From Wien to Finland

I wanted to make something special of Ralf's portrait shooting, and one idea I got was a 'sunset by finnish scenery' shot. So, I drove him to a frozen lake near he lived and after the location was decided we both froze for half an hour taking strange shots like this. The straw acting as baton made was a fun touch (keep in mind this is a serious artform :) ). He was wearing only tails, which is not very warm so the last photos of the shoot he got red nose and stiff posture. Something to remember for next time: bring always some brandy for your subject :) I used two 550EX's on stands slaved by ST-E2. Longish exposure was used so that I got sky color in (it was really dark at that moment) and it also made a black halo aroud subject. It was very difficult to control highlights and exposure as the suit was black and I ETTL is not one of the most easy to keep in line, especially 10 below zero when your brain stop working on full throttle. This shot was about two shots underexposed, but fortunately D30 photos are easy to fix with levels and curves. If I were to take this shot now I would use all manual settings on slaves and on camera to get dead on exposure every time after a few test shots.