I finally got the AlienBee out tonight after being inspired from a few videos and sites I saw today. I discovered that my PC sync cord was bad, and lost many shots when the strobe wouldn’t fire, but did manage to get a few that I liked. I now have another sync cord on order from FlashZebra, and expect it to come in the next few days (< $15!).

I learned a LOT in just the 10 minutes the kids gave me before bed. It’s a lot more fun giving the kids general directions as opposed to “stand here, tilt your head, look that way.” And with the Bee on AC and at about 1/8 power, recycle times were faster than I could focus and recompose, so it was *snap* *snap* *snap*! The more I shoot, the more I am reminded that reading is a great source of learning, but doing is critical. These are just manual shooting with a single strobe above camera right. No Photoshop on these, but there is a bit of Adobe Camera Raw correction on white balance, saturation, contrast, and exposure.

I underexposed many of the shots by at least a stop, and my skills at adjusting this and white balance are lacking. Next time I will be sure to keep things a bit more hot.