Brotherhood

The beauty of the "Strobist system" (actually a set of general photography principles, but I learned them here) is that if one takes 10 minutes to setup a shot by say, tossing a blanket over a couch, aiming a flash in the desired direction through a white umbrella to "soften" it, and tweaking the exposure while shooting a few frames of a stuffed animal that was nearby famous Disney movie star (Tigger, in my case) then, when you sit your real subjects on the couch and ask them to smile calmly at the camera, you don't have to worry about the exposure changing from shot to shot (since everything is set manually) even if you move around (since the flash isn't mounted on top of the camera). You might just capture "a moment" you otherwise may have missed while fiddling with buttons and knobs. It is like stacking the deck in your favor. I know the lighting and exposure will be just how I want it, so I can focus on the always-difficult-for-me "art" of composing an interesting shot or, in this case, just capturing what fell in my lap. I love how the focus of attention ended up on the wide-open mouth as a result of where the light was coming from - that kind of luck I'll take any day. The other reason I like this one so much is that it captures their two different personalities, and how they interact, perfectly. Strobist info: SB-600 off high to camera right on 1/4 power zoomed to 50mm fired into a shoot-through umbrella