Spring Break has Come to an End

Carlene South a photo by killy on Flickr.

The word that I've come up with to describe my spring break vacation is this: dense. So much fun squeezed into such a tiny slice of time. So many photographs. So many adventures. I was on a cold beach; I rode a ferry; I was in a hailstorm; I drove on a dark Texas road; I became reacquainted with my tree; I missed a KISS concert despite my best efforts; i ate a jar of pickles and drank a mojito at the same time; and plenty inbetween -mainly, food.

Photographically, it's been pretty productive. In one week I have made decent portraits of:

Paola Isabel Chavez on Bolivar Peninsula
Eli Micah Singleterry at home
Barbara Ann Douglass in Austin
Carolina Chavez at home
Carmen Sorensen at Spotts Park
Daisy the Pug Dog at Home
Carlene South on my tree at home

This shot of Carlene was environmental portraiture gone horribly wrong - for the photographer, that is. The wind caught my umbrella and pulled down my strobe. One of my Vivitars was damaged at the foot and will no longer fire from the wireless trigger. Also, my shoot through white umbrella was snapped in half. Unusable. Then, to top it all off, my battery died right as i was ready to start taking shots. I plugged in the rechargeable battery for 20 minutes and was only able to take about 8 shots before it died again. The final setup was this: strobe bounced from white foam board (replacing the umbrella) camera right; silver reflective umbrella right behind me with sb-600; bare vivitar 285 fired up into the tree.

Lesson learned: WEIGHTED LIGHT STANDS AND TRIPODS.

Carlene was a good sport through it all, though. Nicest ... person ... ever.