Well, we are back in the circle again. It was a beautiful day in Raleigh on Sunday following some pretty bad thunderstorms on Saturday night. We just had finished dinner and the sun was beginning to set. I asked Sophie if she wanted to take a few portraits in the circle. She could not get her shoes on fast enough.
I ran upstairs and got my light stand with a Speedlite and an umbrella. I wanted to play with my Pocketwizard ControlTTL system in “Auto” (eTTL II) mode. I can control the flash output even in “Auto” mode in a 6 stop range with my Pocketwizard AC3 zone controller. These tools help me to achieve the look I am after in most any lighting scenario. Yes, I am father and still a kid inside that likes to play with his toys. 
A Raleigh portrait photographer can never stop learning new technology to keep an edge when capturing client images. It is great to have such a willing subject too.
Smiling pictures of our children is something that my wife treasures. Sophie always tries to please her mother – well, most of the time anyway. The above image is for momma!
Sophie told me last night that she does not like to do smiles for portraits and prefers to give more serious “fashion” look like above. This pose was her idea.
When I showed her a few of the images like this one, she thought that the background looked like it had been a painted back drop. As you can probably tell from this shot, I was shooting into our neighbor’s yard where one of their tree is arching over the top of Sophie’s head. I was able to underexpose (darken) the background and blow it out of focus to give this painted look. I really like how the contrast of her pink blouse makes her stand out against the dark green background.
My sweet girl shows her sassy side above …
… then reminds me that she is still my little girl here with her million-dollar smile.