My dearest daughter gave me 30 minutes of her time for a photo session. 400+ pictures later, I had a lot of nice photos, but after reviewing them I found a dozen of silly faces that I actually liked better than other, smiling ones. Tina approved these ten, and suggested cartoon boxing them so they do not look so overlapped.

What did I learn:

• I have no idea how professional models work with a huge fan to get that windblown hair effect, but it didn't work with Tina, because it was drying her eyes and just bothering her too much to be useful.


• Having 2 softboxes with 500W bulbs in each, does not produce enough light for action photography. At least not with ISO 200 and F5, as I was using for static photos. Movement were still blurred at 1/50 seconds. I need more light, or maybe more focused light to get what I want.


• Softboxes are so much nicer to work than flashlights. Light is not so strong, but I can see shadows before I take pics, models do not feel bombarded with explosion of light, and eyes are actually opened.


• It takes time for a model to relax a bit and show a good face. Music can help too. If model is talking - shut up, listen and take pictures.