Getting flashed!

No, no. Not THAT kind of flashing. I'm talking off-camera flash. Much more family friendly ;) I have wanted to play around with off-camera flash for quite awhile now but I had a few problems. Before this year, I didn't have a decent flash. Then, at Christmas, I got a pretty great new flash love my parents. So, I started reading Strobist. Need to learn about lighting? Take some time to read& really understand this site. Makes everything make sense! I played around with my flash a bit but I was limited. I didn't have a modifier ..so I was pretty much stuck with my flash& gels. I will admit, working with straight flash as a slave on manual took a full afternoon to grasp. Now that I firmly understand that? Time to move on.

Bring on my birthday yesterday (best. day. ever.) to move along in this story. My wonderful boyfriend purchased me a shot-through umbrella. So, when we got back from my delicious birthday supper last night I did the only logical thing I could think of. I turned our apartment into a mini-studio! I set everything up and then grabbed Penny. This was great for two reason:
1. Beautiful model
2. Practice for Penn's sit-stay! She nailed it.

So, I got the umbrella hooked up to the stand& I stuck my camera on the tripod. Then, with my new 40mm f/2.8, I set off seeing what kind of magic I could make happen with my new equipment. Did I nail it? I'm not sure ..it looks really good to me but I'm kind of biased to my puppy.

Then, I figured it was time to be in some photos with Miss Penn since I have none of us together since she was 3 months old ..she's 6 months old now. I'm a terrible momma! So, I got the focus ready. I tried to get Penn to chill out even though I was with her& I tried to make the two of us look good& in love. I pinky promise that we really are in love ..it was the making it appear that way while not looking like crazed lunatics.

See Penn's ear flip? Rocking. It. See my crazy eyes? Less rocking it ..I didn't really 100% succeed. Considering it was a one person studio photo session though, I think I did decently. I did a lot of work to get this shot ..including take some hilarious oops photos. For instance, Penny almost looks calm in this photo (if you look really closely, you can see the crazy bubbling just below the surface..). You know what the mini-shoot was really like?

Yes. That's right. I got so much V love that I couldn't even stay in the frame. My crazy beast dog actually does love me that much. She is convinced that when we are apart for even 5 seconds, it feels like 5 years& must result in the most insane hello you can even imagine. If I am peeing, she's at the door whining. I think she thinks the toilet might scoop me up& she'll never see me again. Poor, poor Penny.

So, is anyone else out there attempting to learn a new camera skill this new year? Even better, is anyone else trying to master off-camera flash this year? If yes, leave me a comment letting me know& link to your blog so we can track each others' progress :D

Happy Saturday, love my crazy Vizsla& myself!