Available light -- again

Tobias at the Beach looking out our patio door. Roll in Bed used as a reflector behind him. D200/ISO 800

Lately I am using available light much more than flash. This is because of a few things. Part of this is I feel I need to revisit the fundamentals of exposure again. I need to keep my highlights under control, and other things. Plus its nice to just see the effects of light without having to imagine it ahead of time.

Kathryn at the beach, same "setup" as Tobias' picture above. Kathryn loves having pictures taken.

I didn't bring a flash to the beach. If we planned to stay longer, or if I planned to make photography a major part of the trip I probably would have brought one.

Tobias after putting himself to bed for a nap. D700/ISO 3200

A second reason is I have been able turn up my ISO rating to unreasonable levels and still get reasonable results. I mentioned before that I don't care that much about noise, but I do care about funky color shifts. My older camera starts shifting at ISO 800 in shadow and by 1600 it is shifting everywhere. ISO 1600 is also the top of its range, some of my recent shots have been done at ISO 3200 and beyond. True, I could have used a tripod, or a strobe, but, well, in the example I chose to post here I just know I would have woken Tobias up messing with extra gear.

Click on the images for a bigger look at the picture.