But… you can’t. Too bad, because this ability would come in extra handy for photographers. Like a couple weeks ago when I was in Chicago. Walking through Millennium Park, we came through this lovely alley of trees.

Not bad. But I found myself wishing that some sunlight would come streaming through the trees. Not a lot of it, just a beam of sunlight to light up one of those trees.

No sun in sight, though. It was alternately raining and drizzling. Definitely no hope of the sun coming out any time soon.

Even though I wanted to travel light, and had brought just one camera and two lenses on my trip, I had known myself well enough to also bring a flash. I didn’t want to bother with my flash triggers – that would have taken up too much room. This was what swayed me to bring my Canon 7D instead of the 5D Mark II – because the 7D has a pop-up flash that you can use to wirelessly trigger a remote flash. It’s infrared rather than radio, but I could work with that.

Traveling with my husband, Matt, meant I’d also brought a handy VOLS (voice-operated light stand). So my next photo looked like this:

On our second day in Chicago, I woke up at the crack of dawn (really – it was 5:30am), leapt out of bed and within 10 minutes was walking through the city, looking for some pretty morning light. There wasn’t much to be found. I did eventually find some blue-ish sky over by the Navy Pier. I liked this composition of the chess table in the foreground of the beach.

Silhouettes are great, but that look wasn’t doing it for me here. I needed some light on the table. No sunlight here, so my speedlight came out again. You can be sure that at around 6:30am when this photo was taken, my VOLS was back at our hotel, sound asleep. No matter; there was a large recycling bin just behind the table, so I put my flash on there.

Lest I give the wrong idea – here’s what Chicago looked like a few hours after those first photos were taken.

It was plenty sunny. Just not when I wanted it to be. No matter.

*Disclaimer* of course speedlights can’t completely recreate the sun, and there are plenty of limitations to using them. But there are far, far more possibilities than you’d have without them.

Brandi & Brian had a hot, but beautiful July day for their wedding at Phipps Conservatory in Oakland.  I began the day at the Holiday Inn conveniently located just a couple blocks from Phipps, where Brian and the groomsman were getting ready.

What’s this? What, is this an unusual sight or something? It’s the robotic ring bearer, of course.The wedding ceremony took place in the outdoor garden at Phipps. It’s such a pretty spot right in front of the fountain. I was pleased that the Phipps staff thinks of everything – they turned the fountain off just as the ceremony started to make it easier to hear.

It was hot out there! I am sure the guests appreciated these fans.

Bravo for not only having a robotic ring bearer, but giving the robot a boutonniere. That is one classy robot.

How awesome is this place card table?! Of course I’m partial to the color of the tablecloth, but I love the stones, too.

The reception was held in the beautiful, bright special events room next to Phipps’s Tropical Rainforest.

Congratulations, Brandi & Brian!

Venue:

Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens
One Schenley Park
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
412-622-6914

This beautiful July baby’s middle name is Summer.

A little smile for her grandmother.

Welcome to the world, baby Kate! You are already much loved. Cousin Jonas has been looking over my shoulder at these photos and keeps asking to see baby Kate again.

These two are clearly crazy about each other. I’m not sure if I ever had to suggest that they not look at the camera – they couldn’t take their eyes off each other.

How they met makes a good story, and The Proposal is pretty amazing too. Jacob proposed to Jerri on a little bridge. On one of the Hawaiian islands.

We kept our eye on the graffiti to be sure nothing objectionable ended up in the background. I liked this one. It could have said “GET OUT” or far worse, but this request was far more polite.

Jacob recently returned from a trip to an American military base in Qatar, where his band played for soldiers serving overseas. Jacob & Jerri – thank you so much for being such good sports, willing to try anything! I can’t wait for your wedding in just over a month.