Last week for photos from Puerto Rico. Here are a few using a speedlight in a shaded area during golden hour. Remember, when using an artificial light outside during the day, the sunlight acts as a 2nd light, and often as the backlight. However, that backlight is likely the strongest light so adjust your settings for that light first, then bring in your key light and adjust for that one.
For posing, we included 3 types I like to use: looking back, looking straight on, and looking off in the distance. I commonly use these as starter poses and then tailor them to the personality of the subject in front of me and work from there. For any posing it helps to be very specific with the subject you are working with. This is where lots of practice helps because it is one thing to know a pose but a whole other thing to get your subject into it. It also helps to practice with kids who are aged 3-6 as directions need to be super clear for them and if you can get a 5-year-old to understand what you need them to do then you can easily get any adult to understand what you need them to do.
Finally, make sure your batteries are charged. I got very confused during this photo session as my light wasn’t going off very much during the session for some reason. Initially, I thought it was my remote trigger but after the session I realized it was because the battery in my speedlight was nearly at 0%. Thankfully, I carry backups, but when you go to charge your batteries, charge all of them. Battery issues may be easily solved, but they waste time and create confusion.