Cutting the rug– I dragged the shutter shooting at ISO 400 1/6 sec @ f2.8 and set my flash to 1/32 power.

As twilight approached, we went one deck below for our scrumptious dinner.

My choice of fish delectably decorated with a bright red pepper  looked mouth-watering.

Had our waitress not warn us that the pepper was a jalapeño, all the drinks in the “Open bar” wouldn’t have been enough to quell its hotness.

By the time I finished, the late evening light was just too good to ignore.

It was also time to raise the ISO from 100 to 400 to get a shutter speed that I knew I could comfortably handhold.

Using my 580EX off-camera in manual mode, even at 1/128th power, in such close quarters required me to feather its output some more.

The built-in white diffuser card was actually kicking in too much light.

I ended up using my fingers over the flash head.

Subtle Fill Flash

Subtle fill-flash–ISO 400 1/30sec @ f4.5. Off-camera fill-flash made this picture believable because there is no harsh shadow. Compare the same scene without the flash.

Maintaining the integrity of the lighting for a scene, is important.

Photojournalists know this only too well because they document events as they happen.

Whenever there is use of flash, the more subtle, the better.

Introducing a strong harsh shadow into a scene not only ruins the integrity of the scene,  it makes the picture less credible or believable.

Personally I like subtle.

Dancing & Merriment

Our DJ needed little effort to get everyone off their seats.

Michelle and Alex showed their guests how, to borrow a slang from a different era, to “cut a rug.”

As the light levels dropped outside, I had to raise my ISO and I changed the White Balance setting on my G11  from AWB (Auto White Balance) to Tungsten to see if I liked the skin tones better.

I was dragging the shutter at ISO400 1/6 sec @ f2.8, using the flash at 1/32 power for the rest of the evening.

I figured the wide angle setting of the camera would give me more depth-of-field and I would just shoot “tight”.

That would not only prolong the  battery life for my flash, but  light the subjects close to me giving me good skin tones.

The areas where the flash didn’t reach tended to be on the warm side because of the predominantly tungsten lighting.

Enjoy the rest of the pictures.

Here’s what I used while I was in Sacramento.