T's three

While still learning how to make the photos I want to make, I've quickly become a big fan of using the photos I do make to benefit as many people/causes as possible. I love it when I can get multiple uses out of one shot, like this one for instance.

Not only did I get to practice my daylight/flash balancing act, but more importantly, I got to shoot my friend Tom's parents in front of his childhood home just before they moved away to start a new chapter of their lives. I, and I'm sure Tom and his parents, have a lot of great memories in their home through the years and I wanted to preserve a little bit of those memories for them.

On top of that, it fit perfectly into a charity project I am working on for the summer to benefit the superstar cancer research hospital Dana-Farber in Boston. In return for their donation, I am trying to make a nice portrait of my donors so this one was for Tom.

And what are the chances that right in the very spot I needed them to stand in order to get the house, house number, and lighting the way I wanted it, lay the only somewhat recognizable remains of one very unlucky squirrel? As these things go, I should know: near 100%!!!

Strobist info: The key light is an SB-800 in a white shoot-thru umbrella to camera right with a 1/4 CTO gel zoomed to 24mm and fired at ~1/2 power. The very subtle rim light on the camera left side of his face/hair is an SB-600 from back camera left with a 1/2 CTO gel in a Lumiquest SB-III zoomed to 24mm and fired at 1/16 power.

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