Hi Keith, missed you. Closed. But I was angled up at her. On Saturday I will be practicing a couple of shots in and out of the church. Hey, I found this puppy picture I took last year. Do you like Bernese Mountain Dogs? I love them. I guess that has nothing to do with the flash but I wanted to show it to you. It's my backyard.
Just me.
Very nice. I like your backyard too.
We got up early this morning, piled the kids into the car, and took off to go exploring at a National Wildlife Refuge about 2 hours away by car. It was a nice excursion, but all the wildlife was too far away for any decent images. Suffered one little incident with McKenzie projectile vomiting in the car, and Evan joining in out of sympathy. Luckily Rebecca resisted the urge to join in too. :)
Evan and McKenzie were troopers and spent the rest of the time enjoying the day like nothing had happened. Here's Evan photographing the Sandhill Cranes, Trumpeter Swans, and White Pelicans across the wetlands:
(http://spiritofphotography.com/coppermine/albums/userpics/10001/IMG_1007cropped.jpg)
Oh, and we stopped to visit Grandma and Granddad, and sold our house in Colorado. Busy day...
I will try to help you as much as I can.
A couple of thoughts (and questions):
Although the shadows in the image of your daughter and her friend were better than with "direct" flash from just a bare flash, I was still a bit surprised with how intense the shadows were under her chin (your daughter's friend). Are you sure this was with the doors (windows) open on the Quick Bounce? It looks more like direct flash than the softer light I would expect from bouncing the light off the ceiling.
For comparison, here are a few (very quick) flash shots of McKenzie, who graciously consented to being photographed while on "blue potty" (her little training potty). (Please ignore the lack of artistry, and just pay attention to the shadows. :)) The first shot is direct flash. Note the hard shadow under her chin.
(http://spiritofphotography.com/coppermine/albums/userpics/10001/20100318_180846.jpg)
Direct Flash
This second shot is bounce flash from the ceiling, Note the very soft shadows.
(http://spiritofphotography.com/coppermine/albums/userpics/10001/20100318_181214.jpg)
Flash bounced off ceiling
The third image is a combination of bounce from the ceiling with just a touch of "direct" from the popup "fill" card built into the flash. Note the combination of two shadows, a soft one from the bounce, and a slightly harder (and smaller) one from the direct fill.
(http://spiritofphotography.com/coppermine/albums/userpics/10001/20100318_180654.jpg)
Mostly bounce flash off ceiling, with "fill" from popup fill card built into flash
I would expect the shots with your Quick Bounce, with the windows open, to look more like the third shot?
With respect to the "balance" of bounce vs fill with the Quick Bounce, I wonder if it is possible to modify the ratio of "bounce" to "fill" by adjusting the zoom of the flash? Were there any recommendations for zoom settings in the instructions that came with the Quick Bounce?
If I were in your shoes, I would experiment a lot, and somehow record my flash setup for each shot so that I could compare them and decide what worked best. (With so many possible ways to change your flash/bounce setup it is important to "control the variables" so you can determine what changes are causing your results.)
I also wondered what you normally use to modify (soften or diffuse) the light with your "strobe" setup that you used before? Do you use a diffuser with that? Or did you bounce it off the ceiling?