Hooray for Lighting!

At last! I finally have decent lights and a backdrop for photos - so long, dark corner of my studio! I've been seriously interested in getting good lighting for several months now, but I didn't have space for it in my old apartment. Now that I have a full basement, that couldn't be used for an excuse any longer and I finally made the purchase!

The lighting kit I finally settled on was THIS. I ordered the kit last Thursday (May 2nd), and received it... the very next day! Haha. I decided to sign up for the Amazon Prime one month trial thing in order to get free shipping because I didn't feel like paying an extra $25 extra to get it in 3 days. So in conclusion - shipping was excellent!

I was a bit worried, because the reviews were all over the place - people were raving that it was super awesome, and other were raving about how everything was broken and/or missing when they received it. Unfortunately, reviews were like that on just about all of the lighting kits I was looking at, so I decided to take the gamble and just go for it. Luckily, I hit the jackpot!

I decided to set up everything in my basement since there's a lot of space down there and it's pretty cool.

^ This is what I received. The box was a little banged up, but that's to be expected when it's rushed from the other side of the country overnight, heh.

^ Carrying case!

^ Everything was packaged nicely. However, nothing was labeled and the instructions for putting it all together were pretty vague =__=

^ I found the light stands!

^And the contraption that attaches to the bulb and umbrella to the stand.

^ Then... I found the lightbulbs O____O
Definitely NOT what I was expecting, but they look super awesome - like ray guns or something, so I approve, lol.

^ Pew-pew-pew! 

^ And they fit just fine, so I'm not complaining!

^ It's coming together and I'm starting to feel like a "professional" :3

^Aaand.. we have light! O_O

^ Next, onto assembling the backdrop stand, where the fun really begins.

^ The poles all slide into each other, and lock into place. There's 4 in total, and one of them had a bent end :( I was feeling pretty crappy and contemplated contacted the seller and doing some sort of exchange, but I didn't want to wait any longer for my lighting! 

^ Another view of the lovely dent. So I took matters into my own hands, literally. I un-dented it. With a combination of tools from my boyfriend's tool box in the basement, including a wrench, pliers, and other things I don't know the names of, I eventually bent it back into place.

^ Well, sort of. It fits, and that's all that matters! I just know that these two poles are attached for life - it took quite an effort getting them together and I don't want to have to go through that again.

 ^ And the final set up!

Overall, I'm pretty happy with my lighting kit. Yes, there was a bit of trouble with the pole, but that's a lot better than receiving completely broken equipment like a lot of other people. And the lights are quite an upgrade from the dim corner of my studio that I've been using for oh, way too long~

♡MissChubi