A good friend called me and said. . "I know it's last minute, but would you possibly be free tomorrow to take photographs of my girlfriends and I for our 20 year high school reunion"? Well, I was able to do it, and it was minutes from home, so it was meant to be. Then the tricky part was finding a place to shoot at the hotel where they were getting ready. It was 7pm, so I was starting to lose the light behind the trees that surrounded the hotel. I literally was sitting IN a fireplace outside by the pool in order to get enough distance to shoot with my long lens and not have these ladies (most of whom were wearing high heels) fall into the pool inches behind them. I needed all the light I could get, and had to shoot into the sun to get the nicest background I could get. Because I was shooting directly into the sun, I was getting flares all over the place. I used what I had and grabbed a big pool umbrella and rolled it over to help flag off the sun from my lens. I had JUST a bit of room left above the heads of the girls before I'd see an ugly umbrella in frame. Photography is like a giant puzzle that you also have to juggle while balancing on one foot. . . .
I love it!