Here is another photo from my strobist session yesterday.  The strobe is located at my son’s right side (camera left) at a height around 3 ft., with strobe head angled up towards his face.  Keep in mind the sun is camera right.  Notice how with the strobe being opposite the natural light (as with the other pictures), no shadows on his face! Totally awesome!  :D

The main reason I wanted to post another shot is because I just installed a trial version of Photoshop CS4 and am testing it out for the next 30 days.  A really cool feature in CS4 is the ability to more easily change an object color.  In CS2, it would take me a lot longer to do this!  So, I couldn’t resist trying it asap! LOL.  For this shot, I changed the color of the fence.   Of course, I also did my normal post processing.  I’m not too thrilled on the composition, and the sharpness on the subject is not tack sharp (something I’m still trying to consistently master), but I wanted to get a “fence shot” I could work on.  :D

Before shot – SOOC (with exception of defog)

Okay, I am soooo excited!  Last night I finally figured out how to use my wireless lighting system with my SB-600 speedlight and my D200 camera!  I’ve had my speedlight for a year and my D200 for 9 months — yeah, I know… I’m totally slow.  LOL.  Actually, I just never took the time to do it.  I basically used the SB-600 on my camera as a bounce flash.  Truth be told….the thought of using strobe lighting for my sessions scared me.  Mainly because I just wasn’t educated enough on it.  But last night, I finally was determined to get this setup and begin growing more as a photographer – utilizing off-camera strobe lighting.

The effects with strobe lighting is amazing!  You can create so many different looks to your photos by just moving the strobe(s) in different areas.  It’s so cool!  :D  What’s great is that my D200 already has a built-in CLS (camera lighting system), so I did not have to buy extra equipment or accessories to get the CLS to work remotely.  Awesome!

Well, as you can imagine, I needed to photograph someone to test it all out.  So of course, I asked the only person who would model for me at the last minute – my handsome son!  :D  As usual, he was a good sport!  Here are a few shots from my first “strobe session”.  :D  These shots were taken around 4pm’sh.  The strobe was on my tripod.  I raised and lowered the tripod to achieve different looks.  You can also set the speedlight to increase or decrease the spread of the flash.  Totally FUN!

Strobe is at the bottom (camera left) – at knee length, with strobe-head pointing up at a 45* angle. Focus zoom is at 86mm (like a spotlight).

Same setup as above, just a different angle and exposure .
(I was having a difficult time getting the exposure on the first few shots.  My exposure comp. kept increasing on me!)

Strobe is camera left, bottom – with strobe head pointed up 45*.  I also changed the color of the walls. :) Focus zoom is 50mm (wider spread)
My only complaint here is that I did not have my son’s face totally in the DOF area so his face is not as sharp as it should be.

Strobe is camera left, same height as model.  Strobe head is pointed straight at model.

No strobe used here – just natural light.  I just wanted to get a different perspective of him – and his “hole-y” jeans!  LOL.
I gave this shot more of an urban look with saturated colors and increased contrast.

What an amazing time we had this past weekend in Pine, AZ!   One of the families at our church owns a Bed & Breakfast in Pine and our church was invited to spend the weekend.  Snow was sparse throughout Pine, but we drove about 20 minutes past and we hit a TON of snow.  Here are some of my favorite photos from this weekend.

Beautiful sunrise shot from the porch at the B&B

I recently had the pleasure of photographing the D girls.  In addition to being very dear friends, their family was also my very first official photo session back in December 2008.  What a privilege it is to be asked to be their family’s photographer again!  Since my last session with them, a precious little baby girl has been added to their family.  They are all absolutely BEAUTIFUL!  This session was quite fun in that it was my very first baby and toddler session.  I went ahead and shot pictures of the older sisters while I was at it.  Couldn’t resist — they are so photogenic.  :D  I learned A LOT from this session and am soooo grateful for autofocus!  LOL.

Grandma was visiting from Minnesota.  Love this shot!