My friend Hope is a fun model. We had a great time Saturday night getting inebriated and shooting. I ran into the downside of Cactus Triggers…if the batteries aren’t spanky new, you’re screwed.

So we had no new batteries, it was 10pm and I refused to be defeated (again, we’re not going to talk about the humiliating experience I had on a child shoot last weekend) by these damn triggers.

I ended up attaching my 430EXII flash to my little Canon cord and mounted it to a light stand. This was annoying because I was stuck to a lightstand (which clocked me in the head once during the shoot…) but sacrifices had to be made. I aimed the flashhead into an open reflective umbrella (not the straight up silver kind, so the light wasn’t too harsh) over her head at 45 degrees to camera right. That light then bounced off a silver reflector gaffer-taped to a reflector to camera left, as well as another silver reflector on the floor as a skip.

Somehow, this ridiculous set up worked pretty well! Only downside is I wasn’t able to really light the backdrop and blow it out. Next time.

Here’s some favorites, all black and white because I was shooting for a black and white assignment for class.

I have some color shots coming soon when I get a little more editing time, and you’ll be seeing a lot more collaboration with Hope in the future!