For fast, flexible, and portable lighting, I love reaching for my Nikon CLS kit. Last night I got to use it again at the Box Holder VIP Reception at the Daniel Island Club.

I set up two Bogen/Manfrotto light stands. Each was mounted with one of my custom 3-way umbrella brackets, with a Westcott 43″ collapsible shoot-through umbrella, and secured with a Boa Bag. I chose to use 2 SB-800 flashes on each this time. The main flash was plugged into the SD-8a battery pack, which I keep bolted to the lightstands. I also put a second flash on each. The reason for this was to increase my recycling time. I knew this was going to be a FAST PACED event. By using two flashes per stand, I was able to set the main one at 1/8th power and and the second one at 1/16th. If I’d only used one each, they would have been set around 1/4 power each. By doing it with a total of 4 flashes, I was getting recycling times of less than a second. Each remote flash was controlled by an SB-900, powered by an SD-9, shooting in Commander Mode on my D3. All the flashes were triggered by my trusty RadioPopper Px system.

Melanie Oudin, Samantha Stosur, Sabine Lisicki, Caroline Wozniacki, and Jelena Jankovic were some of the stars that made appearances and graciously posed for photos with guests. Murphy Jensen was in rare form as well, making everyone laugh with his great sense of humor.  As I was shooting, a runner would periodically take my CF cards to the back where my good friend and fellow photographer, Doug Cunningham, was printing images and putting them on folders for guests to take home that evening. While I was photographing the setup shots, my good friend and fellow FCC photographer, Alice Keeney, was shooting candids. As always, we all had a GREAT time!