Lady of the lake

This is my friend and partner-in-wedding-photography, Cammie.  She is the better half of our little partnership, I assure you.  We were out at the lake taking photos with her family, when she graciously agreed to be in my picture of the day.  I should probably have switched to my prime lens to blur out the background more, but I loved all of the color around her.  It would have helped the most with the foreground flowers, which aren't quite blurred out enough to make it look like I did it on purpose (which I did).  But, it was HOT! even with the sun setting. 

I probably also could have put a reflector down and to the left of the lens, to bounce a little more light to her face.  When doing portraits, my biggest issue is slowing down and thinking through all of the possibilities - getting the camera settings right, and then finessing the details.  That is something that I am trying to work on.  Time is a big factor in portraits, because even the most compliant subject will get bored eventually, but it needs to be less of a concern for me, since it is hindering me in taking the next steps to improve my portraits. I was very pleased at how this one turned out, though.

Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 24-105mm f4 
45mm - ISO 400
1/30s- f/4
Canon 580EXII
TTL