quite a few years ago there was a tree that split at the top and as the wind blew it sounded like a clapper hehe and I had turned the info over to the the power provider and they came out with a tree crew and they took it down safely. We had some changes where now it is under control of the county and I figure they will work with the power companies again and take it down. It is not on my property but I am sure they will take it down with no cost to me. I would believe more for preventive measures as if it takes out any lines it would effect so many people that they would have a bigger headache as one of those lines is fiber and cost will be great for someone.

I am sorry if this is the wrong place to post this as it is more of a question to see what people would think of the photo's I took and need to send in for review. A tree in our back yard lost a pretty good size limb which surprisingly did not take down a power line when if fell. Now I am concerned that another storm or strong wind will take down more of this tree. I had taken a few photo's but the two I wanted to share I am curious if this would be good for sending? or if I should consider a different direction? or it really would not matter?

1. the first photo is close up so it could show more dept of what is left (f8 / 1/500 / ISO 100 / 55-250@209mm)
2. the second is to show more of how high and the tree is, where the limb was and how big the limb is on the ground and what is close if anything else comes down. (f 4.5 / 1/250 / ISO 100 / 18-55@18mm)
This was taken the following day in early afternoon, I did lighten it up some but did not want to overdue it so it can still show dept for the close up shot.
Please what would you all think?

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thanks Tom, I thought that might be what you had mentioned :) I even met another young photographer there when I was taking pictures :)

I was looking at this one at amazon https://www.amazon.com/UPGRADED-Diffuser-Speedlight-Universal-Collapsible/dp/B07BVZ67CC/ref=sr_1_19?ie=UTF8&qid=1531761318&sr=8-19&keywords=diffusers+for+camera+flash and then I did a search for the vello octa softbox and seen the same one and a few others around the same price. Is this kinda what your talking about or would it be a different one?

thank you for the link, I am reading up on it now

thanks for the insight. I have been looking at amazon as they have a diffuser set one is square and one is 5 sided for less then 20$ for the set. I am trying to save money as they are not to much and see how that do also :)

and I will tell her you said that it may give her confidence to let me take more pictures of her :) Here is a pose of her goofing :)
canon 70D f4.5 / 1/160s / ISO 100 / 55-250@70mm

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The flash was on camera, it was a canon 430exII speedlight. i had the tilt of the flash pointed up from camera at 45 degrees with the plastic drop that comes with the flash and a home made diffuser to soften the light more. It was cloudy around 7:30 pm est. and was about 10 feet from us using the longer lens for a tighter shot thinking that being a little further away I would still get good light fill and no flash in the eyes still allowing for sharpness of the photo.
this was just the two of us so I was shooting from a tripod where the camera was about a little above eye level of my wife. I was also using an app on my android phone to trigger the shot.

hmm, i have never heard that, thank you, I will do some research and see what else I can find about this.

Hello everyone, hope your days have been wonderful. My wife is doing better and we were out taking some pictures again :)

The first picture is my question, I have been using a speed flash at a 45 degree angle for some fill lighting, but I keep getting the reflection of the flash in our eyes. I have been using a home made diffuser so the light is not so hard. Also we are alone and do not have any reflectors to just reflect the flash towards us, and since I am outside its hard to do a bounce directly from the flash. Any suggestions or ideas. I know I could touch this up more but the eyes was my main question.
canon 70d f4.5 / 1/100s / ISO 125 / 55-250@79mm with on camera speedflash

My second photo was more to see if someone would notice where I took the picture and see if this is where they were talking about :)
canon 70d f7.1 / 1/160s / ISO 100 / 18-55@32mm

It was nice getting out and taking pictures with the wife again :)

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thank you

I think I will have to take a break for a couple of days, we just made it back from seeing my wife's doctor and I am so excited that the additional test show she does "NOT" have "cancer" :)

Thank you very much, I now need to put a different shirt on I think I popped a button from sticking my chest out so far in excitement :)
P.S.
My wife said thanks too

thank you for the info, I will use this information in future pictures. I really wanted to ask for additional thoughts as it helps me to be more aware the next time :)

I feel that I am getting better but the more I do it seems the more I cannot please myself.
Here is an older picture I had taken of the wife and myself using A app on my phone for remote trigger, but I really have a few questions:
1. I used the ruler to level the horizon but I still feel that its not level, could it be that even though it shows level with a ruler its just perspective?
2. Because I did not use a filtered flash or reflection and I did not plan for the best time of day I have shadows, bright spots and tree limbs, should I just try to remove all the shadows or leave it alone?
3. should I add blur to the background or is it good enough?
4. because the picture of us looks like we have hard edges should I just blur lightly around the edges or mask us and then blur the mask to blend in more to the background?
5. Last question, because the picture as a whole is pretty light, should I still brighten up our faces just a little or leave them alone?

there has been no real edits to the photo except resize and saving as .jpg in srgb
sooc: cannon 70D F8, 1/160, ISO 100, 18-55@37mm

thank you for your thoughts.

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Ok, I know where your talking about, thanks