a brave new world
For my birthday I got a lovely, practical and exciting present – a Canon Speedlite 580 EXII flash. I can only imagine how it's going to open up my potential for shooting.
I've been purposely keeping things simple with my dSLR, starting out with a used xti and the cheaptastic 50mm 1.8 lens, and only adding when I get a sense of how to use what I already have. The 1.8 helped me understand composing, instead of relying on zoom to frame things, by forcing me to engage with my subject and move around to get my shot. And it's really helping my understanding of aperture. (For instance, I'm not quite sure why I was shooting wide open that day, what with the blistering sun and all; wouldn't do that quite as aggressively again.)
Anyway, I really like shooting in natural light, but I'm really looking forward to weeks of messing around with what this flash will do. It's the only way to learn, isn't it?