Rich, love the one with the hand and bird...very nice!

As for my "still life experiment, I agree totally with what you have said.  For your info, the exif for that shot is ISO320,  f/8, 1/8 sec.

Why one 100 watt bulb?  In a week a crew will be here to put down new flooring. All photo lights and most other little stuff is packed away. That's why.  If I can even squeeze the time to do the still life, I will be using 2  bulbs of 250 watt each.  Still, that is limiting things. I will diffuse one and use a 10 degree grid over the other.  Likely, I won't get it done in time for the genre challenge.

The background is brown kraft paper, left overs from templates used to install wall paneling along a staircase to the laundry room..all the good stuff if packed away.   So, that's the whys of this try..just seeing what I could or could not get away with.         Tom.