A) bring your own electricity is the answer. (generator or batery supply with inverter)

B) try this: get your shot of busy people at dusk, and use a slow shutter to blur most but have a flash unit set to second curtian sync aimed at your stationary model to freeze the one.

if you invest in nd filters you can achieve the same effect in daylight by having your model stand still while the shot is taken.
alternatively you can combine two shots in photoshop, one frozen with flash and one blurred.

film or digital?
if film ( havn't tried this with digital yet suspect noise and heat issues will ruin it) try setting your lens to infinity, point at the northstar (dead center) and make sure you have something istationary (and nteresting) in the frame. set f8-f22 on bulb and go for dusk til dawn exposures. use strobe or flashlights to paint your foreground objects.
you'll get circular streaks of light off your stars.

if digital try this one: get a projector. Project a still image into a waterfall or fountian (near and after dusk) and photograph it with different shutter speeds on tv

Chris, I like 'em.
I have a couple ideas that might help you kick 'em up a notch or so...

1) backgrounds, a simple piece of watercolor paper (printed or hand colored to compliment your subject mounted with a piece of wire) you could have 4 or 5 8x10 or 5x7 sheets in your camera bag.

2) soften your lights, and think of your subjects like little people that want flattering portraits....light acordingly.

Good point JR.
I like soft focus. Don't mind grainy...in fact, my favorite images would get shredded at a Professional Photographers of Canada competition.
I can create images that they'd like, but I wouldn't much care for them.

Nick Vedros lectured at the conference I attend recently.http://www.vedros.com/

I like his position that one has to create what the client wants, but always "one for thee and one for me" he said often, the clients wind up loving his vision more than their original concept. You have to make images that you love and let your enthusiasm win the clients over.

I have this lens. M 85 soft 2.2
I love it to death.
Won't sell (mines well used...it shows..)
here's the low down....
with my ds2, I use the 85 (85x1.5=128mm) with a 1.7af teleconverter to make approx 218 mm portrait lens.

the image softness is controlled by aperture...ie f2.2 is very soft, f5.6 is fairly sharp. f5.6 is smallest aperture on the lens. you need nd filters for sure with this lens!

the image starts out sharp in the center and falls of to soft edges.
that means with the crop factors mentioned above you're using the sharper area of the lens with digital.

I find f4 gives pleasing results for glam portraits. (portraits require breaking the rules and getting the eyes dead center of the frame to make the eyes sharp.

I also find that bracketing "Sharpness" and blending layers in photoshop gives great results for other types of subjects like landscapes.

sure you can soften in photoshop, but the out of focus areas this lens creates are veery pleasing, as are the 3d globes of light (halos) you can get off specular highlights in a dark scenic.

agian, with your dslr, you will probably be forced to use a teleconverter to get that lens on the body. I doubt they'd goto the trouble to make a 5.6 (increased glass size increased cost) without trying to get decent performance (as well, most people assume Russian built anything was inferior, but truthfully, they made some outstanding espionage, surveillence, and technological equipment.).

let's see 500mm x 1.5= 750mm
750 x 1.7 = 1275mm (with af 1.7 teleconverter) at approx f10
my experience is in moderate to b right light the af will work.

compare that to the cost of a comparable telescope, and my guess is you can't go too far wrong....just don't get your hopes up about selling many 16x20's

is there no one in your area, you can go for a coffee with, con into going on a photoshoot or two, who happens to own pentax equipment?
take out a loaner from the guy who's waiting for a new shipment of pentax lenses, knowing that you'll buy yours from him when he gets it?
have you tried mugging a tourist?

Surely there has got to be a way to get your fix between now and may..come on man THINK!!!!

They're selling an experience, not a product per/se.
appealing to the fairer sex, who by most studies influence heavily, or make portrait buying descisions.
I'd say it's a killer marketing concept, that with decent to excellent photo techniques, simply cannot fail.

Benjikan, is a fine example, of a highly skilled, working pro, who happens to have earned the respect of most throughout this forum and our industry. And while I'd respect (and want to hear) his opinion, I would put more weight on the opinions of our female forum contributors, as it is clearly, a product intended for females.
This is an emotional buy, not simply photographic.

Ladies???? what do you think?

Mac, I always vote for the guy who's not in power. I believe politictions, like diapers have to be changed often. For the same reason.

I'll concede that sr goes nicely with single malt scotch, but it still is just a "nice to have" luxury, not a neccesity.

having said that, I'm getting the k10, because aperture reads the raw file, which it doesn't on the ds2.

reducing one time consuming step in my workflow...now that's worth a little extra money to me.

is your computer up to the task of handling the larger files?