Of course I have to say that this in no way will change how I shoot my nudes.  I still believe very strongly in using natural light when shooting outdoors.  Besides who wants to lug 100 pounds of gear into the woods when all you really need is your camera, the sun, and your brain.  Ok maybe a reflector or two as well.  For the most part these lights are for portraits and headshots.  Somethings I’ve discovered I can do fairly well but would like to be able to do better.  Maybe next month I’ll pick up another light!

We fully intended to shoot nudes but the beach I picked got crowded unexpectedly.  We did shoot a few topless shots but we mainly stuck with glamour/beauty shots of Sera.

"Having good lights won't make girls take off their tops! but you know you'll get great shots if they do!"

Eve brought an Alien Bees strobe with her while I brought my Nikon SB600.  I mainly used my light as a slave flash off the camera and got some very interesting shots.  I might start playing a lot more with it as an external light outdoors.. bt I have to make sure that I don’t rely on it too much.  I can see where I could get to a point where I would rely on it so much that I wouldn’t be able to shoot with out it. I shall make sure that I maintain my skills of shooting with available light.

One of my many favorite shots from the shoot is to the right.  This is of course the back of Eve’s light and you can see Sera in the water in the distance.  I stopped shooting to take a break and saw this shot as I sat there watching Eve shoot with Sera.  so I just had to get it!  I’m thinking about sending it to Alien Bees with the disclaimer “Having good lights won’t make girls take off their tops!  but you know you’ll get great shots if they do!”

I crack myself up!

Sun to the right, strobe to the left

Ok back to more serious stuff.  The shot to the left here is really one of my favs from the shoot.  the reason is simply the light.  There’s a lot going on lighting wise.  The sun is on the right of the frame, and my strobe is on a tripod to the model’s left.  you can see the shadows from both sources of light in the shot.  What I like about it is that the strobe really provided a nice highlight on Sera’s hair.  that in my mind, makes this image just pop!

I had never really shot with a slave strobe before so it was fun to play and explore and see what I got with it.  I will definetly be playing with the off camera strobe a little more.