'Twas a busy day

Today I battled the mother of all traffic - Pittsburgh Penguins playoff game traffic (rivaled only by Steeler's game traffic) - to go take a couple pictures at The Opera.  I interned there about a year ago and when they emailed asking if I could come by today, of course I agreed!  The barter system, by the way, is pretty much the best thing ever because in exchange for maybe half an hour of my time total before and after The Marriage of Figero (and whatever editing I do), I got two tickets to the show.  Good tickets.  I gave them to my mom for Mother's Day, so I'm covered for that.  Thank you, Pittsburgh Opera, I love you!  You too, Mom!

During the Marriage of Figero, between shots, I went to hang out my friend/model Mary Beth and do a photoshoot.  We were going to hit up the Allegheny Cemetery but it was rainy and so we put up my white backdrop in her house and shot there.  She has a ton of clothes and we took some super cute pictures.  Sadly, her house (best house ever, tons of art supplies and awesome stuff all over) is old and only has two-pronged outlets so my Alien Bee could not be used, as it is three-pronged.  We used her huge windows to provide with some light though, and I had my speedlight handy, so all was well.  These shots are both utilizing window light, and in the first MB is wearing a wig I had in my car.  For the second, I'd wanted to photograph her tattoos.  She has 6, but the one on her back is probably my favorite.  So cute!

Muse

Today I got a LensBaby Muse from my Uncle Jeff for Christmas. (Yes, we all know it's March, but it's still my Christmas gift.) I suspect I can use it for some portraits and whatnot, and who knows, maybe I can get some amazing music photographs out of it! Can't wait to test it out - Saturday will probably be the best day to experiment because I'll be downtown and also at the Children of October show.

Speaking of testing, I used my K20D for a shoot last Wednesday. The model was Mary Beth and I just adore her. Here's a sample: