Seven years ago, I met one of my cousins for the very first time. I was so happy to have been able to meet more of my family from my father’s side. It was a long overdue meeting; thankfully, we had so much in common… we naturally became close friends. I bring up the seven years because this month they were able to make it out to California for the very first time in a long time (15 years for him, very first time for his wife!). Trading 3 feet of midwestern snow for warm California beaches! A no-brainer huh?

Coming to California, one of their very first request was to see the beaches; of course, I brought my camera. Here are photos we took with an amazingly simple setup. Read through for more photos, details and a BTS shot.

I had a lot of fun taking photos of my cousin Chili and his wife Millie (who also loves photography: check out her myspace profile for her photos). Millie looked beautiful in that perfect blue dress too.

What was our setup? It was just my camera and one Nikon SB600 speedlight triggered remotely with radio poppers. That’s it, no softbox or anything… just a bare speedlight. If you are careful to avoid harsh shadows on nose and lips, a bare speedlight off-camera can do wonders. Another benefit in using it bare is the efficiency of the speedlight since it isn’t fired through additional diffusers like an umbrella or softbox. Here’s the BTS shot.

Main Light:
Nikon SB600 speedlight. Worked well as the main light, even under clear skies with the sun overhead. The only time it had trouble lighting up the subject was when the bright sun and glaring reflected ocean were directly in the frame… but with careful composition we were able to get around this. We could have pulled out another speedlight for double the power, but felt it wasn’t necessary.

Edge Light:
Sun light. Again, we used the sun for an additional edge light. Have your subject turn their back towards the sun, expose your camera for the ambient light, then fire away. Adjust your flash power as needed to keep the subject well lit.

Light stand:
Kay. The very best kind of light stand… a voice activated one =)

Gear used:

• Nikon D700
• Nikon 85mm/f1.4 lens
• Nikon SB-600 speedlight
• Nikon SU-800 Wireless Speedlight Commander Unit
• Radio Popper PX

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