Recently, I opened my photography studio in downtown Pendleton, Oregon. Slowly, I’ve been building a collection of backdrops and posing accessories. Apple Boxes are widely used in photography and film for stage props and posing tools. While building my studio, I quickly become familiar with these and see them in just about every behind-the-scenes video. I had to get my hands on one!

While exploring the Apple Box idea, I bought some cheaply made crates to use for the same purpose and test it out, but I had one of them break on me, which I did not want happening with any clients, so I went back to desire for an actual sturdy and trusty Apple Box. The cheap crates still work nicely for small props as seen here, but not for sitting on.

After some solid research, I found they only come in sizes up to 20”x12”x8”, which is decent, but I wanted something much more significant. One day, I went to the gym and saw this large wooden box for jumping on. It was beautiful, and I had to have it! I found a similar one on Amazon. It’s called a:

 Plyometric Jump Box. I ordered this one for $69 USD.

• Unique interlocking joints and reinforced internal structure dramatically increases the strength of the box.
• Ploy Jump Box material: Plywood - 3/4 inch thick; Box jump size: 30X20X24 Inch; Max. Load330LBS
• Pre-drilled holes make set up easy, and the edges are sanded down to prevent scrapes.
• Wood plyometric jump box suit for box jumps, step-ups, box squats, CrossFit training, plyometric agility, and last but not least, a photography studio posing block!

It arrived in the mail about one week later. The box was super dense, which was a good sign. No instructions in the box, but the setup was pretty straight forward; Six wooden sides put together made a cube, put the screws in the predrilled holes, and it’s finished, somewhat. I couldn’t leave it with the distracting branding all over it. So I painted it with chalkboard paint, which is super matte and excellent for photos as it doesn’t reflect light. One small can was more than enough.

I came across a slight problem though, it drys glossy and shows brush strokes when using a brush! To fix this, I used a roller for the second coat, and it dried perfect and matte.

Roller vs. Brush

Here’s the finished product! I love it and can’t wait to see what I can produce with it and I’m certain this will last a lifetime. I’ll update this with finished photos once I have them.