Wouldn't it be just my luck?

Well, I had access to all the fabulous gear all weekend long. I'm talking the 5D & all the "L" lenses on my wish list. I had grand plans to go out into town with the girls & try to get a few cool shots in some new locations. BUT. Yep...there's a "but." It rained ALL weekend! What's up with that!?! I mean, seriously? We've had pretty nice weather last week, and then, when I get my hands on all the good gear...what happens? Rain. Ugh.

Anyway, so, we didn't get out yesterday evening, and we didn't get out today before it started raining. It quit around 7:30pm, so we went out then. But, it was super dark at that point since it was so overcast & the sun was going down anyway. I got some ok shots, but it's not what I had in mind. Plus, we just stayed in the front yard again. Oh well...

These were all with the 5D & 85 1.2L. I had access to the 50 1.2L, 16-35 2.8L, 24-70 2.8L, 70-200 2.8L IS, but I stuck it out with the 85. :-) I'm just smitten with it, I guess. Ha!

So, here goes:


And, my favorite from the evening:

As for the pointers about the flash...well...the biggest thing that helped me was taking OFF the diffuser. Seriously! Who woulda thought? But, also, something that he reminded me of...the flash is there to illuminate the subject. To capture the ambient light, you need to lower your shutter speed quite a bit. The flash will freeze the action, so you don't need to worry about motion blur or anything.

So, try setting your shutter speed to 1/40. It let's in the background light, but the flash freezes your subject. It works really nicely. :-) And, bounce it!