upcoming bridal show. Ok, well, not hours, but a good long time. For the smaller lamps, we could only find a small 15 watt bulb that'd fit inside of it (it is a very tight fit). Sadly, it must have a color temperature of 2000k or so (very yellow). Though, this does lend itself for good ambient lighting. We tried to fit a more energy friendly compact florescent in there - but even the smallest they had wouldn't fit. Also, it was -very- hard to find any compact florescent that had a decent color temperature (around 5000k - 5200k is daylight/true light). We tried finding 40 Watt (~400-600 lumens) 5000k compact florescent for our other lamps, but we couldn't find any at lowes (or anywhere else)! The only ones that had this color rating also came in 60 Watt - 100 Watt (800 lumens - 1600!!! lumens!) - these would have been VERY bright ... which wouldn't do for ambient lighting.

Anyway, main point being, get your light bulbs at IKEA! The IKEA ones are actually compact florescent, have a good color, and help with energy efficiency. We're keeping our eyes out for some LED lights to replace our compact florescent. LEDs by far exceed the life-span of even compact florescent and surpass the energy efficiency by FAR (AND they don't even heat up much compared to normal light bulbs). We can't wait until they are available for consumer purchase. (If anyone knows somewhere we can get LED bulbs somewhat inexpensively - please post a comment with a link! We'd love to start replacing our compact florescents with a more efficient and eco-friendly bulbs)

- Anna and Spencer Clark

Anna and Spencer Photography