“Look for the light!” was the best piece of photographic advice I’ve been given.

The most awesome photographic shots can be created if you manipulate the light!

Let me show you some examples (of manipulated light, not necessarily awesome shots )

This is me shooting me, in August 2009, just before I flew off to New York for a long weekend…

There is one wall light on in the room, dimmed to its lowest level, and the rest of the lighting comes from bouncing the flash off the very low ceiling – I could paint that ceiling without having to stand on anything, to give you some idea of how low it was.

Cool huh!  No trickery, just manipulation of light.

I used the same room, the same mirror but different lighting to shoot a client of mine, Kyle; he also happens to be the Coach’s youngest nephew.

This was actually shot during the day, I was standing behind Kyle and shot his reflection in the mirror – I still bounced the flash off the ceiling, but the shutter speed and other settings were different so I could manipulate the amount of light hitting the sensor in the camera.

This was also shot in a mirror using natural light only – the sun would set facing this room and it produced the most amazing light.

I second shot a wedding a couple of years ago with a wedding ‘tog friend of mine – the MASTER of light and dark, in my opinion, and the one who gave me the light advice -  toys had been provided for the little kids to play with and they just so happened to be right in front of the best windows for shooting sillhouettes; marvellous!

So what’s my point?

The balance between light and shade – all of these shots show what I want them to because there was the right balance between light and dark, shadows and highlights.

Direct light is a menace; the middle of the day with the sun high in the sky doesn’t make for good shadows. If the light is too bright a lot of the subtle details are lost.

It’s been miserable weather here for the last two days – stormy, with dark clouds sliding across the sky.  Rubbish for walking dogs in, GREAT for seeing emerging six packs in because of the light…or rather lack of, which pulls the shadows out and reflects the highlights.

THIS is what I saw in the mirror this morning and caught with my iPhone – 25 more days and that full six pack is MINE! I’m not too excited; much