Second post of the day is mostly because I wasn’t happy with the photos I got of Jerry last week for the Strobist competition. The cloudy skies didn’t give me the drama and chazzam that I had really wanted. Much as cloudy skies are great for normal purposes, like natural light or bouncing, they don’t add much drama and to add drama you need at least two light sources. This (for the time being) leaves me out of the picture.
Fast-forward to this weekend and the sun is shining... Then my wife (whilst on the phone to a friend) wanders in front of our patio door and I get the view of a cracking hair light coming from behind her. “Hold it right there!” says me...
After a little bit of playing with the settings (and the help of some props in the form of get-up my wife had bought for the Festa Juninha I swapped places with her and whilst she was using the camera one-handed still talking on the phone she got these:







Then she finished on the phone, we swapped back and I got these of her:









Now I for one was very happy with all of these and wished that I had been able to use that rim-light whilst shooting my entry for the Strobist competition. We didn’t win this one... but nevermind, there are still three more to get a chance at over the summer!

As far as tech goes, the setup looked like this:


So that’s the SB-600 camera right, sun providing rim light from behind and Sunbounce Mini on a stand to camera left. The Sunbounce was angled to pick up the flash rather than the sun.
D80 with 70-300mm G lens. Full manual (as always for my off-camera flash stuff, and as it never is for anything natural light)
ISO 100, f/4.2, 80mm, 1/200 sec. I think the flash was at 1/16, but it might have been 1/8

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Okely Dokely... two posts for you today, the first is a party we went to last night. In June in Brazil which is the end of their agricultural year (like October kind of thing up here) and they celebrate this with what is called a Festa Juninha or Festa Caipira. That Wikipedia entry there is nothing like what I was told by them... but I wouldn’t doubt it being true!
Basically, everyone dresses up in the style of the Beverly Hillbillies (the more uncooth the better) and has fun dancing, eating and the usual.
So with some help from Gabby who was having a go on the camera these are all taken natural light with the 50mm f/1.8 on my D80:








Final shot with the 18-55m II and a Stofen on my SB-600:


Whilst there however there where a couple of shots which came out really artsy and which I absolutely loved. The first was one of me by Gabby:


The second which was my favourite of the day was this one:


I was very proud of that one... and you can’t even tell his sideburns and handle-bar moustache (just about visible) where painted on!

As usual, these and many more in my Facebook gallery.

Right, I have handed in my ‘effort’ for the first Strobist assignment this evening with the help of my good friend Jerry
You can find it here on my newly setup Flickr account.
This is a slightly bigger version of it:


This is how the setup was managed in the back garden of my new flat:


SB-600 up high set to 1/4 power, Sunbounce mini with my gorgeous VAL (Voice Activated Lightstand) holding that in place and lovely diffuse light coming from the overcast sky above. Flash was triggered using the CLS but that was on fully manual with the on-camera flash turned to zero.
ISO 100, 120mm focal length, F5, 1/100 second shutter, Auto WB.