What sucks about shooting in a confined space or on location is that setup time typically, in terms of a small shoot, takes more time that the actual shooting itself.  Most of my actual shooting time boils down to an hour typically, of just shooting.  With setup and tear-down it sometimes takes 3 hours of my time.  I must find a way to better manage my time.

Anyways, I’m becoming somewhat of a strobist.  Which is to say that my Canon speedlight system (Canon 550EX and a Canon 430EX) has never been more fun and more useful.  Even a single off-camera speedlight results in amazing photos.  All thanks to the Canon ST-E2 speedlight remote transmitter.  I used it on all 3 of my recent fashion shoots on location and they worked great.  Now I just need to pick up a Quantum Turbo battery so I don’t have to rely on AA rechargeables.

Anyways, here’s a studio shot of Pippin that I shot for Photography On The Net’s (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/) coffee table book contest.  I used a backdrop that I picked up at Henry’s on Howard Ave. a while back.  Now the unfortunate part is that I set up to shoot using 2 speedlights off camera.  Only to find that my speedlights transmitter’s BATTERY was dead.  It was 2AM in the morning and nowhere to pick up a replacement battery.  So I shot this with one of the speedlights on camera and the other as slave to light up the backdrop.  It worked phenomenally.

I later discovered that Shopper’s Drug Mart carries the battery I needed.  Figures.