Well, this was a learning experience for me from start to finish. I was asked to take these pictures as a favor to a few friends that work at a crossfit gym. For me, photography is simply a hobby that I enjoy so this put the pressure on me a little bit (ok, a lot a bit) to deliver a "product". In my typical all or nothing fashion, I obsessed over figuring out the lighting in this dingy gym until I drove everyone crazy. Eventually, and with the help of several others, I developed somewhat of a concept of how I wanted everything to turn out and tried to set some basic goals and ideas for each picture. I figured out the poses and what I could of the lighting. I had two CLS compatible flashes and that was pretty much it. We ended up with 15-18 people I think (not sure as it went by quickly) and I had 15 minutes per every two people to get these shots. I absolutely rushed these, but in the end I felt like the result was ok. In some cases I was shooting on one pose for 10 minutes and would set the other one up in the last 5 minutes because I couldn't get quite what I wanted. I have not and probably never will claim to be a professional or even make any kind of business out of photography, but this was actually somewhat fun to do, despite the stress I put myself through and, as I said at the beginning, it was definitely a learning experience. As always, looking back at the pictures, there are things I'd have shot differently etc, I looked at them and said "yep, should have slowed down", but realistically, I do think I did what I could with the time I had available and I tried to write down everything I realized I should have done differently so I'll remember it for next time...or some other time. I will never look at a picture the same way again, lighting has become all important to me.

If you are so inclined, there are a couple pictures in my "Other Photos" album that were taken the weekend before this. I went in and took a "practice run" to try to bolster my confidence haha.