Studio adventures – Part 1

I was thinking for a while on some project, involving a number of food photographs. I tried it before, with different effects (I think my biggest problem is the fact that I need to prepare the food and ten shoot the food, and do good in both). But I wanted to give it one more try. I also wanted to set up a really small studio for a project, in my house. Side note- 2 people, 1 cat, 3 bedroom town house. You would expect it just have to be a place to put it! I was wrong.
Back to my studio- it was a small stand/table to place a food on it, white silk back on the window, to have some daylight, a flash on the right and the reflector on the left. Check my set up, drawing made using a very cool web- based app on Light Diagrams.

I actually did some research on the subject, for the first time finding a use for Flickr group discussion section :). Anyway, after assembling a set up and analyzing some of the photos on Flickr, I went for my 30 mm f/1.4 lens, set somewhere at f/3.5. Why I did it? Well, it is my fastest lens, and I wanted to get some noticeable bokeh. Unfortunately, it is also a prime lens, and a one which cannot focus from less then about 2 feet :(. It was a composing nightmare! Do I need a macro fast prime to do food well?
At the end, I brought my all-time favorite zoom, and at f/5.3 took this image. I need to think the studio photography through before revisiting :).