More Fiona...properly lit

I know, I know, this is the second shot of Fiona in a week, but I just really liked it.

I treated myself to a Nikon speedlight (SB-600), and I had to try it out (this is just the third shot with it).

I LOVE THAT THING! I used to be a flash-hater (built-in flash, that is), because almost always, the flash would just crazily light up the subject (too bright), and keep the background in the dark. Even after playing around with all the settings, I usually wasn't crazy about the results. The lighting just seemed so unnatural.

Well, no more of that!!! For this picture, I bounced the flash off a wall and the ceiling (about a 45 degree angle upwards, and flash rotated to the left by about 90 degrees). I just love how natural the light comes out in this shot.

Mind you, I need to play around with it some more and figure out its settings (of which there are a few), but it's fun already. Makes indoor photography so much more enticing :-)

The only drawback is that my camera (D50) doesn't have a master function, i.e. this speedlight (it's a slave only) cannot be used off-camera without another master unit attached to the camera (or a cable). If I feel the need to have it off-camera in the future, I can get the SB-800 or the attachment cable and work with that. But for the moment, I am happy with this already.

But now I need to go study :-(
There's an exam coming up and my PhD committee meeting next Friday...
It's a shame, because the weather is just beautiful!!! It's going to be about 27 degrees Celsius today (about 80 Fahrenheit). Yesterday was almost too hot already with 31 C (90 F)!! Remember that it snowed just a week ago...

Okay, I'm procrastinating at this point. Will be back later.