The Shropshire Countryside

..... a perfect backdrop for a summer portrait session !

We spent a few nights in a caravan deep in rural Shropshire (it was a 20min haul to Shrewsbury's Asda ), and the open space, landscape, bright sunshine, plus daughters in uncommonly good mood, all came together for some portraits.

Taken with the K7, D FA28-105, Cactus V6II Trigger / RF60x Flash in softbox .....



































So I thoroughly recommend a caravan in a field in Shropshire for your next photoshoot . Thanks for looking, Nigel

I have the caravan but it`s a long way to Shropshire
Nice portraits,

You need room to squeeze in the softbox, umbrella and light stands ! You might have to leave out the BBQ ....

Nice photos, Nigel, their expressions say it all: "Oh no, Dad's at it again!" Given there was reasonable daylight would not a reflector have done the job?

Stunning shots Nigel, just goes to show you don't need the latest gear to get brilliant results. Lighting is superb.

Hi Rob, thanks ....No, I doubt a reflector could have done the job, given the high contrast in the scene. If you see the dark shadow on my older daughters face on the 'off light' side that gives an idea of the result the ambient exposure would have given over her whole face ...deep dark shadows. A reflector would have had to shine blinding glaring light into her eyes to balance that background and sun, with the resulting squinting and uncomfortable look.

Also I was able to adjust the power of the High Speed Sync flash remotely from the camera in response to changes in the background light' and the shutter speed ...I feel this gave me great flexibility during the shoot with different angles.

I think probably good use of a reflector would need a third person to hold and manipulate the reflector, which I didn't have.

Thanks Mike, much appreciated .... Yes, the K7 is not the latest, not by a long shot. It's still going strong though! These are, apart from the 2nd to last, all High Speed Sync flash shots. In my view there is no point in using any ISO other than 100 for this technique .... And the K7 is very happy at ISO100 !

The other gear involved is definitely new .... The Cactus V6II and the firmware updates available for their RF60/x flashes, now provide Pentax users with arguably the best Radio HSS flash solution. For now it's Manual mode only, but soon to be released firmware will bring new P-TTL features to the equipment as well

Fantastic set. Great expressions on the children's faces. 👌👌

I am seriously impressed you managed to take all this kit on a family holiday! I remember when we had a caravan, three kids and a dog the car struggled to get out the drive let alone reach anywhere remote. Even now I have to compromise, do I take the large tripod, compact one or both?

Thankyou! I had to be quick

Rob, I was over optimistic on this trip .... I took the tripod but had no chance of escaping off into the landscape alone, sadly .... but coming away with the portraits and having used the new Cactus gear in the wild was enough to keep a smile on my face

As I commented at the other place Nigel, these portraits really shine. Great example of creative flash work.

Terrific use of flash Nigel. I still find even built-in flash defeats me; it's one of photography's dark arts.

These are lovely portraits.

Shropshire is a favourite county of mine and much underrated. I hope you and your family had a good and well-deserved holiday.

Andrew, download Nigel's guide and read it over a few evenings. It explains very clearly what each function of flash use is all about. I was the same as you before recently, and it has opened a whole new world.

And you've now got the 40 page Supplement as well, so that makes enough reading to cover every evening of the week!

Thanks Andrew and Peter, it's great to get your comments. We were visiting friends who moved out to Shrewsbury , and it was a great week, totally kid orientated of course. The weather held up rather well. I'm glad we didn't go to Dorset this time, it hasn't been the sort of summer we have enjoyed for the last 3 years.