Time for School Pics - One light set

Figured that it was time for school pics for the kiddies. I get tired of the same old blah background shots. I guess that's fine for the yearbook. However, for my wall (and my money), I thought that I'd like something different.

Generic Lighting – One Light Set - Alyssa

Last evening, I took Alyssa (on short notice) to do some shooting against the setting sun. The sky looked as if it were going to be just perfect. I put her in the truck and rolled out to the site. AAARGH. Forgot the camera. Back to the house. Grabbed the camera and some extra AA’s. Back out to the site.
Here is the setup. One Quantaray QDC 900-WA through a DIY Beauty Dish on a boom, camera right. The sun was setting directly behind her.

Ahh, the joys of neighbors.

Being a budding strobist, it really helps to have guinea pigs neighbors.  You can cycle through them on a regular basis and they never complain about getting fresh pics of their young'nz.  This is especially helpful for those times when you want to test out new lighting in an other than pressured situation.  Just remember, you're doing this for practice.  I don't expect them to pay for my practice time.  Here are a couple of shots from a shoot last night with my new DIY beauty dish.  I'll more than likely be doing a post on that by itself.  Can't beat the light for $20 in parts and 2 hours of time.

FWIW, I detest studios.  I don't like feeling cramped indoors.  I don't think most people feel comfortable in studios either.  All of these shots were done on my deck with no backdrop other than the sky God provided.

Taken just after dusk with 1 900WA on a boom through a DIY Beauty Dish

Ahhh, more gratuitous shots of 2 of my kids.

AJ in his tough-guy pose...

... and Amber in her "I'm bored with this but Daddy... please make me look pretty" pose.

Welcome to GenericLighting

My name is Steve McGarvey and I currently run C4 Photography Studios in Mechanicsburg, PA.  Since happening upon David Hobby's site, Strobist.com, I've been infected with those tiny little lights.  I decided to create this blog so I can keep a visual refrence of the trials, travails, and triumphs of lighting with speedlights.  If all goes well, this could become quite the repository of the things I've learned (good and bad) along the way as well as an outlet for my work that is more editorial in nature.

Thanks for stopping by.  Hope you enjoy it.  You can drop me a line at Steve@C4Photo.com if you'd like.

Steve
C4