Occasionally when I haven’t shot in a couple of days and Nick has been stuck in the studio for a while, we like to go outside and play with my photo gear. That’s what happened recently when we ended up at Bastrop State Park.
As we were walking down a trail, I remembered something photographer Dave Black teaches: “If you want your photo to look interesting, only light part of it.” So I pulled out my SB800 flash and my sync cord and shot this tree with a couple of stray pine needles stuck to it.
While not a groundbreaking shot, it does highlight the bark texture nicely. (I zoomed in my flash and held it out to my left side like the photo at the top of the post.)
I wasn’t really happy with shooting pine needles on the sides of trees, so I turned to Nick as my subject.
I used almost direct flash in the photo above with the sun peeking over his hat. Working with the sun and flash together can be tricky. It’s still something I have to experiment with.
Here’s a shot where I used the sunlight to highlight Nick’s silhouette:
Of course if I shoot Nick, he always takes revenge and ends up shooting me. I set up the camera for him and pose and he gets the shot. We both look good that way. Here’s what he got:
Talk a friend in to going with you to practice new (or old) shooting techniques. Even if you don’t get anything fantastic, it’s a great way to relieve stress and just be outside.