I have a new toy. An external flash. I was going to wait until I mastered my camera more, but I felt like I was missing out on capturing a lot of fun moments with the very short days. So, I bought a cheap flash and I’m seeing what I can do with it.

My kids, Lena, especially, love to go play and jump on my bed right now. Our bed is huge, and it can be one of the only outlets for burning off some energy.

So, they jumped and I got to play with my flash. I am learning to “bounce” it, meaning have the light hit the ceiling, wall, or reflector to have the light diffuse back more gently. It’s a lot of trial and error at this point.

But, I love what I captured, because it reflects how much fun they were having.

Do you think she was enjoying herself?

Reed joined in on the fun…

And, I played a game where I got all 3 of them to jump together.

Yup, we had fun.

I also had the opportunity to take a friend out with me on another star photography adventure.

My friend made a comment about this looking like an older photograph. I really liked that idea, for a historic location, so I had fun with the post processing. On the left is the original, only lightened a bit and a plane trail removed. On the right is the edited version, made black and white, grain added, and the tone curve adjusted.