MonoMonday: Out of My Comfort Zone

I decided to practise using my speedlight which I bought a couple of years ago and have so far taken only one decent shot with.
I was having real trouble even getting it to fire more than once or twice but in desperation I cleaned the terminals and I think that might have fixed that problem :-)

You probably think yet another portrait of Mr isbi is hardly out of my comfort zone, I've done so many. 
But there was no one else available and I didn't really want to do some inanimate object.
He is out of his comfort zone however as he thinks he is over blipped but let's call it an EB :-)

Anyway the point of it is, I could have taken a portrait without the flash but not on these settings. 
I tested it and it came out completely black.
So I think I am one step further to being able to use flash for those times when you really do need it.

I still have a lot to learn, especially about using flash creatively.
Thanks to KangaZu for this challenge. At least I am a bit more familiar with the speedlight.

I think the NBN is going a bit better today and I've got the "landline" working after changing some cables around.
If this gets up I will have posted from my own computer, unlike last night.