I received some special  photography gifts  for Christmas. The big gift is a 47″ octabox from Paul C. Buff (for my Einstein strobe). I also asked for a second Cyber Commander receiver and a hot shoe converter for my Speedlite so I could use it in tandem with the strobe.

I broke everything out of the boxes this morning and with no one but me or the critters to shoot I took everything out for a test drive. I shot this in our living room with my back to the bay window. Octabox to camera right and slightly feathered. My Speedlite providing fill was at camera left (shot into a white umbrella to soften) and angled down. I opened the blinds behind me and to camera left to provide a bit of back light (I have a bay window and the blinds that I opened sit at a 45 degree angle from the main window.

The light behind my head is caused by the octabox wrapping around me and reflecting off the surface of the blinds.

I’ll keep working on it.

In this second one I had closed the blinds behind me.