At first, I felt like I was carrying around too much equipment. Tripod and camera in one hand, plamp and filters in the other - useful or not, I had to find a way to carry everything more easily. So, I clamped the Plamp onto my tripod, and hung the reflector panels from it. Now, I could carry everything with one hand. Problem solved. I chose a small thistle, and got to work. Lucky for me, I had my trusty side-kick along to document the process - thanks for helping out, Jay!

First, I set up my tripod then put the Plamp to work positioning the chosen thistle just where I wanted it. I'll go into more detail about that fabulous little tool later - for now, indulge me while I go into some detail about controlling the light.

Rick and Juan where teaching at the awesome Maui Photo Festival a few weeks back and we took a bit of time to record this quick and easy tip on creating great portrait shots in harsh light situations.

Hope you enjoy this tip!

Make sure and keep up with Rick and Juan at the Digital Photo Experience.

Here is a very quick tip: See the light.

Look for the direction of light (above: back light), the contrast range in a scene (above: medium), and the color of light (above: warm).

In the opening shot for this post, back light, which created beautiful rim light, makes the shot more than snapshot. The back light also adds a sense of depth to the image, much like a background light adds a sense of depth to a portrait.