PBPhoto

I had wanted for a long time to bring along my silver reflector on a sunny day outing.  Just wanted to experiment with having the sun behind or at some angle to the subject and using the reflector to direct that light as the main light source.

Some great things about reflectors verses strobes are:
1)  They fold up into about a 10" square.
2)  They weigh less than a pound.
3)  They give a light source size that is similar to an umbrella.  Which means soft light-to-shadow transitions that are great for portraits.
4)  No batteries required.
5)  No radio interference.
6)  They weigh less than a pound.
7)  They fold up into about a 10" square.

A little repetitive but man it sure is true.  So it does come with some downsides.  My daughter thinks it is fun to play on for one.

And it turns out that a huge ball of nuclear fusion is no easier to look at when it is reflected into the eyes.  I think this picture is hilarious.  The squinting and covering of the eyes is classic.  I think that I've read that the way to do it is have the subject close their eyes and then open them on command at the moment you take the shot.

So I found myself directing that sunlight everywhere.  Cool shot into a rotten old log.  So if you don't want to spend the money on a bunch of lighting gear, just go to Wal-Mart and pic up an autoshade.  Give it a shot.

Be blessed.