ISO 500, 28mm, F/6.3, 1/200 sec

When my friend Melanie asked me to take some professional portraits of her, I jumped at the chance to go walking around the Capitol with my camera, a ridiculously-photogenic subject, and with the freedom to bring a light stand with me (if you’ve ever gotten confronted by the national park service while photographing at the monuments, you know what I mean). We were even lucky enough to have Mike, her boyfriend, come along to do the actual light stand lugging (thanks Mike!).

All of the photos were taken using just one flash, attached with a TTL cord. Somehow my remotes started having problems right before we were supposed to meet up for the shoot, thank goodness I had the TTL cord around as a back up plan.  The flash was mounted on a stand and an umbrella.  It was definitely a little more difficult using the TTL cord (akin to stretching the phone cord as much as I possibly could when I was in high school so I could get out of parental earshot), but Mike was nice enough to hold the umbrella every which way, even when it probably seemed a little ridiculous (“left please, oh wait, not that much left, maybe to the right, ok, maybe if you could stretch a foot taller and then left?”)

Anyways, all in all, it was totally fun– thanks Mel and Mike!

ISO 400, 85mm, f/8.0, 1/200 sec

ISO 800, 38mm, f/7.1, 1/100 sec